Monday, July 29, 2002 Updated: July 30, 1:16 PM ET
Test your real sports IQ
By Jim Caple Page 2 columnist
I was leery of taking ESPN.com's sports IQ quiz. As someone who makes a living off sports, I was afraid of scoring too low. As a fully functioning human being, I was afraid of scoring too high.
I found some of the questions painfully obvious (who was last year's American League MVP?) and some less obvious than I thought (I could have sworn Seattle Slew was horse racing's last Triple Crown winner). In the end, I wound up with a very respectable score of 16. Significantly better than average (13) but not so high as to make me re-evaluate my priorities in life.
Iverson doesn't understand how sitting out practice affects his teammates.
The quiz is a fair one, but the problem is it tests knowledge of trivia more than sports. Sure, it's nice to know who holds the NFL's single-season rushing record, but to gauge your full knowledge of what's really going on in modern sports, you must be able to answer the questions on this IQ test:
1. Under the latest NBA labor contract, how many posse members may a team's franchise player employ?
a) 8 b) 6 c) Unlimited but he can only take two to prison with him
2. How many Major League Baseball teams are there?
a) 30 b) No, wait 28 c) On second thought, I guess it's still 30 d) 29?
3. Where can you find the greatest baseball players on permanent display?
a) The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. b) The Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona
4. What is the "Granddaddy of Them All"?
a) The Rose Bowl b) The Orange Bowl c) The Poulan Weed-Eater Bowl d) Shawn Kemp
5. Who did Shaquille O'Neal not say he slept with?
a) Venus Williams b) Cindy Crawford c) Mike Piazza
6. If an NFL team is $7 million under the salary cap and signs a quarterback to a $35 million contract, with $12 million of it as a signing bonus and $20 million of it not guaranteed, how much will the team raise ticket prices?
a) 10 percent b) 25 percent c) 30 percent d) Are you including the seat licensing fee?
Bud Selig is still trying to figure out the answer to No. 9.
7. Which is not the name of a stadium?
a) Qualcomm Stadium b) Network Associates Coliseum c) Minute Maid Park d) Riverfront Stadium
8. Identify the origin of the following: "Everybody stay fly get money kill and (expletive) bitches."
a) Lyrics from Allen Iverson's "40 Bars" b) Instructions to guests at Iverson's house party
9. How many innings are there in a Major League Baseball game?
a) Eight b) Nine c) Seven d) They'll decide when they get to the 11th
Finally ...
10. If a wide receiver with a prosthetic leg unscrews his leg and leaves it lying along the sidelines, can he hop out of bounds and legally catch a pass while standing behind the team bench?
a) Yes b) No c) Yes in college football, but not in the NFL where you must have two feet inbounds, not one.
Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at cuffscaple@hotmail.com.
