Here’s a change in Atlanta: A Falcons player showing some love for animals. Providing quite a contrast to Michael Vick’s gruesome dogfighting operation, tight end Tony Gonzalez and his wife, October, posed in the nude for an antifur advertisement for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The newly released ad shows the couple sitting together on green turf for the group’s “We’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign. They’re following celebrities who have posed in the buff, including Dennis Rodman, Pamela Anderson and Dominique Swain, while others such as Paul McCartney and Charlize Theron have worn clothes in the campaign.

Former Bethel High School and Georgetown University standout Allen Iverson complaining about playing time? It was only a matter of when, not if. Despite missing the entire preseason and the Memphis Grizzlies’ first three regular-season games because of a hamstring injury, Iverson complained in his first game back. “I’ve never been a reserve all my life and I’m not going to start looking at myself as a reserve,“ said Iverson, who apparently has forgotten that he came off the bench with Detroit last spring.

The NBA has banned players from using Twitter or other social media sites during games. What’s the world coming to when Shaq can’t even update his Facebook while Charles Barkley is analyzing at halftime? Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera suffered scratches to his face after an apparently drunken fight with his wife last week, according to police records. The incident came in the midst of Cabrera’s 0-for-11 weekend at the plate for the struggling Tigers.

Do sex and sports mix? Depends on whether you’re talking cricket or soccer. Gary Kirsten, the coach of India’s national cricket team, is urging his players to “go ahead and indulge,“ saying it increases players’ energy and aggression on the field. As Graeme Swann, an obviously envious English cricketer, told the London Sun: “This is the sort of forward thinking the game needs.“

When Les Horvath, the 1944 Heisman Trophy winner for Ohio State, moved to Los Angeles in the late 1940s, he was warmly welcomed by two other well-known sports figures living in L.A. On their first night in town, Horvath and his wife had dinner at the home of Tom Harmon. On the second night, they were invited to dine at the home of Glenn Davis.

As if Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis hasn’t been reminded enough, a billboard a half mile from his office provided another indication of his on-the-hot-seat status. It reads: “Best wishes to Charlie Weis in the 5th year of his college coaching internship.—Linebacker Alumni.“ “Everything was great until the last word,“ Weis said, laughing with reporters. “So tell them, ‘Thanks a lot for wishing me best wishes.‘“

What, Stan Van Gundy whine? The Orlando Magic coach was complaining about his team not getting the respect due an NBA finalist. “For a team that went to the Finals, we really haven’t gotten the respect teams normally do,“ Van Gundy said. “Based upon what we did last year, I think our players do feel a little underappreciated and underrespected.“

Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,“ noted that Japanese engineers have created a robotic pitcher capable of throwing strikes 90 percent of the time and a robotic batter who never misses on pitches thrown in the strike zone. “That’s not baseball,“ Colbert said. “The whole point of baseball is to stand in one place long enough for the people in the bleachers to become so bored they’ll pay $10 for a beer.

Nike says it is returning videotapes it confiscated of NBA star LeBron James getting dunked on at a recent basketball camp. Nike said it is giving back tapes to two accredited journalists who filmed Xavier’s Jordan Crawford dunking over James during a recent pickup game at a skills academy run by the superstar at the University of Akron.

Teams seldom take batting practice Sundays, so spectators showing up early often find the field empty. The San Diego Padres announced recently they would serve fans breakfast on the field before Sunday games, a creative touch in a wretched season. While the Brewers’ Prince Fielder was winning Monday’s All-Star Home Run Derby - hitting 23 an average of 439 feet - the Tigers’ contestant failed to hit even one.

Meghan Huggins, the goalkeeper at Springdale (Ark.) Har-Ber High School, has landed a scholarship to Lamar. The College of William and Mary, in search of a new mascot to go with its Tribe nickname, has been inundated with more than 400 suggestions, ranging from a feathered horse to an asparagus stalk. Highlights from “Late Night with David Letterman’s Top Ten things Lucas Glover would like to say after winning the U.S. Open”:

Both Joe Torre and Conan O’Brien traveled a long way - across the country - to find themselves talking recently on O’Brien’s new Burbank, Calif., set for “The Tonight Show.“ O’Brien: “We have both made this crazy transition in our lives.“ Torre: “Weird, isn’t it?“ O’Brien, a lifelong die-hard Boston Red Sox fan, told Torre, “Red Sox fans will trash any of the Yankees, any of them - with, I think, two exceptions: you and Derek Jeter. They have a respect for both of you guys. It’s a grudging, and I repeat grudging, respect for your managerial skills.“

After the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA title last week, former Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal sent out a “tweet” on his Twitter account. “Congratulations, kobe, u deserve it. You played great,“ Shaq wrote. Former Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning (Indian River High School, Chesapeake) said during the NBA Finals that Bryant does all the work for the Lakers and 10-time champion coach Phil Jackson “doesn’t have to do anything but call timeouts.“