Fassel’s Next Job: Maytag Repairman

They say it can be lonely at the top. For New York Giant Coach Jim Fassel, it’s lonely at the bottom.

Before the Giants fell to 4-8 Sunday by losing to the Buffalo Bills, 24-7, Fassel was seen on CBS, telling Lesley Visser: “When you’re the head coach and things aren’t going well, you’re the only one standing on the gangplank. When you stand on the podium to accept the trophy, it can get crowded.”

One supporter: “Fire Fassel!” was the chant heard from fans at the Meadowlands the week before, when the Giants lost to Atlanta.

“Let’s hear from the 50,000 other fans, let’s listen to that other voice,” Fassel’s wife, Kitty, told Steve Serby of the New York Post last week. “It would be wonderful if they would start a chant, ‘Keep Fassel!’ ”

Don’t think that’s going to happen.

Trivia time: Which goaltender recorded the Kings’ first shutout?

Capital punishment: It may be no fun to be a New York sports fan these days, but neither is being a sports fan in the nation’s capital.

Tony Kornheiser in the Washington Post points out one bright spot: “We can be thankful for Freddy Adu. Because if it weren’t for Freddy Adu, we’d have no du at all. Come to think of it, maybe all we’d have is, um, doo-doo.”

Age check: Of the 14-year-old soccer pro, Kornheiser wrote, “Enjoy Freddy Adu now, in case the next bone scan comes through and we find out that he drove in the 1989 Indianapolis 500.”

Name game: Phil Mushnick in the New York Post: “Had Freddy Adu decided to play in college, instead of turning pro, and had he decided to attend Virginia’s Old Dominion University (not far from his home in Maryland), his e-mail address might have been adu@odu.edu.”

Impossible feat: After the Cincinnati Bengals’ Matt Schobel caught the winning touchdown pass with 13 seconds left in a 24-20 victory over Pittsburgh on Sunday, the play was reviewed to see if Schobel had both feet inbounds before he was hit and dropped the ball.

Said the replay official, “The receiver got three feet inbounds.”

Is a three-legged receiver anything like a four-legged turkey?

Oh no! How low can ESPN go? The network that brought us “Playmakers” and Rush Limbaugh now brings us two hours of Dennis Rodman. He’ll be featured the next two nights at 9 on “The Season.”

An ESPN spokesman noted the segments were being produced by an outside company.

Can’t blame ESPN for trying to distance itself from this project.

Trivia answer: Wayne Rutledge beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-0, on Dec. 23, 1967.

And finally: Frank Caliendo, known for doing impersonations on Fox’s NFL pregame show, did Robin Williams on Sunday. Said the Williams character to Howie Long: “You’re sponsored by Radio Shack. Did they hire you, or build you?”

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.