Morning Briefing: This guy is not on a Highway to Hell

Steve McNeil is a hockey ref in Canada. Big deal, you’re thinking. But he is a little bit more than a normal ref.

McNeil’s mom, who had Alzheimer’s, died recently, and McNeil decided to turn his grief into action. He’s been traveling Canada and skating for 19 hours and 26 minutes in each of the country’s NHL cities, raising money for local Alzheimer’s societies.

Why 19 hours, 26 minutes? Because his mom was born in 1926.

McNeil is also paying tribute to the rock band AC/DC with his skating. Malcolm Young, who co-founded the band with his brother Angus Young, died in 2017 from the disease.

“When I go out [to skate], that’s all I listen to because it’s my tribute to Angus and the boys — because I know they lost a big part of their family,” McNeil told the CBC network in Canada.

Angus Young learned of McNeil’s tribute to the band when reading a newspaper article about it and donated $19,260 Canadian (about $14,700 U.S.) to the Alzheimer Society of Ontario as his way of saying thanks to McNeil.

“It’s funny how things work in the world, but rock-and-roll is such a powerful tool,” McNeil said when he heard the news.

“This is AC/DC. This could open so many doors.”

Impressive

Hitting for the cycle (getting a single, double, triple and home run) is an impressive feat in baseball. But you know what’s even more impressive? Hitting for the home run cycle.

That’s hitting a solo homer, a two-run homer, a three-run homer and a grand slam in the same game. It has never happened in the majors.

But it has been done in NCAA softball. Arkansas sophomore Danielle Gibson did it Saturday in a 15-3 victory over SIU-Edwardsville.

Even more impressive: She did it in four innings. The game was called after five innings because of the mercy rule, denying Gibson the chance to set a record with five home runs in a game.

I guess that proves the old Greg Maddux-Tom Glavine “Chicks Dig the Long Ball” commercial was true after all, just not how they meant it.

Double threat

Two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, who won the best supporting actor award this year for his work in “Green Book,” could have had a different career path.

Ali played Division I basketball for four years at St. Mary’s. He averaged 3.6 points per game, so he probably made the right career choice.

Is Conor afraid?

A lot of UFC fans are hoping for a rematch between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov. They fought at UFC 229 and Nurmagomedov won. A brawl took place afterward, which led to a suspension for both of them.

But the rematch is on once the suspensions are over, right?

Maybe not.

“Conor McGregor did not ask for the rematch. He don’t want to have nothing to do with the rematch,” Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, told TMZ Sports.

“His father don’t want nothing to do with rematch. His mother don’t want nothing to do with rematch. His kids. His wife. The whole country of Ireland. They don’t want to spell the word rematch. They are [afraid]. It’s fear going around Ireland.

“They don’t wan’t to see anything that starts with ‘K.’ ”