A Game Day Addition to One Player's Lineup

By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Khary Campbell had it all figured out. The Redskins linebacker would play Sunday in Dallas, then race home to Northern Virginia for the birth of his first child on Monday.

The baby, of course, had a mind of his own: 7-pound 14-ounce Shia arrived a day early, just before the 4 p.m. kickoff against the Cowboys. "He wanted to be here for the game," said the proud new pop.

Campbell and his wife, Teko, calculated that the baby was due in early October, between two important road games. So they scheduled induced labor yesterday so Campbell could be in the delivery room.

Late last week, the father-to-be flew to Texas with the team, then got a call Saturday night from his wife, who was having frequent contractions; by Sunday morning, she was at the hospital. After consulting teammates, Campbell decided against flying back, fearing that he might miss the game and the birth.

"Everything was happening so fast," he told our colleague Dan Steinberg. "You want to be there, of course . . . but [Shia] was on his own schedule, so all the planning was out the window."

About 30 minutes before kickoff, he got a text message from his mother: "Your son is here." After the Skins nailed the 26-24 victory against their biggest rivals, Campbell flew back with the team and got to the hospital shortly after 1 a.m., "smiling from ear to ear for a long time."

Spike Mendelsohn, From the Fire to the Frying Pan

Local celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn is trying to turn his health-inspection beef into a burger-selling bonanza.

The telegenic former "Top Chef" contestant opened Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill in July to lavish media attention -- which turned sour last week with news that city health inspectors cited him after investigating hamburger meat left in the restaurant's back alley.

Mendelsohn told us he suspects that a call from a jealous rival prompted the visit. He says the meat was out back because the cooler sits just inside the back door; deliveries are "hustled in" within minutes of drop-off. He said the inspector found the meat at the proper temp -- but the restaurant still got dinged for improper hand-washing, cutting-board cleaning and food storage.

So that's the story behind the new bacon-mushroom-Muenster special he added to the menu, and the banner he hung last week: "Home of the Back Alley Burger." Er, does that sound appetizing? "People are ordering it like crazy," he said.

THIS JUST IN . . .

· Drummer Travis Barker left a Georgia hospital yesterday, more than a week after suffering severe burns in a South Carolina plane crash that killed four. His performing partner DJ AM, who survived with serious burns, left the hospital last week.

· Heath Ledger's family has agreed that his 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, will inherit his $16 million estate, they told an Australian paper. The actor, who died of an accidental OD, left his fortune to his parents in a will signed before she was born.

· Troubled country star Mindy McCready will begin a 60-day jail sentence in Tennessee today for violating probation on a 2004 prescription-drug fraud charge, her lawyer told reporters. Authorities say she falsified her community-service records.

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C'mon, tell us what you really think of the bailout:

"Now the Wall Street crony capitalists have put a 700-pound, billion-dollar bag of dung on taxpayers' doorsteps, rung the bell and expect you to thank them when you answer it."

-- Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.)

"This is a huge cow patty with a piece of marshmallow stuck in the middle of it, and I'm not going to eat that cow patty."

-- Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga).

"A trillion-dollar, gold-plated, diamond-encrusted bridge to Wall Street."

-- Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.)