What the heck is this all about, here on the day after Christmas? Anthony Munoz going around beating people up?

        Or at least getting ready to? Munoz, known here and there as the “Gentle Giant” and one of the easiest going guys in North America, has been in training lo these many weeks for a National Tough Man competition. As in boxing.

        Here's the deal: Fox Network has cooked up a pro football challenge that pits former AFC players against NFC counterparts — eight to 10 from each league, Munoz says, using 16-ounce gloves and going at it in three one-minute rounds. Last league standing is the NFL's toughest.

        Munoz is AFC team captain.

        “I don't know what I could have been thinking when I said yes. Others have asked before, but I always had something going and couldn't do it. This time, well, I agreed.

        “Right now, I'm in training two or three days a week, but, really, I've been in training all my life, so it's nothing new.

        “And I do feel pretty good about it. I'll probably feel a whole lot different when I get in the ring.

        “I just keep asking, "What got into me?' But, also, now that it's going, it's kind of an adrenaline rush. It also will be fun to see old friends.”

        Old friends like former Bengals Ickey Woods, of shuffle fame, Kevin Walker and Ross Browner. They're all in training to put on the gloves and have a go at some NFC-ers. At this point, no one knows yet who's fighting whom.

        The tough guys tape in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Jan. 5; the show will air the Friday before the Super Bowl — Jan. 26 — on FX.

        So we'll know who wins maybe as early as Jan. 6? “No, nobody's supposed to tell — find out that Friday when it airs.”

        Three last thoughts: Just a last note or two before we pack up the Christmas tree and start worrying about 2001 . . .

        • Favorite Card: Best one we saw this year came from attorney and former stand-up comic Thomas Jackson: It said “Happy Holidays . . . and for all you naughty ones, 'tis the season for litigation.”

        • Favorite Decorating tip: That would be ad agency owner Jerry Malsh and photographer wife Ann Segal. They did a luminaria lining the walk of their Mount Lookout home, but instead of your basic brown bags, they used, how do we say this delicately, Delta barf bags. “A sweet touch, don't you think?” asked Judge Ann Marie Tracey.

        • Favorite surprise: That would be the one that befell one David Elias, whose three siblings semi-kidnapped him on his 50th birthday and stuffed him into a 6-foot stocking. Then presented him to his mother, which is exactly the way nurses did it 50 years ago the day he was born.

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