Several of you commented yesterday that I was wrong in saying that Toledo was 10-0 for the football season but that Toledo had lost a game and finished at 9-1. For the record, I had no idea that Toledo was any good last season; I was using Toledo as the name of a school that even with a good record would get no consideration for being #1 in the country and should get no consideration. But since we have several literalists in the readership - and they must have all made New Year's Resolutions to be as picayune as possible - I did some research and found that Davidson was 10-0 as an independent and Lehigh was 11-0 in the Patriot League. And they are not #1 contenders - or even pretenders - either.

You certainly won't read much about this in the Washington Post where investigative reporting does not extend down the hall to the Sports Department; but if you read other sports pages around the country there is a story out there about why Jeff George did not play in the final game against Arizona. It was not because he had an injured back. It relates to a small comment made here about two weeks ago. I said then that there was some sense that George had ignored a play call and told Irving Fryar to "go long" on a play and then threw an interception. Well, the story now is that the coaches believed that he had ignored the playbook and the play called from the sidelines nine times in the Pittsburgh game and threw two interceptions on his "improvisations". When Terry Robiske confronted George with that and told George that he would be the "emergency QB" for the last game, George is purported to have said that he got Robiske hired and he could get him fired just as easily. There is a situation that will make it a whole lot easier to attract a new coach to Washington. You have one QB leaving for free agency and the one left behind needs a major "attitude adjustment".

And obviously, Jeff George followed through on that threat because the Washington Redskins have announced the hiring of Marty Schottenheimer as their coach for the next four years - or until Jeff "Amos Alonzo" George decides that Danny Boy should fire Marty and go on a search to see if Marv Levy is still alive and willing to make a comeback. Marty will be getting $10M over his four year tenure which may explain why Marty changed his mind and decided that he actually could work for a "hands on" owner like Danny Boy. To get Marty away from the Chiefs - there was still a year to go on his deal out there - the Redskins will give up two third round picks to the Chiefs. My yardstick for how much autonomy Marty has in making decisions will be the venue of the Redskins' training camp next year. Schottenheimer is a control freak and a person who does not want distractions; training camp with a few thousand fans present every day clamoring for autographs and with scouts from every opponent in the stands is not what he would choose to have happen. Stand by for announcements regarding this "independence indicator".

Oh and by the way, Marty Schottenheimer is a defensive oriented coach who just hates to have his offense - read here "his QB" - do something stupid to lose a game. Jeff "Boy" George will get a lot of calls in his headset to hand the ball off or to throw a short pass - even on 3rd and 12. And if George ignores it and does his "go long" routine, I suspect that Marty will find a way to tear up George's groin for real so that he can't play for a while.

One interesting reaction to this hiring came from Tre Johnson the often injured and always fat offensive guard. Tre said about the decision to hire Schottenheimer, "I think it's a good choice. He seems to be a winner." Now I know that Tre was not a math major at Temple and so it may take him a while to comprehend this, but Marty Schottenheimer's record in the NFL regular season games is 145-85-1.

Memo to Tre: That is the definition of a winner. If he wins only three games in the four years that he is the Redskins' coach - assuming that he stays the entire four years, he will still be a winner. Now if we were to be so nasty as to compile the Redskins' record whilst you have been on the team, we might be able to attach an adjective to you - in addition to "fat".

The San Diego Chargers fired their player personnel director and their pro personnel director. Interesting that they have different directors for their players and their pros. The fact that many of the players are not pros is the reason the team was 1-15 last year.

Grant Hill underwent a 90 minute surgical procedure to graft some bone from his pelvis to the bone in his ankle that he broke last year. Doctors replaced the screws and braces that were put in their last summer during the first surgery to repair the broken ankle. A full recovery is predicted but not anytime this season. The Magic signed him to a contract worth just over $90M but he has only played in four games this year. But that has not prevented the ardent NBA fans from making him the second choice as the starter in the All-Star game at forward. Do any of these voters ever watch a game?

Tonite the Wizards and Bulls play in Chicago. Their combined records are 12-51. Last time they played, both teams shot less than 33% from the floor. Combine both squads and you could not field a team that projects to win 35 games. But the interesting thing is that Rod Strickland stayed in Washington after missing another practice and now having some pain in his shoulder that required him to see a doctor for an MRI. Team officials explained his absence from practice as a conflict with that medical appointment. I wonder if Rod's alarm clock worked well enough to get him there?

Marty Glickman died yesterday at age 83. He was a premier announcer of basketball games - and other sports too - who was around when the NBA was a floundering league fighting to make it to the big time. Marty was always enjoyable to listen to. And he got out of the business to make way for his protégés and went on to other things in his life. Would that a few current sportscasters would use that part of Glickman's life as their inspiration at this point. Does anyone have Vin Scully's number?

Richie Phillips has filed lawsuits against Bud Selig and several of the baseball umpires that ousted him as union president. He claims that these folks spread lies about him and the union he ran and that cost him his position. Isn't there any way to make it such that the stakes from this suit get raised to "loser leaves the planet"? If so, that makes it a guaranteed win for the rest of us.

For those of you who missed these items in the agate type;

There was a basketball game between Pomona-Pitzer and the College of New Jersey. The 3000 mile separation between these two perennial powerhouses in the world of college hoops has not stood in the way of this intense rivalry.

In the opening round of the Buffalo State Holiday Inn Classic (honest, I did not make that up.), Hilbert beat D'Youville (honest, I did not make that up either!)

The University of the Ozarks got crushed by Arkansas Tech Tuesday night. I know it is a cheap shot, but do you know what you get when you put 32 co-eds from the University of the Ozarks in a room? A complete set of teeth.