The Redskins finally got LaVar Arrington signed and got his contract "blessed" by the league and he showed up in camp having been penciled out of the starting job that he had been given on draft day. That'll teach him. Barring a broken leg, Arrington is the starting OLB for this team - and maybe for any team in the NFL come September. Defensive linebackers coach Foge "Not Fog" Fazio said he had a lot to learn and that he was tentative in his assignments when double-teamed because he had missed six days of practice work. Ho-hum.

Reggie White has signed a six year deal with the Carolina Panthers. Reggie has no more capacity to play football six years from now than Celine Dion has to be entertaining. It would be like asking Cathie Lee Gifford to be a "welcome presence in your living room". This is all done to generate "salary cap friendliness" to this contract. However, this signing may portend the ascension of the Carolina Panthers to football pre-eminence. No, White is not half the player he was 8 years ago - or even 5 years ago. But in the context of having Reggie playing next to Sean Gilbert - who sat out a season because God told him what his contract value ought to be - the Panthers may have a "preponderance of Providential preference" on their side.

There is an NFL rule prohibiting teams from sending scouts to training camps of other teams. However, now that Danny Boy Snyder has opened the Skins' practices to the public - for a fee of course - there are several teams that have purchased "season tickets" to these practices for their scouts. Dallas has admitted it publicly, but supposedly about 4 other teams have done the same thing. There are rumors that Danny Boy will add another new revenue stream after the season is over and at the same time keep his name and his face in the public eye - which was the main reason he bought the team in the first place. He will extend the concept of reality TV to a pay-per-view venue and wire up his house so you can follow him around all day as he preens and makes deals and does all those important things that make him the special person he is. Webcasting rights to follow …

Speaking of the Web, I had heard a snippet about this next item on the Jim Rome show last week; but since I can only take Jim Rome in very measured doses - where the measurement is SMALL - I could not tell if it was real or if it was just one of his manic rants. Unfortunately it seems to be real and there will be the beginnings of an ad campaign for it starting later this week. Here is the nauseating concept:

OJ is starting a Website. It will "allow him to communicate directly with you". Of course this is not a free website and it is not 24 hours a day; but for a fee, you can visit here and join "Juice" in a chatroom periodically and pose questions on a bulletin board that he may or may not answer - it will be moderated so no questions about bloody gloves will stay there long. Wanna bet that there are no banner ads for Ginzu Knives there? Wanna bet that Kato Kaelin has a presence there - since he seems to have lost his role as "America's houseguest"?

Tony Kornheiser wrote a really nice column last week about Lance Armstrong and the miraculous recovery he had and his reaching the pinnacle of cycling in the past two years. Even though I care nothing at all about the Tour de France, the column was very good and, as always, very well written. Well the Sunday Post had letters to the sports editor that went overboard. One mother wrote that her son was a cyclist and had a Lance Armstrong jersey from a time when Lance was the leader in the "unfortunately now-defunct Tour duPont". She said that in their family they race home every night to watch Tour de France highlights on ESPN and hopefully some day everyone will have it for more than half an hour a night. Another letter said that Lance was a real hero because he is spending 4 - 8 hours per day riding his bike up and down hills in the mountains rain or shine and that is better than some fat guy sweating while pushing a blocking sled around.

Memos to Effusive Letter Writers:
1. If you race home to see ESPN coverage of the Tour de France, you ought to invest in a VCR because the coverage is already taped and it would not matter a bit if your viewing was delayed.

2. If ESPN even thought about putting marathon bicycling racing on for more than a half-hour a night more than once a year, the Disney execs who own ESPN would clean house there so fast that it would make the Branch Davidian's house in Waco look like a birthday candle.

3. There is nothing unfortunate about the Tour duPont being defunct. Even before it was Tour duPont - when it was Trump Tour - it was lame and it was a traffic nightmare in the I-95 corridor.

4. Why is it more noble to sit on a bike and pump your legs for six hours than it is to mindlessly ram your body into a blocking sled? Neither one advances humankind in the cosmos. Who cares?

Darrin Erstad how has 160 hits in 99 games. That pace leads to a season total of 262 hits. I believe the record is 256 and it is held by Al Simmons and has stood for about 70 years. Someone with a Baseball Encyclopedia can look up the exact numbers here, but this is a chase for a record that is worth watching just like Garciaparra chasing a .400 average is worth watching.

After Ed Lynch was "eased out" as the GM in Chicago supposedly for not making the Sammy Sosa trade to the Yankees, the Cubbies new regime managed to trade Glenallen Hill to the Yankees for nothing important. There is a deal worthy of a new GM who needs to show the old one how to get the job done. And supposedly, Sammy Sosa's agent is in negotiations with Warner Brothers to make a movie-biography of Sammy's life. Sammy may actually play himself. I know I'll be camping out to be first in line to get tickets for this puppy.

Pedro Martinez pitched another shut-out and his ERA is now 1.38 for the season. Even more amazing is that Andy Ashby pitched another gem for the Braves shutting out the Mets. According to ESPN, Ashby is the first pitcher acquired by the Braves in mid-season to win his first two games with the Braves since 1948 when Nelson Potter did it. Remember in 1948, the Braves pitching staff was "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain." Just a question here, was Nelson Potter the grandfather of Harry Potter? Just curious.

The great track and field showdown between Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene wound up having all the gravitas of a gnat fart. Both of these trash-talking egomaniacs pulled up lame; if there were a Daily Racing Form for humans the entry would be DNF. But you can be certain that NBC will pound this whole situation to death during the upcoming Olympics coverage for one simple reason:

Ratings will stink because everyone will know the outcomes of the events hours before they can be telecast.

One more outdoor note. Grazing through the cable channels, I passed by TNN which was just opening a show called "American Shooter". I had to stop and see if the locale for the week would be Littleton Colorado and as soon as I saw that it was not, I departed area of the vast wasteland - quickly.

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...