In college football news, the starting QB for Arizona State (Ryan Keeley) was stopped by the police for some kind of traffic irregularity. He refused a breathalyzer and was taken for a blood test. Now comes the good news/bad news. Good news is that he tested out at 0.0% for alcohol. Bad news is that he tested out for marijuana and three different products that are the chemical equivalent of Valium.

Memo to QB: Those things were not likely to show up on a breathalyzer. If you had just blown up the balloon, you might have skated on this whole mess.

In other drug bust news, the authorities in Dallas announced that they will not bring charges against Michael Irvin for marijuana possession. However, they say that they continue to be interested in the possibility that the house where he was arrested may have been used as a hub in a major heroin trafficking network and that everyone having a tie to that house remains a part of that investigation.

The Evander Holyfield/Johnny Ruiz fight cost only $19.95 on pay-per-view. There was an ad in the paper over the weekend for a rasslin pay-per-view that was $39.95 if you got it before the day of the event and would be $44.95 on the day of the event. Now if that is not a slap in the face for the sport of boxing, I don't know what is. Several folks claim Ruiz was "jobbed out of a win" by some crooked judging and think a re-match is in order. Bert Sugar was on ESPN and said that he thought it was a close fight but he had Holyfield ahead. But he said the fight was so dull and so boring that he would say anything anyone wanted him to say as long as they promised never to have these two fight again.

Casey Martin actually made the cut this week and finished about 25 strokes behind the leader and earned a giant $6250 because of his horrendous unfair advantage.

There is lots of talk that this is the first year since 1942 when we have gotten this deep into a baseball season with no managers being fired. I think that is because lots of owners have come to a realization that there is nothing that any manager is going to do with some teams to make them serious contenders. Each year this is a Cinderella team and once in a great while there are two. So half the owners (the ones with bad teams) are content to take their money and hope that next year is their turn at being Cinderella. So managers on lots of bad teams are safe; why pay two managers when you are still going to lose. Save the money and fire this guy - or hire him back really on the cheap - when his contract is up. And the wild card has kept hope alive for another tranche of mangers.

In NFL exhibition games, the Redskins had a bad thing happen. They have tried to build depth at just about every position this year so that one injury will not derail this team that will probably cost Danny Boy about $100M for the year. Everywhere except defensive tackle and Dan Wilkinson sprained his knee in the game and is out for the rest of the pre-season and hopes to be ready for Carolina in Week 1. Looking at the roster, you see Marc "Shake Your" Boutte and people who have never played in the NFL. But here is the sleeper; this is the ace in the hole. Next week in the Arena Bowl an ex-Redskin will anchor the line of the Nashville Cats on offense and defense. Being an ex-Redskin, you know that Danny Boy has a line on him and he is in game shape already. He is none other than William Gaines "Burger". And if you have not seen any Arena League games, let me tell you that William is still big and slow and manages to put zero pressure on the passer.

Tony Brackens ended his holdout with the Jags but Fred Taylor was injured in their game this week against the Giants leaving the Jags without a top-flight running back since James Stewart headed north to Detroit.

"Cryin'" Ryan Leaf is back with the Chargers after leaving practice early one day after something in his shoulder "popped". An MRI revealed nothing important and Ryan played over the weekend. He led the Chargers to one TD but that is a bit misleading since the drive was all of 5 yards coming after an interception by the defense. The Chargers have lost Curtis Conway for a while and that will hurt the offense.

In the last two exhibition games, Kordell Stewart is 2-13 passing for a net of 8 yards. Just when is this quarterbacking experiment going to be over?

Ty Detmer is gone for the season and Cleveland will be looking for a QB to play back-up to Tim Couch. If the Browns were comfortable with Detmer, then maybe a phone call to Jim McMahon or Tony Eason is in order. I don't thing they have any gigs planned for the season.

Previously I told you about Hallowed Miss who had tied the record held by Cigar and Citation for winning 16 races in a row. But she never left Louisiana and had beaten no one. She ran Saturday nite at Evangeline Downs and her trainer said that he was tired of being told that he ought to ship her out of state to meet tough competition. He said the big girls were afraid to come to Louisiana to take on his filly; after all the planes went both ways for shippers. Hallowed Miss was beaten 4 lengths Saturday nite by local fillies running third in a minor stakes race with a 40K purse. The winning time was 1:10 4/5. There is justice in the world after all.

I had slammed Shawn Kemp previously for possibly holding the all-sports record for fathering children without benefit of nuptials. I learned this weekend that there was at least one well known athlete that surpassed Shawn's total of seven such children. I now present to you the hands-down winner of the "Lack of Planning Ahead Award for 2000" to Derrick Thomas who:

Cast off his mortal bonds when he forgot to use his seat belts.

Fathered eight children with six different women AND

Left no will or estate documents of any kind.