Last week, Indiana football coach Cam Cameron was fined $10,000 by the Big Ten for "berating the referees". On one hand, he could claim that he was just trying to achieve the same stature as Bob Knight; on the other hand, you could sit back and look at the University and ask them what they are going to do under their new and improved and published standards of conduct for coaches and athletes. My guess: nada, zip, zilch, squadoosh... In a related story, the presidents of the other Big Ten universities have come out in support of IU president, Myles Brand and said that he did the right and the courageous thing in firing Bob Knight. I would expect them to come out in favor of necrophilia before they would say anything more of Bob Knight than, "He is a mammal." If they must say anything publicly related to this brouhaha, they need to use this yardstick:

Unless your statement will be a moderate surprise to at least 25% of the graduates of your institutions, please shut up!

According to the all-sports station here in DC, one of the "personalities" on WIP Radio in Philly - and the quotation marks are intentional since he has one that is often difficult to take - is being sued by the Miss America Pageant. Howard Eskin supposedly said on the air that the Pageant is fixed and the people who run this event took umbrage. So I will not intimate that it is fixed - nor will I intimate that any contestant has had any of her parts "fixed".

I'm begging you to go and visit www.washingtonpost.com and read Sally Jenkins' article from Saturday (9/23) about the French 400 meter sprinter who left the games because she claimed she was being stalked. Sally does a number on her as a diva and it is a brilliant piece. Marie-Jose Perec split from Australia and went back to Paris - via Singapore where she and her main squeeze were detained for some time because he punched a cameraman. Sally refers to her as all kinds of "divas" but I want to add that she probably set an Olympic record for the 40,000 kilometer dash - from Sydney to Paris. Do yourselves a favor and bookmark Sally Jenkins and Tony Kornheiser from the Washington Post sports section.

Joey Galloway obviously felt that he let his teammates down after his injury in the opening game of the season after he signed a mongo contract in the off-season and cost the team a couple of draft picks. So to show that he was one of the guys, Joey managed to get himself charged with "misdemeanor assault on a police officer" in Wheeling West Virginia. Details are "not available" now, but since Joey needs to appear before a magistrate in Ohio on 11 October, you can bet that we will learn more about this real soon.

Paul Pierce is reported to be in critical condition after being stabbed eleven times last night. No details are available yet, but being stabbed eleven times is hardly an accident.

The University of Buffalo got their first 1-A football victory beating Bowling Green by a score of 20-17. Can't wait to see what that does to Bowling Green's status in the eyes of the bowl selection committees. Am I the only one who looks at the bowl selection process as some kind of training program for being part of the process that selects where to hold the Olympics?

In the NFL, the Jets made a miracle comeback and beat the Bucs by scoring two TDs in the final couple of minutes. After a week of running his mouth, Keyshawn Johnson was used as a decoy for much of the game but managed only to catch one pass (one of those little shuttle passes that is more like a forward handoff) and he gained precisely one yard. After all the gas he laid on us for 5 days, the performance on the field has to be better than that.

Dallas lost to the 49ers and let Charlie Garner run through them for 201 yards. After allowing Duce Staley to do the same thing on opening day, Dallas became the first team to give up 200+ yards twice in a season since the Pats did it in 1973. The Pats yielded this to some guy named "OJ" who went on to have a pretty decent career; Duce and Charlie are decent RBs but not much more - except that they share an Eagle heritage. Next week, Dallas and Carolina match up and I wonder if Carolina will try to work out Bosh Pritchard. (That reference may even send The Encyclopedia scurrying to his reference materials.) The Terrell Owens behavior and the nonsense that followed it regarding the territorial claims on the star in the middle of the Dallas field belongs in a rasslin production and not in the NFL.

The Pats are 0-4 and the Jets are 4-0 and it could not happen to a nicer guy than Bob Kraft who hasn't figured out that the way to beat the Jets is not to try to steal Bill Belichick from them; the way to beat them is to get Parcells out of the picture. It comes down to players first and coaching second; the Jets make sound player moves and the Pats focus on coaching moves that seem always to turn out to be - ummm - dumb. Miami beat the Pats yesterday 10-3 and that makes the Dolphins the first team since 1937 (The Redskins were the Boston Redskins in 1937 to give you a point of reference.) to go through the first four games of a season giving up only one TD.

Baltimore humiliated the Bungles. I watched this to see just how bad the Bungles are and they are miserable. Akili Smith left the game late in the 1st half with a "slight concussion" and the backup QB is Scott Mitchell. Since most of you have not seen Scott recently, you will be glad to know that he is still big and heavy and slow and not real accurate with his passes. That superfecta adds up to LOSER!! The total offense for the Bungles in the first half was 31 yards; the rushing offense for the first half was 3 yards. Late in the game, Corey Dillon had rushed 11 times for 6 yards. The total offense for the Bungles for the game was 94 yards; the Ravens were penalized 90 yards; how bad is that? Here is a stat from the CBS folks: the last time Cincy went on the road and beat a team with a winning record was in December 1990. And this club has to carry the burden of Bruce Coslett. I tell you, it is just sad…

The Steelers found a way to lose a game they had in hand. They led by 4 and Steve McNair had to come in to play after no practice for two weeks and a sternum that was not ready to take a hit. They gave up a TD to fall behind and then missed a long FG to tie the game. Bad teams find ways to play like that. The Steelers found a way to hold the Titans to less than 3 yards per rush and they had three INTs. And they lost.

Seattle won a road game - which is not a common occurrence. The Chargers had more net offense and ran twenty more offensive plays and they lost the game. Bad teams find ways to do this. Jim Harbaugh was put in the game in the third quarter after Cryin' Thief tossed in INT that was run back for a TD.

The Saints ran more plays than the Eagles and gained more yards than the Eagles and were penalized only half as often as the Eagles and they lost to the Eagles 21-7. You have to invent ways to do this kind of thing.

Arizona got stomped by the Packers 29-3 but the news here is that the Cardinals could only gain 28 yards rushing on 13 carries against a Packer defense that is not great against the run. Arizona did not have to invent a way to lose this game, they just had the ball stuffed down their throat.

In the Rams/Falcons game, the officials turned the first half into a "flag-fest". There were 13 penalties enforced in the first half and there were two plays with offsetting penalties and a couple of penalties that were declined. They must have gotten their medication corrected at halftime because there were only two penalties in the second half. Atlanta held the Rams under 400 yards of offense and Tory Holt caught 3 passes for 189 yards and two TDs. By averaging 63 yards per pass, he set an NFL record for average yards per reception in a game; previous record was 60.7.

And Brad Johnson managed to keep his job by directing the Skins to a comfy win over the Giants in the night game. Brad threw two TD passes and Norv Turner did not forget to call running plays for Stephen Davis in the second half. But Michael Husted will probably be looking for work by Thursday after missing one extra point and missing a field goal so badly that you had to wonder if he even had his eyes open. Danny Boy will see to it that this is one of his great "accountability moments." The Giants' "thunder and lightening" rushing amounted to nothing and that meant that the Giants had to beat you with passing and that is something the Giants will not do easily. The Giants go to Tennessee next week and Jeff Fisher may have gone to school last night…I've seen Ron Dayne three times now and I think he is really overrated.

For your Olympic moments, let me remind you that Canada beat Kazakhstan in water polo by a score of 9-8. The analysis of any water polo event begins and ends with the ability of the players to tread water; it is the sole essential skill of the game. In the rowing events, I will refrain from any comment on the "Women's Coxless Pairs." And finally, CJ Hunter - husband of Marion Jones and shotputter for the US - is rumored to have tested positive for steroids back in July. A shotputter on steroids? Who woulda thunk it?

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