Supposedly, the teams interested in Joe Smith are the Warriors (he's been there once) and the Bulls and the Wizards and the Hawks and the Heat and the Pacers. We'll see how important "playing for a winner" is in this case because only the Heat and the Pacers have much chance to be much of a "winner" for the next coupla years.

The Wizards have yet to score 90 points in a game and in the fourth quarters of their last two games, they have shot 8 for 37 from the field. As a service to the mathematically impaired, that translates to less than 22%. That stinks.

Muggsy Bogues will need to undergo knee surgery and will be out for a month or so. Given Muggsy's "altitude challenged status" maybe he could suggest that they do some bone implants in his legs. That might be useful for a basketball player.

At the other end of the "altitude spectrum", Olden Polynice has been charged with impersonating a police officer in West Valley City Utah. The charges allege that Polynice flashed a badge at someone who cut him off in traffic. The badge may have been an honorary police department badge from the Los Angeles Police Department. How many 7 foot tall police officers have you ever seen?

The Tampa Bay Bucs assistant coach who had been missing for a week finally returned home from Atlanta - or wherever he was. He met with Tony Dungy and was fired. The story is that his firing was an act of compassion because it will allow him to "resolve unspecified personal matters". Okay…

Orlando Brown is suing the NFL over his injury from a referee's flag last year. Now he is also accusing the Cleveland Browns of not taking care of him properly and that the Browns and the Cleveland Clinic hid information related to the severity of his injury. One of the claims he makes is that he should have been taken to the hospital "in an ambulance immediately". As I recall, that would have been difficult to do since he took some time to go back out on the field and shove the referee to the ground. Sort of makes the "immediately" a bit difficult to achieve based on his own actions. But Johnnie Cochran is his lawyer and so we will probably learn that Orlando went out on the field thinking he was headed to the hospital because he could not see where he was going and shoved the referee because he thought he was a school crossing guard that was impeding him from getting to the emergency room. Yeah, that's it.

Last week, Norm Chad asked the rhetorical question, "Can you imagine how much longer the Gore-Bush verdict would take with instant replay?" The sad thing is that instant replay will not make that verdict any more correct than the current process.

Ron Dayne's career rushing record for Division 1 football lasted a year. It was broken over the weekend by Charles Roberts of Sacramento State. Roberts now has just over 6550 yards rushing. But Grove City's RJ Bowers holds the record for all colleges with over 7350 yards. Look for these guys in games like the Senior Bowl to see if they are NFL prospects.

Kansas State beat Nebraska over the weekend. That makes K-State's record against top ten teams during the "Bill Snyder Era" a miserable 2-18.

The Tiger Woods/PGA contretemps continues. Tiger has threatened to start his own tour. Good for him. Of course, there will NEVER be a player who thinks even an unkind thought about Tiger and the tour he starts, right? Or Tiger says he may go and play in Europe. Any bets that does not happen? Any bets that his endorsement contracts with companies that do only minor business in Europe go down the drain? Here is a constructive idea which seems not to have occurred to Tiger or his "image keepers":

There are a few players on the PGA Tour governing board. Why not have Tiger take a seat there and show all these folks how to get it done right. After all, if he is willing to start his own tour, he has thought through all these things already…

In the NFL, the Browns sank the Patriots to a 2-8 record which now puts the Pats on an even footing with the Cincinnati Bungles. So the Pats now need to be called the Patsies. Four turnovers by the Patsies and four sacks by the Browns led to a 41 minute scoreless period for the Patsies and the Browns are now at 3-8 for the year. Cleveland fans may want to beat the Ravens more than anyone else, but second on the list has to be whomever Bill Belichick is coaching at any given time.

Speaking of the Ravens, they beat the Titans in Tennessee. The key to that game was more than the missed extra point and missed field goal by Al del Greco - which is what the national media seems to be focused on. The Ravens defense held Eddie George to 28 yards rushing on 12 carries. No one else has come even close to doing that.

Two weeks in a row and the Eagles come from 10 points down to tie the game on a field goal with time running out and then go on to win with a field goal in OT. Actually, this game was an audition by the officiating crew for parts on afternoon soap operas. There were 22 penalties enforced and more than a few that were declined and at least three occasions where the flags were picked up after lengthy chats on the field. To give you and idea of the magnitude of the penalty-fest, the Steelers had net passing yards of 140 and were penalized 141 yards.

The Giants defense held the Rams under 400 yards of total offense which is pretty good considering that the QB normally throws for close to 350 in a game. However, the Giants can't get into a shoot-out with anyone and after they fell behind in the first half, the game was over. A late TD by Ike Hilliard made the score seem more respectable than it might have been.

The season is OVER for the Jaguars and it is possible that this team will pack it in for the remaining games. They lost to Seattle yesterday dropping them to 3-7 for the year even though the Jags produced over 100 yards more offense than did the Seahawks. Jax got a chance to tie the game on a pass interference call in the end zone on the last play of the game giving them one more shot from the 1 yard line to tie the game. The call was "iffy" at the very best and the Jags could not get the job done on their last attempt. The Jags have Pittsburgh next week and Tennessee after that. Then they get Cleveland/Arizona/Cincy before ending up with the Giants. They have 3 wins now and 6 wins are almost a mortal lock. So the measure of the coaching staff there is how many wins over 6 will this team get?

The Saints won a game and lost Ricky Williams for the rest of the season. They got 5 turnovers from the Panthers and held Carolina to 53 yards rushing to raise their record to 7-3. The Saints' schedule is about to take a turn for the "more difficult" since their next three games are Oakland, St. Louis and Denver. And they end the year with St. Louis a second time.

The Bears season was over already but now reserve QB Jim Miller is out with an Achilles tendon tear (what Vinnie did last year) and Cade McNown is not ready to come back yet and Shane Matthews is just not ready for prime time yet. Matthews threw 3 INTs yesterday against the Bills. At the moment, the Bears are an NFC worst 2-8 and the schedule gives them Tampa Bay and the Jets in the next two weeks. Granted, the December schedule is a bit softer, but the Bears' players need to be sure they don't get a career ending injury in the next weeks because there is nothing important going on in the games on the field.

The Lions and Falcons put on the Boredom Bowl yesterday. There were 440 yards of offense in the game - if you add up what both teams did. There were twenty punts in the game for a total of 0.53 miles. There were 19 penalties in the game. Ugh.

The Cowboys beat the Bungles and Akili Smith has now gone 5 games in a row without throwing for 100 yards in the game. Yesterday, he was 10-25 with 1 INT for a net of 56 yards. Meanwhile, Troy Aikman flashed his form of several years ago and threw for over 300 yards. Like the Bears, the Bungles are 2-8 and have to be glad there is a team called the San Diego Chargers.

Out in San Diego, Mike Riley used all three of his quarterbacks yesterday. As a tandem, they threw 4 INTs. Riley says that he thinks the quarterback position is something that they need to examine closely. Holy insight, Batman!! If this guy can't see that his QBs just plain stink, then he needs contact lenses to see his glasses. The defense played well holding the Dolphins to 2 yards per rush, but 4 turnovers and only about 230 yards of offense just won't get it done in the NFL. The Chargers are 0-10; the upcoming schedule is exactly what a team on the bubble for a playoff spot would wish for, but for the Chargers it may be too much. If you gave the players and coaches truth serum, I bet they would be thrilled at this point with a final record of 2-14 and are really concerned that they won't find a way to steal even the first win.

The Packers lost a game and may have lost Brett Favre yesterday. At 4-6, the Packers' playoff hopes are virtually gone - except for the computers that go through the various mathematical possibilities, no one gives them any hope. If Favre is really out for a week or two, then the little soft spot in the schedule (Carolina and Chicago back to back) may not be as soft as it looks.

For those of you who missed it in the agate type, Chadron State beat Fort Hays State last weekend by a score of 17-14. How many electoral votes do these states have? Has a recount been ordered yet?

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