I have a friend who is enthralled with NFL Salary Cap numbers and what they portend. I understand these concepts only at a vague level and pay almost no attention to the team aggregate situations. So he is like E. F. Hutton, when he talks, I listen. He tells me that if the cap does not rise at all next year - which is not true but the guess is that it will rise only about $5 - 9M according to him - then there are 5 teams that are going to have to do some major restructuring of contracts and/or releasing of players. Here is his list of who will be over the cap next year and by how much; remember, these numbers assume no rise in the cap level at all:

Jax will be $45M over the cap
KC will be $37M over the cap
Minnesota will be $24M over the cap
Dallas will be $23M over the cap
Tennessee will be $21M over the cap.

Note that San Diego is not on the list of teams with big troubles even with the signing bonus they paid to Cryin' Leaf. So maybe there is hope for the franchise after all. Here is a San Diego QB stat for you. From 1996 - 1999, San Diego QBs threw 44 touchdown passes (11 per year on average) and 99 INTs (25 per year on average). There is a word for that kind of performance: STINKS !!

With Jeff Blake hurt and having undergone surgery that will keep him out of action for about 6 months, the Saints went out to look for someone to have on the roster as their "disaster quarterback". Well, they found themselves a disaster all right. They signed Billy Joe Tolliver for a year. How many times do Billy Joe Tolliver and his separated-at-birth-twin Billy Joe Hobert have to be in the league before team executives everywhere realize that they can't play. They were not even drafted by the XFL, for Pete's sake.

The story in the Dallas papers last week that Joe Smith was going to re-sign with the Timberpuppies was shown to be wrong. He signed a one year deal with the Detroit Pistons. Interestingly, Miami supposedly offered more money and usually it is the most money that gathers in the players. But the "buzz" is that Detroit made it clear that Smith would get lots of minutes and lots of "touches" (translation: shots) in Pistonland.

The Toronto Raptors lost to the Hornets last night by a score of 100-64. In the process of doing that, the Raptors shot 27% from the floor. Five players shot a combined 5-30 in the game. Why were they allowed to touch the ball?

There have been a lot of rumors that the Cincinnati Reds are in financial difficulties after signing Ken Griffey Junior and Barry Larkin to monster deals. People are now saying that hiring Bob Boone as manager was an economically driven decision and that at least one other candidate refused to consider the salary terms that were offered. Supposedly, the Reds passed on a potential trade for Ben Grieve because they did not want to inherit his salary next year of $2.5M. The trades of Eddie Taubensie and Chris Stynes for a bunch of players who will not make more than the MLB minimum salary for the next season is also seen as a move made out of economic distress. And here I thought that the franchise was in good shape after they got rid of all the expenses they had to incur to clean up the softballs that Schotzie was leaving all over the place.

Another franchise in financial trouble is in Montreal. Obviously, the Washington press is all over that story since they believe that a National League franchise needs to move here to Washington or Northern Virginia. In a story today, there are two sections that make me think that Jeffrey Loria would not be an owner that I'd want in my town. He moans about the problems he has in Montreal - which are real. But for example he points out that two major problems are the exchange rate between the dollar and the Canadian dollar and the 16% tax on tickets imposed by Montreal. Excuse me, but how could he not have known about those things before he wrote out the check to buy the majority of the team? Later on, his Executive Vice President for the Expos chimes in and is quoted as saying: "Even in a full stadium, with complete business and corporate support, 2.4-plus million in attendance, Montreal would not be able to support a team without revenue sharing." And how come that was not part of the "due diligence process" prior to buying the team? There comes a point where the stupid business decisions made because the owner is thinking with his glands and not his brain just can't be erased. Stupidity has consequences.

The Orioles have released Calvin Pickering from their 40 man roster. For several years, he was their first baseman of the future and one that would rival Boog Powell in terms of power and hitting prowess. Calvin had a few cups of coffee with the O's and every time he showed up he was "larger". Bob Horner ate his way out of the major leagues; Calvin ate his way out of a chance to get into the major leagues. He had a quadriceps injury this year that would not heal and required surgery.

Rick Majerus will not be able to accompany his Utes on a trip to Puerto Rico to play in a tournament there. Rick had knee surgery two months ago and it is still swollen and doctors have told him that he has to stay off of it for a while. This is another example of why large people have a bit more difficulty recovering from knee/leg/ankle/foot woes than others - more strain on the affected area just from standing/walking.

The Eagles are about to get a new "football-only stadium" in Philly. Only the Boston political system seems to rival the one in Philly for inertia and the need to pay homage at various political shrines. But the deal seems to be done. Looking at the "specs" for the stadium, I see that they indicate that the new stadium will have a capacity of 66,000 and that the number of men's restrooms per capita is 1:100. What can that mean? There can't be 660 separate men's rooms in the place. Does each urinal count as a "restroom"? I have often thought that despite what Coke used to say as it's advertising slogan, a visit to the men's room was indeed "the pause that refreshes". And by the way, the specs call for per capita women's restrooms to be 1:75. So that would mean that there would be almost 900 ladies rooms. If they put TVs in all the stalls, they could add to the seating capacity. What could they charge for one of these seats if they called it a "comfort box" as opposed to a luxury box?

Let me return for a moment to the PGA/Tiger Woods dust-up. There may be a "sinister force" at work here. Tiger is represented by IMG which is an organization that represents a lot of celebrities and authors and people of that ilk. As I understand it, when Tiger plays in a PGA tournament and wins money, IMG does not get a "piece of the action". But IMG sets up various "schlock golf" events and when Tiger participates they can sell it to TV and then IMG gets a big share of the money. So as long as Tiger is a TV drawing card, it is beneficial to IMG for Tiger to be involved in one of their "made-for-TV events" than it is to play in the Greater Buttsniff Taco Bell Open. And remember the seemingly goofy complaint that Tiger made about changing the way the world rankings were done? Well, it seems that IMG now does the world rankings but they are subject to change by the PGA and clearly any changes there would have to be "arbitrary and capricious". You won't hear a lot about IMG; they prefer to deal with the public the way that puppeteers do; they just pull the strings. But listen to the statements and the rhetoric of this tempest in a piss-pot as it evolves; see if you can see the subtle hand of IMG behind any of the moves. Oh, and by the way, IMG is the main reason that Tiger will not carry through his threat to play in Europe next year. European TV pays less than 10% of what US TV pays for golf events. And US networks are not gonna follow Tiger to Europe and get caught in the "time zone trap".

Debbie Yow is chairing the seven person search committee for the new Maryland football coach. She has enlisted the services of a Florida firm that specializes in finding sports coaches and executives. Not too surprisingly, the guy who runs this firm gave Debbie her first job in the business. I'll bet that there was no competitive bidding for that job! Anyway, Bobby Ross and Terry Bowden have peremptorily taken their name out of consideration; both had been fantasy selections among the fans in the Washington area. (Just to show you that this phenomenon is not a local one, some guy called Mike Francessa on WFAN and suggested that the cure for the football woes at Rutgers was to "open the checkbook and hire Bill Parcels". Yeah, right!)

Here is the problem in a nutshell for Maryland football. It needs a magnet. If a top notch player has decided to play in the ACC or the Big East, why would he choose Maryland? The super player will go to FSU or Miami or Clemson or Syracuse or WVU. If academics matters a lot, Duke and UVA and BC get into the picture. If he wants a picturebook college campus, Maryland can beat out Temple (whose campus has all the charm and ambiance of a third world airport) but not anyone else. So why go to Maryland? If the coach is supposed to be the "magnet" that draws the players that can compete with the FSUs of the world, then you can probably count the coaches that are of that stature on two hands. And they are all busy, thank you.

In case you are keeping score at home, Carl Torbush (UNC), Rip Scherer (Memphis) and Ian Quarless (Southern Illinois) are other college football coaches that will be looking for a new venue in which to ply their trade.

Opening arguments began in the Rae Carruth murder trial which would have to be more interesting to watch than the arguments in front of the Florida Supreme Court about elections laws. According to reports, the defense opening argument claimed that one of Carruth's friends shot Charika Adams because Carruth would not pony up some cash to buy some marijuana. Let me ponder that for a moment. I ask Rae to front some money so we can buy some MJ; he says "no"; I try to cajole him; he continues to say "no"; I get angry; he still says "no"; I notice his pregnant girlfriend just happens to be driving by the car where we are having this intellectual exchange and so I go and shoot her and make sure I shoot her in the abdomen so the fetus will be injured too. Help me here; I think there is a logical step missing but I can't put my finger on it.

One very brief comment on John McEnroe's departure from the position of Davis Cup Captain: why do they have to hold the Davis Cup every year? Even the Ryder Cup - which defines for all time the term "sports tedium" - has the sense to be played every other year. Why not have the Davis Cup competition every four years halfway between each set of Summer Olympic games? The Davis Cup is like a bunch of toothaches; the longer you go between them, the better it is.

Loren Woods has been suspended by the NCAA for a few games for a rules infraction that dates back to when Woods was in the eighth grade; he is now a fifth year senior. By my count, that means the infraction is now ten years old. OK, now tell me why it took these Sherlock Holmes wannabes ten years to come up with these "issues"? The NCAA is getting close to the point where it needs to be overthrown.

How much do you think that Miami would pay now to get out of the mismatch football game that it played against McNeese State in September and replace that game with a game against a team that is merely mediocre - like Maryland for example? Looking at the BCS standings, the Hurricanes suffer in the "strength of schedule" department and in the computer rankings where six of the seven computer models take into account the rankings of the teams that you play. Adults make choices; choices have consequences. Even if OU loses in the Big 12 championship game, it is not clear that OU will fall below Miami - unless of course the writers and coaches that do the polls collude to be sure that they all rank OU 8th and thereby assure that Miami has to be in the top two. If OU were only to drop to 3rd in the coaches' and writers' polls, they would still probably fall only to 2nd in the BCS rankings.

This is the time of the NCAA basketball season where teams are playing in tournaments or are playing cupcakes in glorified scrimmages. John Thompson was famous for his games against St. Leo in late November and early December. But Mercer rose up and beat Auburn in one of these games. That is either the high point in the Mercer program for the year or it portends some very trying moments for Auburn in the SEC this season…

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