A little smorgasbord for a Wednesday...
1. NFL free agency commences Friday and it looks like QB Joey Harrington, DE Kevin Carter and guards Seth McKinney and Bennie And
erson will be among salary cuts. Add OT Damion McIntosh testing the FA waters and it seems clear offensive-line has become a priority with some urgency. If it isn't substantially solved through free agency, Penn State OT Levi Brown would be looking more and more likely as a draft pick at No. 9.
2. Meanwhile, the Dolphins say they want to re-sign Sammy Morris but remain noncommittal on wanting Ricky Williams back. Something a bit screwy about the preceding sentence.
3. President George W. Bush meeting with Pat Riley at The White House. You think they got into a commisserating discussion about which was the more beleaguered leader? Too bad the chairman of JetBlue couldn't join them.
4. I'm not discounting Scottie Pippen-to-the-Heat. He wants a comeback, he lives here, and he might fit.
5. College basketball: Wondering how Gators fans regard those repeat-championship hopes now that UF has lost three of its past four games. And wondering if it has occured to anyone that UM football gets criticized for discipline/off-field issues but Frank Haith has had a nightmare season with that -- with Denis Clemente's suspension the latest woe.
6. Thanks for the memories, Todd Bertuzzi. You were the big deal in the trade that cost the Panthers Roberto Luongo. You played a handful of games then went out for the season with a bum back. A Bertuzzi "Florida era" retrospective is airing tonight from 8 to 8:01.
7. Then-Marlins manager Joe Girardi offered tips to Phillies pitcher Jon Lieber last season because they were former teammates with the Cubs? Say it ain't so, Joe. That's plain wrong.
8. It is being reported that Cedric "Cornbread" Maxwell, the 1980s Celtic now a radio broadcaster for the team, said this the other day in disagreement with a call by referee Violet Palmer: "Get back in the kitchen!" And then: "Get back in the kitchen and make me some bacon and eggs!" It isn't quite an "I hate gay people" rant a la Timmy H. More like '70s era Archie Bunker: Sexism so antiquated it's almost funny. I said almost!