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GRID IRON..the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have fired offensive co-ordinator Jeff Jagodzinski on the cusp of the 2009 season. Many will suggest the Bucs are panicking but nothing could be further from the truth. The mistake the Bucs made was in signing the “Dumb Guy” in the first place. Jagodzinski has been riding the coattails of the work he did with Matt Ryan while at Boston College. The skinny? He held back Ryan with his inane play calling and was never equipped to be a co-ordinator at the NFL level. This is a positive for Bucs fans, and also a sign that Lord Byron Leftwich has the ear of the coaching staff…the Baltimore Ravens have confirmed Ray Rice will be their starting running back, relegating Willis McGhee to the back-up role. The Ravens are also promising to open up their attack this year. While many prognosticators are predicting a 9-7 or so year for the Ravens, I just don’t see it. I think this squad will make an enormous push for the top of the AFC and demonstrate the qualities of a Superbowl contender all year long…the longest serving head coaches in the NFL are Jeff Fischer, with 15 seasons in Tennessee, Andy Reid, with 11 seasons in Philadelphia and Bill Belichick, starting year 10 in New England. All three believe they have serious claims to the NFL Championship this year, but only the evil residing outside of Boston is correct…S I has its 2009 NFL predictions up. For the most part the calls are conservative and predictable but seeing Kansas City at 8-8 sure caught me off guard. Peter, wanna bet?…ICE.. the Detroit Red Wings propose to replace the scoring punch of Marian Hossa, Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson with Todd Bertuzzi. Believe the hype, homeboy, the Wings are rattled after an off season where they were unable, for once, to address their needs. And, yes, Chris Osgood is one year older…hard luck goalie Manny Legace, a former all star for the St Louis Blues, has been invited to Atlanta to try out with the Thrashers. No one else was interested…THE COURT..the Sporting News lists ex Raptor Jermaine O’Neil as number 1 on the “absurdly bad deals currently plaguing NBA Teams” list. O’Neil, at 23 million this season, is the third highest paid player in the league…PONIES..Rachel Alexandra’s audacious assault on the older colt and gelding set in Saturday’s Woodward Stakes will not be televised by a major network. She will be only the second three year old filly to ever enter the prestigious Grade 1 affair. It is an absolute must see occasion with tough runners like Macho Again, Bullsbay and the world traveller Asiatic Boy all lined up to take a shot at the princess. At her expected odds of 1-2, sentiment be damned, it’s hard not to take a shot on one of the rugged veterans…PUG LIFE..Celestino Caballero, conqueror of local boxer Steve Molitor, just notched his second win since unifying a couple of belts at Rama. The fighting son of Panama scored a handy stoppage win over fringe contender Francisco Leal at Mexicali, Mexico. Sooner or later the division’s elite are going to have to deal with the lanky slugger…a fighter I’ve been following closely, Marco Huck, won a cruiserweight title this past weekend. Huck lost his first challenge for a title, to the excellent Steve Cunningham, via a late round stoppage. Pure old school, Huck went back to the ring for six consecutive wins before obtaining another chance at a belt. He scored a hard fought decision win in Germany over title holder Victor Ramirez…remember this name; Abner Mares. The Mexican bantamweight is going to rip up the division now that surgery has repaired a severely damaged retina. His next fight is on the Floyd Mayweather - Juan Manuel Marquez undercard…former heavyweight belt holder Lamont Brewster suffered an ugly defeat to Gbenka Olougun on the Huck undercard. Brewster, who spins a constant line of excuses, was just signed by German promoters. Idiotic. Brewster can’t fight, won’t train and is an old 36. Brewster had a moment of appalling luck when he nailed Vladimir Klitschko and found himself WBO champ. He made three defences, including a first round knockout of Andrew Golota, before surrendering the belt to Sergei Lyakhovich. In a rematch with Vladimir a fat and woeful Brewster embarrassed himself before losing by mid round stoppage…