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GRID IRON..you just can’t make this stuff up. I’m all livid and squinty eyed furious after hearing about the bye week activities of the NFL’s only winless franchise. If you wonder why bad teams are bad teams then, gentlemen, please consider the 2009 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The 0-7 Buccaneers, on their bye week, decided not to practice! At least they’re nice guys, right? According to the St Petersburg Times, the grossly incompetent head coach Raheem Morris approved a plan to let Josh “The Milkshake Man” Freeman, a rookie about to make his NFL debut, travel back to his hometown of Kansas this past Thursday. Isn’t it logical to presume the Bucs would spend a bye week burning up the practice field in preparation for a home game against the Green Bay Packers? From embarrassment, if not shame? Or that a rookie with a minimal work ethic would be monitored on the field as they prepared for a professional match? Evidently not. The Packers are so vulnerable at the moment with their continued inability to protect Aaron Rodgers. But on Sunday the Pack QB will get a chance to strut his stuff against an inept and just plain ludicrous organization…the amazing Dwight Feeney has 8 sacks in 7 games this year. The Indianapolis Colt lineman is a concern for the opposition on every play they run…Peyton Manning is in the midst of another amazing season; he’s completing 71.1 % of his passes for the Colts with 15 touchdown passes against 4 interceptions. The Houston Texans are on tap and Manning should torch their amateurish secondary. Watching Matt Schaub, the new cowboy in town, respond will provide clues as to just how mature and settled the Texan offense is as we approach “the games that really matter”…according to the Sporting News power poll, the top five teams in the NFL are; the Saints, the Colts, the Vikings, the Broncos and the Patriots. The Steelers just miss the list…the Carolina Panthers did not complete a single pass in the second half Sunday but still managed to beat the Arizona Cardinals…the Buffalo Bills are rushing to get Trent Edwards back in action. The world wants to know why the Bills rushing to get Edwards back into action…the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons combined for 879 yards last night. The Falcons outgained the Saints by five yards in a gritty effort…ICE..Marc Savard assisted on 22 of Phil Kessel’s 36 goals last year. Mr Kessel, meet Mr Matt Stajan, your Toronto Maple Leaf starting centre (retching sound in the background)…the Leafs are on the rise in the Sporting News power poll; they’ve moved from 30^th, and last, to 29^th. The Carolina Hurricanes now hold the ignominious final spot…PUG LIFE..Manny Pacquiao, over objections of trainer Freddie Roach, changed the location of his training camp due to tax considerations. During the camp his beloved homeland was stricken with a natural disaster resulting in serious loss of human life and emotional disarray for the countries most famous celebrity. Now reports indicate the PacMan has begun to argue with Roach and that at some point in the past week he blew off a day of training. Connect the dots. This has been a lousy camp for Pacquiao and the repercussions of the turmoil will only been fully known when he confronts Miguel Cotto on Nov 14^th…Cotto certainly has his own issues to deal with. He’s being trained by his ex-nutritionist and may never have truly recovered from the hellacious encounter with Antonio “Hands of Plaster” Margarito. Cotto looked incapable of dredging up his best effort during a close fight with Joshua Clottey and now faces the quickest and most skilled opponent of his career (apologies to Shane Mosley). This is a true superfight, one rife with complicated permutations. I just keep coming back to the fact that this one night represents a chance for Cotto to wash away the stain of all the controversies and finally fulfill the magnificent potential outlined for his career a mere few years ago…the Black Widow has landed; Amanda Rodrigues, ex of Arturo Gatti, was in Montreal yesterday arguing for an immediate payment from the late fighters estate. Gatti had a net worth of over 6 million dollars at the time of his death (a figure, by the way, which is pretty impressive in the fistic community) and Rodrigues is adamant a notarized will signed three weeks before his murder entitles her to the entire estate. The family contends a 2007 will is the legitimate guide to disbursing the funds. The Brazilian stripper, of course, finds no irony whatsoever in her timeline. She gets Gatti to change his will, lures him to Brazil, gets him involved in a drunken altercation, finds him dead, goes to jail, gets out of jail, and wants all the damn money. Okay, that’s the way I see it. Maybe she’s really an angel. But her persistence in altering the financial details of Gatti’s will, combined with the mysterious nature of his passing shortly thereafter, usually equals a scenario all too common throughout the annals of human history…Mike Tyson has reconciled with Don King and provided commentary for a King Vision telecast Friday night. This is why so many have no respect for Iron Mike, a mental midget with the ethical standards of an Ontario politician. After whining and crying about a purported theft of millions of dollars by the promoter, “Bummy” Mike crawls back to the cesspool. I lost interest in this freak show a long time ago…on the Seconds Out site today writer Clive Bernath reveals he believes Lennox Lewis would have decisioned a prime Muhammad Ali. He’s entitled to his opinion, but I’ll never take anything he writes seriously again…