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GRID IRON..Peter King’s S I piece on the season, and possibly career, ending injury suffered by Minnesota Viking linebacker and defensive leader E J Henderson made for amazing reading. The player does not have the high profile of other defensive stars but, apparently, is viewed as the ignition key on the vaunted Viking D. How the team rallies without him will become apparent as early as this Sunday, when a very talented Cincinnati Bengal squad steps in as the opposition…okay, it may not be at the Tyson - Douglas level, but I was completely taken aback by the Pittsburgh Steelers loss last night to the Cleveland Browns. These kind of improbable, seeming impossible turn of events are the reason I find sports irresistible. I didn’t have money on the game for probably the reason you didn’t; I just couldn’t be bothered. It seemed a foregone conclusion but the Steelers had been so woeful against the Oakland Raiders last Sunday that laying ten on the road, against a division rival, just wasn’t particularly enticing. Not that I wouldn’t have, mind you, if someone put a water gun, or golf club, to my head. The thought that the Steelers attempt to repeat as Superbowl Champs effectively ended at the hands of the woeful Browns, with the defense surrendering a catastrophic eight sacks, is mind boggling. It feels like a watershed moment for the lads in Steeltown…the Dallas Cowboys haven’t had a winning December in 13 years. Is Tony Romo a help or a hindrance? You tell me…the New England Patriots went 11-5 last year with Matt Cassells as the helm. This year, with Tom Brady in charge, the team has struggled to its current 7-5 position…Baltimore, with games remaining against Detroit, Chicago, at Pittsburgh and at Oakland, is poised to go 10-6 and make the playoffs. I’ll be damned if I didn’t take up Pinnacle on their 50-1 offer on the Ravens winning the Superbowl…

ICE..the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens are talking trade with the Habs Jaroslav Halak on the hit list for the Mavens of Motor City. The price won’t be cheap, but Jimmy Howard and Chris Osgood are as relevant to a Stanley Cup push as Roxette (as in, not relevant at all)…the Philadelphia Flyers will play the Boston Bruins Jan 1^stat Fenway in the 2010 Winter Classic. This just doesn’t get old for me…Jonas Gustavsson was back on ice today. The Toronto Maple Leafs hope he can return to netminding duties within a week’s time…

PUG LIFE..promoter Lou DiBella has taken the surprising but warranted step of cutting boxer Jermaine Taylor free from his contractural ties. DiBella had hoped Jermaine would retire after a series of knockout losses (Kelly Pavlik, Carl Froch, Arthur Abraham), but Taylor has decided to continue his career, challenging the stupendous Andre Ward in a showdown he simply cannot win. In a gracious press release, DiBella was careful to inform readers that he still regarded Taylor’s two wins over Bernard Hopkins in 2005, when the world seemed wide open for Jermaine, as the highlight of his promotional career. The Jermaine Taylor story is sad, and getting sadder…last week, Amir Khan knocked out Dmitiry Salita in the first round while fighting in Newcastle, England. Salita, a practicing Orthodox Jew, has given an interview to the Jerusalem Post where he described himself as terrified by the virulent anti-Semitism of the crowd that night. Khan, a Muslim, had spoken in the weeks before the fight of the challenges he had faced as a member of a minority in Britain. The mainstream press opted to not cover any of the alleged incidents though Jewish papers have described the hatred directed towards Salita’s followers in the arena that night as like “all hell breaking loose”…

MEDIA..the execrable Mike Toth has surfaced on CFRB. Good. No one listens to that station anymore…William Houston went to town on the Fan morning show the other day, highlighting a series of Don Landry riffs that compared Toronto Maple Leaf efforts to defecation. The question I would have is why did Houston continue to listen? I am safely away from Don Landry the minute John Oakley hits the airwaves…I still miss Pat Marsden, a man who drank and gambled with aplomb, living his life to the fullest. Naw, they don’t make them like that anymore…the Fan’s Bob McCowan continues as the king of drive home radio, besting AM 640’s Bill Watters show 9.8 to 4.4 in the key males 25-54 demographic…is it just me, or is ESPN’s Bill Simmons beginning to pen a few shaky narratives? His current story concerns the Tiger Woods situation and I think he’s read far more into the storyline than is warranted. Simmons, whose current book on basketball charts on the New York Times bestseller list, would be better off investigating the ramifications of Tim Donaghy’s revelations…Simmons two-parter on his Las Vegas trip a couple of months back may have been the best thing he ever wrote…