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GRID IRON..I get it. A man is dead and we do not speak evil of the recently departed. But get out of my face with the gushy sentiments about Cincinnati Bengal Chris Henry. If you have the time, or inclination, scroll through Henry’s arrest record and note his predatory behaviour towards the innocent and the working class. Henry really was an athlete of “the people”. Unfortunately, he was likely to punch you, bludgeon you or run you over…Buffalo Bill LB Kawika Mitchell ripped his new teammate G Richie Incognito in a Twitter message, terming the recently released St Louis Ram a “bum”. Incognito is considered the dirtiest player in the game but might actually bring some character and strut to the moribund Bills. Mitchell, for publicly deriding a teammate, is emblematic of everything that is wrong with Bill culture; no leadership, no class, no direction…a prime time date with the New Orleans Saints allows Tony Romo the opportunity to begin demonstrating his reputation as a December stiff is misguided. You know the drill, as much as your heart may wish Romo well, the gambler’s handbook requires you to take the Saints. No wishful thinking, until Romo proves he has the jelly he must be approached with caution…if Mike Holmgren takes over as the head of Cleveland Brown football operations, it is not a foregone conclusion that he will dump Eric Mangini as head coach. With their coach still battling for his future, and with recent improved play, we’ll hold our nose and bet the Browns against the Kansas Chiefs tomorrow…Baltimore is going to be hit with a major snowstorm tomorrow. Over/under players take note (Ravens play host to the Chicago Bears)…Steven Jackson of St Louis is, like a collection of other Ram starters, suffering from flu symptoms and may not play against Houston on Sunday. The rookie Keith Null will start at QB (five interceptions in his debut) and, yep, it is time to pile on and take the Texans minus two TD’s. The Rams may struggle to reach 150 yards on offense…the Sporting News Scouts recommend, for your gambling pleasure, a weekend menu including Miami, New Orleans (easily), New York Jets, San Francisco and Cinci (& the over)…

ICE..and so it begins; a Russian newspaper is reporting that the Atlanta Thrashers have begun the process of acquiring a trading partner in their effort to move Ilya Kovalchuk. The Russian star has asked for a wicked 10 year deal at 11.5 million per…Vesa Toskala will never be a starter in the NHL again. Jonas Gustavsson is now the starting goaltender for the Toronto Maple Leafs…not to be crass, but if the Monster lies prone in the Leaf net after a heart “episode”, he would still provide better goaltending than Toskala did last night…ex Toronto Maple Leaf GM John Ferguson was offered goalie Tomas Vokoun by the Nashville Predators at the same time he was kicking the tires on Toskala. In order to save roughly half a million a year, Ferguson passed on Vokoun and picked up Vesa, a man whose freakish ability to give up the first goal has crippled the franchise since his arrival. Ferguson also traded the man who, at the time, was the Hockey News top goaltending prospect in the world, Tuukka Rask, for the worst starting NHL goalie of the last decade, Andrew Raycroft. The list of Ferguson’s gaffe’s, miscues and acts of outright stupidity predates his arrival in Toronto, but in the “closed door” world of hockey, the buffoon was allowed to cruise through promotions based on that royal last name…a Sporting News projection of Team USA includes both Phil Kessel and Mike Komisarek. The team is given contender status in the 2010 Olympics on the basis of Ryan Miller’s impeccable current form…

PUG LIFE..lightweight champion Edwin Valero fights in Venezuela tonight. It is a no risk, no reward scenario for the vicious puncher (25-0, 25 knockouts) but he is simply killing time until he can land a high profile fight. Long rumoured to be on the Manny Pacquiao shortlist, Valero missed that opportunity as the Pac Man zoomed up to welterweight…yeah, in the recesses of my dark heart, I expect Kelly Pavlik will fight hammered out of his gourd tonight. If the Youngstown, Ohio middleweight staggers and swerves, it may not be from opponent Miguel Angel Espino’s punches…

PONIES..local boy goes abroad; we’re going to hit Grand Adventure at the Fair Grounds today. The talented Sam Son runner was the victim of a bad trip in his last but still produced a nice even effort. He moves forward today, I guarantee it, and it hopefully will be enough as he tries American Stakes company…

TURN LEFT…JR Motorsports Danica Patrick employee took her new car on a five lap jaunt at Daytona yesterday. The lovely Danica, belying her abundant beauty and grace, hammered the mofo by keeping the pedal on the floor for an entire lap. Patrick impishly noted an Indy car reaches speeds of 230 MPH at Daytona while a NASCAR gets to about 180 MPH. She also mentioned she had a hard time getting dressed in the racing gear, noting she couldn’t get her hair tucked into the uniform. Don’t cut the hair Danica, please, not the hair!…

MEDIA..does a review of the New York Times best seller lists portend an end to serious thought in Western Culture? The worst writers alive, James Patterson, Stephen King, Dan Brown, Deane Koontz, Clive Cussler, and Robert Jordan, any of whom can induce a coma with their leaden politically correct prose, are the best selling authors in America. There was a time when the Mailer’s, Updike’s and Roth’s ruled the list. The culture has been upended and a cavalcade of crap has buried the uplifting and the demanding. Thank the lord I can still find friends who delight in finding early editions of Rudyard Kipling or enjoy Orwell with a Sunday brunch…the same people who criticize my admittedly puerile musical tastes make me laugh when I get to see their reading lists. Each to their own, I guess, but I still like Taylor Swift as background noise while reading Wayne Johnston. Now the problem develops when I begin to sing Taylor Swift while others are trying to watch a late hockey game…

U2..THE EDITED VERSION - Adam Clayton was apparently relieved of close to 2 million Euros by a former personal assistant (it is probably easy to take money off a bass player, why, I don’t know!). The woman used his debit and credit cards to slowly drain the money away from Clayton’s accounts. At one point she confessed to taking an accumulated amount of 13,000 Euros, and Clayton promptly forgave her and continued her employment (again, with the uh, bass player thing). One of the expenses the woman, officially a housekeeper, charged was a 900 Euro a month involvement in a horse racing syndicate…BIG SHOUT OUT to Bash and David - I don’t know what the hell I was thinking this morning, colossal brain cramp…when I read a member of U2 had been ripped off I immediately went for the drummer angle, LOL! It was, of course, bass player and Racing Meridian webmaster Adam Clayton who was robbed, not the irrepressible drummer Larry Mullen Jr - Mea Culpa…