POSTED 8:35 p.m. EDT; UPDATED 9:28 p.m. EDT, April 5, 2006

RAVENS WAITING TO POUNCE ON McNAIR

A league source tells us that the Baltimore Ravens will be prepared to move quickly to sign quarterback Steve McNair, if/when McNair is released by the Tennessee Titans.

And the source expects that the Titans eventually will dump McNair, given the team's desperate need for cap relief in order to sign its draft picks.  Cutting McNair would create $9 million in 2006 cap space.

Coach Jeff Fisher, we're told, desperately wants to keep McNair and draft quarterback Vince Young, so that Young could spend a year learning from McNair.  But they can't sign Young unless they cut McNair.

And since the Titans have bled so many veterans over the past couple of years, it'll be extremely difficult for the team to create enough room to sign Young without cutting McNair, since the Titans would have to cut even more players to clear space to sign Young and the other rookies whom the Titans will draft later this month.

As to the Ravens, many league observers believe they have delayed pursuing Kerry Collins in the anticipation that McNair eventually will become available.  If McNair lands in Baltimore, he'll likely be given every opportunity to supplant current starter Kyle Boller.

FLEX SCHEDULING TO ARRIVE FOR SUNDAY NIGHTS

When the NFL announces it 2006 regular season schedule on Thursday, there will be a hole on several of the late-season Sunday nights.  Specifically, in seven of the last eight weeks, there will be no Sunday night games scheduled.  Instead, all games in those weekends will be slated to start at 1:00, 4:00, or 4:15 p.m. Eastern time, and the league will announce as the date approaches the game that will appear on NBC's Sunday night broadcast.

FOX and CBS will be able to protect a total of five games from the switch to Sunday night, but no more than one per week.

The move will go a long way toward sparing football fans from games that looked great on paper in April but turned out to be turds as one or both of the teams involved have disappointing seasons.  However, ESPN will be stuck with the schedule of Monday night games announced on Thursday, with no chance to pull a switcheroo.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT ONE-LINERS

The trial of Redskins S Sean Taylor has been moved from April 10 to April 17.

Bills G.M. Marv Levy says that QB J.P. Losman isn't and won't be on the trading block.

The Dolphins have signed S Deke Cooper.

Bengals WR Chad Johnson wants to get 1,800 yards receiving this season.

When Bengals WR Chad Johnson got an eyeful of DT Sam Adams, Johnson said, "We're going to lunch. McDonald's."

["Must . . . eat . . . food . . . .  Must . . . eat . . . food . . . ."]

Browns TE Kellen Winslow plans to get back on the field by May (hopefully he'll be getting limo service to practice).

As it turns out, Broncos WR David Terrell is untalented and delusional:  "Terrell Owens is not better than me.  Keyshawn Johnson is not better than me.  Randy Moss is not better than me.  The only person better than me is me."

Redskins LB Chris Clemons has signed his one-year restricted free agent tender.

The Vikings have signed WR Ryan Hoag and WR Jimmy Redmond.

The Bills have signed four players, including former first-round OL Aaron Gibson.

Jerome Bettis will throw out the first pitch at the Detroit Tigers' home opener.

Buffalo Sabres owner B. Thomas Golisano is interested in keeping the Bills in Western New York.

POSTED 2:53 p.m. EDT, April 5, 2006

CULPEPPER NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET

Greg Bedard of the Palm Beach Post reports that criminal charges might be re-filed against former Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper due to his alleged role in the Love Boat fiasco.  On Tuesday, a judge dismissed three misdemeanor counts against Culpepper based on a finding that there was no probable cause to believe he committed a crime.

"The rules in Minnesota say a dismissal for a lack of probable cause is not appealable, but the remedy is to recharge it," prosecutor Steve Tallen told Bedard.  "The question is, do I want to put myself and everyone through the pain?  I just don't know that.  I think it's possible.  Have we all bled enough and want to move on, or do we want to keep going?  I don't know.  There are public policy considerations and I haven't sorted them all out, but I will at some point."

The statute of limitations on the charges is three years.  

The charges against Culpepper were dismissed because Culpepper denied receiving a lap dance under oath at his preliminary hearing, and the prosecution put on no testimony or other evidence to rebut his claims.

"I honestly think the judge is wrong in terms of how he has applied the law," Tallen said.  "My gut feeling is he's wrong when he says if the other side puts on live people, I need to put on live people, too.  If he's right, then I goofed; and if he's not right, then he goofed."

Either way, Tallen apparently can get a do-over.

Of course, the fact that Culpepper no longer works or resides in Minnesota will complicate things.  Culpepper's new team, the Dolphins, won't play a regular season game in Minnesota until 2010.  So issues like extradition will come into play if Tallen decides to proceed, and such lengths probably represent more time, cost, and trouble than they're worth.

Tallen also could pursue illegal gambling charges against Culpepper, since he testified that he didn't get a lap dance during the sex cruise because he was playing craps at $20 a throw.

POSTED 4:00 p.m. EDT, April 5, 2006

DAKTRONICS DOLPHINS LINK STILL AVAILABLE

Although the scoreboard company that prematurely divulged the new name and new logo of the venue currently known as Dolphins Stadium has removed the link to the project from the front page of its site, the link to the document containing the information is, we've learned, still active.

Of course, it might not be active for much longer.

For now, click here to check out the full document, which includes an announcement that Dolphin Stadium (as it will be known as of Saturday) will feature the world's largest high definition LED video display.  Here's a screen capture of the relevant page.

POSTED 1:16 p.m. EDT, April 5, 2006

CONDON HEADING TO CAA

A league source tells us that former IMG football agent Tom Condon will join Creative Artists Agency.

Condon is expect to take his full list of football clients with him.

Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal reported in February that, per his contract with IMG, Condon can leave IMG and carry away his clients. 

CAA is part of the Matt Leinart representation team, and this development might prompt speculation that one of Condon's first orders of business will be to persuade Leinart to hire CAA to negotiate his football contract, too.   

POSTED 12:38 p.m. EDT; UPDATED 12:44 p.m. EDT, April 5, 2006

ROONEY, RICHARDSON CHAIR SEARCH COMMITTEE

A league source tells us that NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has appointed the committee that will be charged with the task of finding a person to fill his shoes.  Co-chairs of the eight-person committee are Dan Rooney of the Steelers and Jerry Richardson of the Panthers.

Other members include Jerry Jones of the Cowboys, Bob Kraft of the Patriots, Al Davis of the Raiders, Woody Johnson of the Jets, Mike McCaskey of the Bears, and Lamar Hunt of the Chiefs.

It's a relatively even split between large-market and small-market teams.  However, neither of the two men who voted against the recent revenue sharing plan (Mike Brown of the Bengals and Ralph Wilson of the Bills) have been invited to participate.

Though the election of a new Commissioner requires the vote of 22 owners, the committee will have a strong degree of influence over the process.  Assuming these eight owners can get on the same page regarding the person who should get the job, it's likely that at least 14 of the remaining 24 will agree with them.

Tagliabue was initially expected to appoint a committee on Monday, March 27, the first day of the recent ownership meetings.  In our view, it's possible that Tagliabue opted to delay the announcement until after Jackson County, Missouri voters approved a measure that will fund renovations to Arrowhead Stadium, and that removes the Chiefs from the list of teams that might end in L.A.  

If Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt had been serving on the committee at the same time his team was eyeing a possible move to the nation's second largest market, Hunt's decisions regarding the selection of the next Commissioner could have been influenced by Hunt's desire for a Commissioner who would be supportive of the Chiefs getting the nod to relocate.

POSTED 11:16 a.m. EDT, April 5, 2006

CONDON OUT AT IMG?

There's a rumbling in league circles that NFL agent Tom Condon has resigned his position with mega-firm IMG.

Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal reported on Monday that such a move was coming.  Per Mullen's item, Condon, baseball agent Casey, Close and broadcast agent Sandy Montag were talking to Creative Artists Agency, which coincidentally is involved in the non-football representation of USC quarterback Matt Leinart.  Together, the three agents represent more than 100 baseball and football players, including the Manning brothers and Derek Jeter.

And as further evidence of the degree of influence that Condon has over the NFLPA, Condon, Close, and Montag reportedly are being represented in their negotiations by Jeffrey Kessler, who has represented the players union in labor negotiations and other matters, such as the Terrell Owens arbitration hearing.  

POSTED 8:50 a.m. EDT, April 5, 2006

K.C. OUT OF L.A. LOTTERY

Voters in Jackson County, Missouri approved on Tuesday a measure aimed at generating $425 million for improvements to Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Kansas City Chiefs, and Kauffman Stadium, the home of the Kansas City Royals.

The move most likely removes the Chiefs from the small-and-shrinking list of candidates to move to Los Angeles.  In our assessment, the list now includes the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars, San Diego Chargers, Minnesota Vikings, and New Orleans Saints.  The Vikings soon could drop off of that last, too, if/when plans for a new stadium in Minnesota are finalized.

Voters rejected a separate item that would have financed a rolling roof for Arrowhead and Kauffman.  This disqualifies Kansas City from hosting the 2015 Super Bowl, which was conditionally granted to K.C. if the stadium gets a retractable roof.

The voters' decision to impose a three-eighths of a cent sales tax also could help to fuel arguments that the NFL cannot bar local television journalists from the sidelines of games, given the very public nature of the funding of many of the league's venues.

BUD SELIG IS A MORON

We've resisted wasting our space -- and your time -- addressing the ridiculously bad decision of Commissioner Bud Selig to appoint former Senator George Mitchell to conduct an investigation into steroid use in major league baseball.  

As an initial matter, we generally don't care about baseball.  The games are far too slow.  The season is far too long.  The Pittsburgh Pirates, for whom yours truly once upon a time lived and died, have been far too bad for far too many seasons.  But we've yet to see anyone really hit the nail on the head as to the root of the problem regarding the selection of Mitchell, and now that Selig has decided to defend his decision, we've decided that it's time to lay this thing out in the simplest possible terms.

George Mitchell is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Company.  Disney has long ago issued shares of stock for public sale.  As the Chairman of the Frickin' Board, Mitchell has a fiduciary obligation to the shareholders to at all times work toward enhancing the value of the shares.

That's why Disney publishes on its web site a Code of Conduct for its Directors.  Let's consider a few of the key provisions.

"Every Director must . . . represent the interests of the shareholders of The Walt Disney Company."

"Directors must avoid conflicts of interest.  A conflict of interest occurs when an individual's private interest interferes in any way with the interests of the company or any of its subsidiary and affiliated companies."

"Directors should also be mindful of, and seek to avoid, conduct which could reasonably be construed as creating an appearance of a conflict of interest."

Does Mitchell have a potential conflict of interest?  Hell yes! 

Disney owns ESPN.  Disney is hoping to earn as much money as possible through its ownership of ESPN.  ESPN pays money to major league baseball for the right to air its game.  ESPN is hoping to earn as much money as possible through the airing of the games. 

How does ESPN earn as much money as possible through the airing of baseball games?  By getting as many people as possible to watch the games, and by getting advertisers to pay as much money as possible for commercial time during the games.

But now the Chairman of the Board of ESPN/Disney is running an investigation of baseball that could, depending upon how the facts develop, end up making the entire management of the sport seem at best incompetent at best and at worst complicit in the widespread use of steroids and other illegal substances during the post-strike years in which all of those balls flying over walls helped lure fans and advertisers back to the game. 

The problem is that such revelations would tend to drive fans and advertisers away from the game again, thereby impacting negatively the profits of ESPN.  Which would impact negatively the profits of Disney.  Which would impact negatively the value of the shares.

These aren't esoteric legal concepts, folks.  But yet when the guys on ESPN's The Sports Reporters debated this matter over the weekend, not a single mention was made of Mitchell's role as the Chairman of the Board of ESPN's parent company.

And this isn't a question of whether Mitchell has integrity.  This is a question of whether the Chairman of the Board of a publicly-traded company with an interest in the success of major league baseball can preside over an investigation that could, if done thoroughly, impartially, and adequately, impede the success of major league baseball. 

He can't.  No one can.

For the Commissioner of the sport to not realize this shows either that he's stoopid -- or that he's hoping to further pull the horsehide over everyone's eyes regarding the depth of the steroid problem by tapping an investigator who has a clear interest in carefully and artfully exercise discretion as he digs just deeply enough to placate the public without imploding the sport.

"MERRY FREAKIN' CHRISTMAS, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SH-T"

Ah, Christmas.  The most peaceful and serene day of the year.

Not this time around.

The NFL is sending the Dallas Cowboys and receiver Terrell Owens back to Philadelphia for a Christmas Day game in 2006.

It's a smart move, since it ensures that there will be interest in the game, even if neither team is on the right side of .500 come late December.

And we're now officially dreaming of a white Christmas in 2006, for entirely different reasons than we usually do.  The combination of Philly fans and T.O. and well-packed snowballs could make for a spectacle far more intriguing than the Super Bowl. 

BUS COOK PLAYS DUMB

The Tennessee Titans continue to take the position that quarterback Steve McNair cannot participate in offseason workouts while his contract status remains resolved.  The team's position is that, if McNair suffers a serious injury while working out at the team facility, the team will be on the hook for his entire 2006 salary of $9 million.

In response, agent Bus Cook pretends not to understand the problem.  "[I]t's the same thing with every player on that roster," Cook told the Nashville Tennessean on Tuesday  "A $3 million player is going to get hurt just as easily as a $9 million player, and they have to pay him if he gets hurt.''

Yeah, Bus.  But the team only has to pay $3 million to the $3 million player.  If McNair goes down, the Titans are on the hook for the full amount of the $9 million that they're currently hoping to reduce via a restructuring that will extend his contract beyond 2006.

Cook realizes the difference, we assume.  So why make the statement?  It might be because Cook knows there's nothing else he can say.

The Titans hold all of the cards on this one.  Even though the team's decision to avoid a $50 million option bonus by paying $1 million to McNair and by permitting him to become a free agent after 2006, the Titans can hold McNair's rights deep into the offseason, making it harder for him to get acclimated a new system in a new city.  In theory, the Titans can cut McNair as late as the eve of the team's regular-season opener without incurring responsibility for any portion of his $9 million salary.

Cook's far better play, in our view, would have been to lobby the Titans to release McNair in February, which would have given McNair a chance to land the starting job in a town like New Orleans or Miami.  Instead, the Titans are giving McNair the Eddie George treatment by coughing up a million bucks in March for the right to eventually cut the guy later in the year, if a new deal can't be worked out. 

WEDNESDAY MORNING ONE-LINERS

Buried in this item form the Chicago Sun-Times is a reference to the possibility that the NFL could revisit its decision to ban local television cameras from covering NFL games.

Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tries to put local ESPN radio personality Mark Madden in his place for attacks on Steelers Hall of Famer Franco Harris.

The fact that charges were dismissed against QB Daunte Culpepper does not mean that he was "vindicate[d] . . . from being involved in any sexual misconduct on the boat."  It only means that the prosecution screwed the pooch at the preliminary hearing.

The prosecutor in the Sean Taylor case describes the chances for a plea deal as "bleak."

Quincy Carter, who admits to smoking pot, says it was hurtful that people thought he also was snorting cocaine.

LB LaVar Arrington continues to negotiate with the Giants.

The judge in the sex boat case rejected the contention of RB Moe Williams that race was a factor in the decision to pursue charges against him.

NFL teams hand-timed RB Reggie Bush at 4.41 to 4.44 for his time in the 40.

The current deadline for Lord Favre's roster bonus is April 15.

Speaking of Lord Favre, the NFL's official web site features a somewhat unflattering item from Vic Carucci.

The Ravens are hosting a symposium for high school students.  (Will one of the topics will be "How to Properly Pick Up The Soap in the Prison Shower"?)

The Vikings will hold their first mandatory minicamp of the offseason this weekend.

The contract signed by CB Eric Warfield with the Pats is worth $1.51 million over two years.

The Bills got a fifth-round pick for WR Eric Moulds.

The Big Show still hasn't decided whether he'll return beyond 2006.

Bengals DT Sam Adams says that he still has plenty of "gas in the tank" (as the linebackers in Buffalo will verify).

CB Nick Harper isn't happy with the Colts.  (What, did they stab him in the leg or something?)

A total of 45 Seahawks showed up for the launch of the voluntary offseason conditioning program.

The Falcons are adamant about getting a first-round pick in exchange for QB Matt Schaub.

Seahawks president Tim Ruskell admits that the poison pills in the Nate Burleson offer sheet were strictly a reaction to the Steve Hutchinson offer sheet.