Did you miss the battle between Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and home plate umpire Bob Davidson this week? It was pretty great. Manuel got upset that Davidson got in Brian Schneider’s way as he tried to grab strike three in the dirt. Schneider couldn’t get the ball and the dude was safe at first after striking out.

Davidson screamed into the dugout, “you think I wanted to block his ass?”

Not sure exactly what Charlie said back, but he got tossed and didn’t care for it. The video is here:

After the expletive-laden battle was over, MLB decided that both guys should have a seat for a game. You see players and managers get suspended all the time, but umpires? And better yet, they said Davidson’s suspension was for “repeated violations.” Wow, how about that?

From the press release:

Umpire Bob Davidson has received a one-game suspension for his repeated violations of the Office of the Commissioner’s standards for situation handling, Major League Baseball announced today.

Davidson’s suspension is to be served tonight, when his crew will work the Minnesota Twins-Milwaukee Brewers game at Miller Park. A Minor League call-up umpire will fill Davidson’s spot in tonight’s game.

This guy must be one hell of an umpire to not just get fired. If he’s constantly screwing up, couldn’t they just find someone else to judge whether the little white ball went over the plate or not?

The Anaheim Ducks announced on Wednesday that they signed veteran center Saku Koivu to a one-year contract. The deal is believed to be $3 million and does include incentives.

Koivu gets this contract despite the fact that he’s 37-years old and his production has steadily declined the last few years. He had 38 points last year, which isn’t very good.

Still, the Ducks want to keep him because he’s a two-way player who helps out on the penalty kill. It’s not always all about points scored, and here is proof.

The Philadelphia Flyers are already in a lousy situation against the New Jersey Devils. They are down 3-1 in the series, but it’s much worse than that. The Devils are killing the Flyers in most aspects of hockey. The Flyers can’t even carry it out of their own zone without a huge fight.

And Game 5 just got a lot tougher. According to the Flyers’ Facebook page, Claude Giroux will be suspended for one game following his hit to the head of Dainius Zubrus.

“BREAKING NEWS: Claude Giroux was given a 1 game suspension by the NHL for a hit on Dainius Zubrus during the 2nd period of last night’s game,” the post reads.

He did hit him well after the puck was gone, but he didn’t leave his feet. Still, the NHL obviously thinks he went after his head (which he did hit). What do you think?

Nothing sucks more than having to make an example out of a couple guys and punish the whole team. The Nashville Predators are down 2-0 to the Phoenix Coyotes in the best-of-seven second round series and could use all the help they can get. So, suspending a guy who is tied for team lead in goals and another guy who is plus-3 in the playoffs is not a good thing.

But, the Predators did what they felt they had to do. They said that Andrei Kostitsyn and Alexander Radulov were in violation of team rules and will be suspended for Game 3, according to Josh Cooper of The Tennessean.

“AK46 an Radulov out of Game 3 for a violation of team rules,” Cooper tweets.

The real story seems to be that they were out until 4 a.m. the night before Game 2. That’s pretty bad and you put the coaches and team in a bad position. They can’t let that behavior slide and now you are very close to helping your team to a 3-0 hole. Well done.

Wow. One one hand it’s kind of weird that Shea Weber didn’t get any punishment at all for his hit on Henrik Zetterberg, and now we see that the NHL is going to drop the hammer on Phoenix Coyotes forward Raffi Torres.

Torres has been suspended for 25 games for his hit on Chicago Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa. Brendan Shanahan felt that Torres knew that Hossa didn’t have puck and that he deliberately violated the rules of charging, check-to-the-head, interference, rape and gang rape.

We don’t know exactly how long Torres is out because we don’t know how long the Coyotes will be in the playoffs. He’ll serve whatever games in the playoffs and then it will carry over into next regular season. He will not be allowed to play in any preseason games either.

It’s estimated that this suspension will cost him $21,341 per game heading into next year. Ouch. Don’t think that doesn’t hurt.

Still…nothing for Shea Weber??

The NHL playoffs have been amazing this year so far. A lot of that could be due to the absolutely bloodbaths that a few of these series have become. There has been a lot of dirty play, and Raffi Torres of the Phoenix Coyotes has been one of the poster boys.

During Tuesday night’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, he decided that it would be a good idea to leave his feet and drive his shoulder into the head of Marian Hossa, who didn’t have the puck. Hossa had to be carted off and taken to the hospital.

And the NHL apparently didn’t appreciate the hit. They have suspended Torres indefinitely and he’ll need to have an in-person hearing on April 20th with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.

Here is the hit that landed him in hot water with the league:

The San Francisco Giants are full of great young pitching, which is all well and good. It’s one of the best situations you can be in, until it’s time to pay them. They just recently doled out a huge contract to Matt Cain, and now it’s Madison Bumgarner’s turn.

According to SFX, they extended Bumgarner with a five-year, $35 million contract.

“Congratulations to Madison Bumgarner on his 5-year $35 million extension with the Giants!,” SFX tweets.

This is the biggest contract ever given to someone with just one-plus year of service. And it will get bumped to $40 million if he qualifies for Super Two status. This new extension also has options for 2018 and 2019 and even gives him a limited no-trade clause. He can name eight teams annually that he can’t be traded to.

The 22-year old had a 3.21 ERA last season and looks to be a stud in the making.

The Baltimore Ravens traded for Lee Evans last year to help them stretch the field. He didn’t stretch much of anything all season because he was battling a busted foot and rarely saw any action.

Now, it seems that the Jacksonville Jaguars are willing to roll the dice and bet that his terrible season was all due to injury, and that he can come back and be productive. According to Adam Schefter, the Jags have signed him to a one-year deal.

Photo Caption: The Ravens were hoping that Evans was on the field for one less play.

“Former Ravens and Bills wide receiver Lee Evans will sign a one-year deal Monday with the Jacksonville Jaguars,” Schefter tweets.

We really like this signing. Evans has been a very nice player throughout his career and just couldn’t get on the field last season. When Mike Thomas and Laurent Robinson are your starters….yeah, we like this signing.

As you surely have heard by now, the Miami Marlins have suspended manager Ozzie Guillen for five games for comments he made recently to Time magazine. Guillen had nice words for Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and many people didn’t care for that.

“I respect Fidel Castro,” Guillen said in the article. “You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that son of a bitch is still there.”

Guillen apologized in a press conference, but really, who cares? Who cares about the apology when you spoke from your heart originally? And to take it a step farther, who cares about your opinions on Castro? Everyone has to get all outraged like the world shifts on comments from a baseball manager.

Ozzie said that he “betrayed a Latin community” and that he was talking to “ask for forgiveness with my heart in my hand.”

Guillen didn’t say he was misquoted, but said that he was speaking in Spanish and that “the translation to English was a bit confusing.”

Uh huh. That makes perfect sense, and what a convenient excuse. And he spoke in Spanish and English in this apology conference thing too. If the confusion regarding your original comments was due to translation issues, maybe we should just stick with one language?

Anyway, Guillen continued with his “apology” (the kind where it’s okay that he expressed something he really felt, but now is “apologizing” because people got pissed off and not because he didn’t mean it).

“Politics has nothing to do with sports,” Guillen said, making an earth-shattering statement that will surely be news to many.

“This is the biggest mistake so far in my life,” he said. “I’m very, very, very sorry,” he said. “I will do everything in my power to make it better.”

“I live in Miami, my family is in Miami,” he said. “I will do everything in my power…to help this community like I always do. I’m sitting here very embarrassed and very sad.”

“I’m gonna be a Miami guy for the rest of my life,” Guillen said. “I want to walk in the street with my head up and not feel as bad as I feel right now.”

We just don’t get it on a variety of levels. Sure, there are a good deal of people living in the Miami area who have directly felt the destruction of Fidel Castro. But, why do you care that the local baseball manager likes him? Or respects him? Or whatever? How does his opinion affect your life? It doesn’t.

And now cue the people that say, “what if he said Hitler?!” Well, first of all, he didn’t. So you can cram that argument. Secondly, what if he did? We’d have to all act outraged and demand an “apology,” when none of this matters anyway. If he said he liked Hitler, the sun would come up tomorrow. If he said he liked Hitler, and then he apologized, it’s not like his Hitler comments started riots across the country and then his apology quelled them. Nope, nothing would come of any of it.

Sure, the Marlins did the right thing by suspending him because they are still trying to run a business. They had to do it because of the level of outrage from their paying customers. They have a brand new stadium they are trying to fill. But, if people would just use their heads and think about how these things affect their life, there would be no outrage.

We’re just so tired of everyone having to be outraged about stupid crap coming from inconsequential people as though any of it means anything. Meanwhile, we have people trying to limit access to things like contraception and porn, but we’re worried what a baseball manager says about a dictator. Makes sense.

The Philadelphia Eagles took a decent-sized gamble last year when they gave former New York Giants WR Steve Smith several million dollars. He was coming off of a serious knee injury and they didn’t really know what they were getting. What they did get, was a big waste of time. Smith was rarely on the field, and when he was, he was dropping passes.

Now, it’s the St. Louis Rams turn. According to Jim Thomas, the team has signed the formerly good wideout.

“Rams agree to terms with WR Steve Smith of Philadelphia and TE Matthew Mulligan of New York Jets,” he tweets.

Since the Rams are much more wide receiver-needy than the Eagles, maybe he’ll have a good chance for some playing time. Let’s just hope he doesn’t give the Rams the same kind of playing time that he gave the Eagles.

The Indianapolis Colts got rid of a lot of talent after they watched their prize possession sign with the Denver Broncos. They have tons more holes now (and they had a butt ton before) and need to fill them.

So, while they re-signed Reggie Wayne this offseason, they still have more receiver slots to fill.

And they attempted to fill those slots with one burner who was formerly a productive player. The Colts have signed Donnie Avery, who used to be with the Tennessee Titans and St. Louis Rams. Not at the same time of course.

Avery was a second-round draft pick in 2008, and the first WR taken in that draft. Avery is an absolute burner, and if he can stay healthy, he should be a good deep threat for whoever the hell is playing QB for the Colts in 2012.

The free agent market for linebackers this offseason has been tepid at best. While other players were signing as soon as free agency kicked off, linebackers were largely chilling out at home hoping the phones rang.

And perhaps the prize of the LB free agent class, Curtis Lofton, has sat the longest. A four-year man from the Atlanta Falcons, Lofton was supposedly asking too much, but whatever the reason, he got the New Orleans Saints to bit.

According to Greg Bensel, VP of Communications for the Saints, the team signed him to a five-year deal.

“Saints Agree To Terms With LB Curtis Lofton For Immediate Release: March 24, 2012 New Orleans Saints (cont),” he tweeted.

He actually tweeted a link to the official press release, which we’ll now add.

And while we don’t have official terms of the contract, we will add this handy dandy quote from GM Mickey Loomis, who should consider himself lucky that he’s even allowed to be quoted in press releases.

“Curtis is a versatile, hard-working player that has displayed a knack for being around the football, and more importantly, making plays on the ball,” Loomis said. “He has the ability to play all three linebacker positions and we feel that he’s just entering the prime of his career. We think he can come to New Orleans and fit in well and provide us with a significant contribution to our defense.”

Sure, the Saints already have a really nice LB in Jonathon Vilma, but he’s probably likely to be in a bowling league with Loomis, Sean Payton and Greg Williams for the foreseeable future. So yeah, Lofton is insurance.

I don’t know for sure whether or not this move will sting the Jacksonville Jaguars, but it should. The Denver Broncos have traded Tim Tebow and a seventh-round pick to the New York Jets in exchange for fourth- and sixth-round picks.

Sure, there will be plenty of time to pontificate about what the Jets will do with Tebow. Will they give him a change to start and completely change the offesne around to suit him (because let’s be honest, that’s what you have to do for him to be successful)? Will he be a gadget guy? Will he push Sanchez? Who cares?

Right now, I just see the Jaguars as the big losers here. They had a chance to energize a wilted fan base and sell some tickets. Hell, and sell some jerseys and merch! This guy is a hometown hero and you let him slip through your fingers. If Shad Khan isn’t pissed, he should be. This is ridiculous.

The Jets got a good deal one what can only be considered an upside flyer. Even if he’s just used as a gadget guy on goal-line and short-yardage situations, that’s fine. You didn’t give up much for him.

And who knows why the Jets decided to make this move. Even if it’s just to get some local attention and stay relevant with the Giants (who just won their fourth Super Bowl), it’s probably worth it.

Brandon Lloyd has said all offseason that he wants to play with Josh McDaniels. He had most of his success playing in McDaniels system, which started back with the Denver Broncos.

McDaniels is now the offensive coordinator with New England Patriots, a position that he held several years ago. And Lloyd made no bones about the fact that he would take less money to play for McDaniels.

And he wasn’t kidding.

The Patriots signed Lloyd to a three-year, $12 million contract, according to Jason La Canfora on Twitter.

“Brandon Lloyd’s deal with Pats is 3yrs/$12M #freeagency,” La Canfora tweets.

That’s less than guys like Laurent Robinson, Robert Meachem and Eddie Royal have gotten. You could argue that Lloyd is better than all three of them…combined.

Okay, not combined, but he’s still a better player than those guys, depending on what skill set a team is looking for.

Lloyd should provide a nice outside target for Tom Brady, who hasn’t had a good wide receiver since Randy Moss was actually productive.

Dontrelle Willis used to be a hell of a pitcher. And while those days are long gone, he did pitch surprisingly well for the Cincinnati Reds last season, holding lefties to a .127 batting average.

He was good enough to persuade the Philadelphia Phillies to sign him to a minor-league contract this offseason. Too bad that didn’t last long. Willis has been dealing with a dead arm issue and the Phillies didn’t appreciate it. They released him today, saving $150,000.

Willis was horrific in his three outings with the Phils. His 16.87 ERA apparently didn’t impress the brass and so now he’s free to pursue a life of religious fulfillment.

We’d think that he still has enough left in the tank for someone to roll the dice on him.

New York Giants punter Steve Weatherford came into the 2011 season as what can only be described as a journeyman. He’d been with the Saints, Chiefs, Saints again, Jags, Jets and then the Giants.

So, for him to come in and punt the way he did was nothing short of spectacular. His 45.7 average through 16 games was incredible and he certainly contributed to the Giants winning the Super Bowl.

And the Giants are wisely rewarding him. They stuck him with the franchise tag a couple weeks ago, but now have signed him to a five-year, $12.75 million contract that, according to Profootballtalk.com, has $3.25 million in guarantees.

Good on Gran, and good for the NFL for finally recognizing the importance that punters play in the game. We always hear about how important field position is in this game, yet punters are treated like red-headed step children. Hell, kickers in general. There is only one true kicking specialist in the Hall of Fame and that’s Jan Stenerud. No Ray Guy? No Sean Landeta? You have to be flippin’ kidding me.

Ok, I’m done ranting. Congrats to Steve Weatherford, if he keeps punting like this, the Giants got a good deal on him.

The Buffalo Bills have toiled in relative obscurity since…well, since recent memory. They’ve had some talented players, but never enough of them and they just haven’t had what it takes to compete consistently with the New York Jets and New England Patriots in the division.

But, maybe that’s starting to change. Not known as a team that routinely makes a big splash in free agency, the Bill just made one of the biggest splashes in free agency history.

They brought in Mario Williams from the Texans on the first day of free agency, and had him at hello or something. They didn’t let him leave and have signed him to a six-year, $100 million contract with $50 million in guarantees.

Where are Charley Casserley’s critics now? Remember he was lambasted back in 2006 when he took Williams over sure-fire Hall of Famer Reggie Bush. Maybe this signing should be a little reminder to all the a-holes on draft weekend that feel the need to speak with certainty about what player will do what at the NFL level.

Williams is coming off of a torn pectoral muscle, but should be perfectly fine to start the season. We still aren’t sure exactly how the Texans let this guy walk away.

The Philadelphia Eagles have had their share of ups and downs with WR DeSean Jackson. He can be a Jekyll-and-Hyde type of player, with amazing ups and frustrating downs.

So, that made it difficult when it came to negotiating a long-term deal. What’s he worth? On one hand, he’s absolutely electric and can cause major problems from anywhere on the field. On the other hand, he gets alligator arms and is clearly trying to just not get hurt.

The Eagles recently franchised him, hoping to work out a long-term deal, or even trade him if necessary. Well, the former has happened.

According to G. Cobb on Twitter, the Eagles have signed the speedy little wideout to a five-year, $51 million contract.

“It’s a five-year $51 million dollar deal,” G. tweets.

Who knows how much of that he’ll really get, as we haven’t heard what the guaranteed numbers are. I’m sure the Eagles have it in there that they can get rid of him if he becomes attitudinal or starts getting more concussions.

Regardless, this is a good thing for the Eagles. Our guess is that he’ll stop dogging it knowing he’s going to be paid regardless. He’s the anti-Albert Haynesworth if you will.

Now, one would assume that the Eagles will turn their attention to the contract of LeSean McCoy, who has just one year left on his deal.

It’s easy for fans to focus on their teams getting big-name, big-ticket free agents soon after the signing period begins. After all, it’s fun and you want your squad to bring that dominant guy (at whatever position) who is going to make a huge impact.

But, many times it’s the smaller names that are brought in and cause light ripples as opposed to a huge splash that can make all the difference on your season.

In this case, the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears have each made moves that we just love.

The Bears have signed QB Jason Campbell, who started a bunch of games for the Oakland Raiders last year and played very well. His broken collarbone ended his season and the team ended up trading two first-round picks to the Cincinnati Bengals for Carson Palmer in order to salvage their season. He didn’t, but the heavy investment in him means they had to stay with him. So bye bye, Jason Campbell.

Now, he’ll be the backup in Chicago and you have to love that. Sure, Jay Cutler hadn’t gotten hurt very much prior to going down last season, but it could happen at any time (see: last season). And now, you won’t have to watch Caleb Hanie flail about while you watch your season go into the toilet. Campbell is starting caliber and while we don’t like this move for him (he should be starting somewhere), we love it for the Bears.

And the Cowboys have done likewise by inking Kyle Orton to a three-year deal. He’s a somewhat starting-caliber QB who can step in and manage games for you if Tony Romo should get hurt. Good on Gran for that one.

Backup QB’s are huge in the NFL and can be the difference between having your season lost because of an injury to your starter, and actually making the playoffs. Would the 1972 Dolphins have been undefeated without Earl Morrall?

We’ve been covering a lot of NFL activity today (and rightfully so), but the NBA has some stuff going on too. Specifically, a somewhat blockbuster between the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks.

Sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that the trade involves Monta Ellis, Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson.

“Milwaukee and G-State are near deal to send Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson for Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown, sources tell Y!,” he tweets.

The only person who could have made it bigger was Dwight Howard, but sources say that’s not possible because he doesn’t play for either of these teams.

Jackson returns to Golden State where he would have been reunited with Monta Ellis, if Ellis wasn’t included in the deal himself.

Keep a close eye on both of these teams now, as neither have a chance to win anything this year. However, it should shoot attendance into the thousands for both teams.

The Washington Redskins are the latest team to shuffle their wide receiver core. They have signed former Indianapolis Colts receiver Pierre Garcon, although we don’t have contract details right now.

Garcon will instantly become the top target for RGIII (assuming that the Redskins don’t trade the pick). However, Redskins fans better hope that they didn’t overpay for Garcon and give him No. 1 WR money.

Why? Because he’s not. Plain and simple.

He’s a nice receiver who should be a nice addition to their offense, but he’s not going to draw double teams. I’d be concerned about that because they did the same thing with Antwaan Randle-El, even though Garcon is better than him.

Can’t wait to see the details on this one.

UPDATE: Yep, they overpaid. Five years, $42.5 million with $21.5 million guaranteed.

Almost as elusive for the Chicago Bears as the franchise QB (depending on what you think of Jay Cutler), has been that elite wide receiver. They kind of thought they were getting that with Roy Williams but we know how that turned out.

So, they are going to take a shot with another attitudinal guy who drops too many passes yet has extreme talent.

The Bears have sent two third-round picks to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for WR Brandon Marshall, according to Jay Glazer.

Photo Caption: No one had the heart to tell Brandon that the Super Bowl was next week and that this ring just wouldn’t fit on his finger.

“Major scoopage! The Chicago Bears have agreed to terms of a trade w Miami for pro bowl WR Brandon Marshall in exchange for 2 third-rounders,” he tweets.

This is potentially a really good deal for the Bears. It reunites Jay Cutler with his old partner in crime from his Denver days. Now, the question becomes whether or not Marshall can keep his head on straight and focus on not dropping the ball.

His raw, physical talent is that of an elite receiver. He just needs that to translate to on-field production.

Now, the other angle here at play is whether or not this links Peyton Manning to the Dolphins. It was rumored that he wasn’t interested in playing with Marshall, so could the Dolphins have shipped him out so Peyton could have the luxury of throwing to Devone Bess and Brian Hartline? It’s like Wayne/Harrison 2.0.

Perhaps the biggest deficiency of the Dallas Cowboys the last couple of years has been their secondary. And the poster child for that porous secondary could have been oft-injured cornerback Terence Newman. He got routinely toasted and was a liability.

Well, the Cowboys have dealt with him appropriately. According to Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com, the Cowboys have released the former first-round pick in 2003.

“Filed to @ESPNDallas From me and @calvinwatkins – source says Cowboys release Terence Newman,” he tweeted.

Let’s be honest, this isn’t a huge surprise when you see that he was due to make $6 million this season. No one would pay him that much. He’s now free to live a life of religious fulfillment.

Look for the Cowboys to go after Cortland Finnegan or Brandon Carr. They’ll probably throw some draft picks at the position as well.

At one point, it looked like there would be a nice group of free-agent wide receivers for teams to choose from. Guys like DeSean Jackson and Dwayne Bowe got the franchise tag, so unless you’re willing to up the anti, you can scratch them off the list.

Now, you can take one more name off of that list. According to Jay Glazer, the New Orleans Saints have agreed to deal with WR Marques Colston.

“Scoopage: Take 1 name off the list of free agents set to hit the market today. Saints have just agreed to new 5 yr deal w WR Marques Colston,” Glazer tweets.

We knew the two sides were working hard to get something done and Colston made it clear he wanted to stay in New Orleans. While we don’t have the details of the contract, the Saints only have $7 million in cap space this season, so his base salary is probably going to be low.

UPDATE: It’s reportedly a five-year, $40 million with $19 million in guarantees.

File this under “We Don’t Get It.” The New York Jets have signed quarterback Mark Sanchez to a three-year contract extension. Read that again. Seriously.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s remember that he got paid big bucks as a top pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. He has two years left on that deal, so this “extension” could end up being more of a restructuring.

Sanchez helped the Jets to the AFC Championship game in his first two seasons. That’s pretty great. His detractors will say that he had nothing to do with it, but if he was that awful, they wouldn’t have sniffed the conference championship game.

The Jets held a conference call to discuss the extension, but would not discuss the details.

The Jets were in the news as a team that was kicking Peyton Manning’s tires, but they said a Sanchez extension has been discussed for weeks. Yeah f’ing right! Maybe in an “if we don’t get Peyton should we restructure Sanchez’ contract and make it look like we’re committed to him” manner.

Again, we don’t know the particulars of this deal, no one does right now. But we just can’t imagine them rewarding him after the season he had. Sure, he had a career-high 26 TD’s, but he also threw 18 picks and the Jets didn’t make the playoffs.

This is huge. According to Jay Glazer of Foxsports.com, the Washington Redskins have answered one of the biggest questions heading into this year’s NFL Draft: Who will trade up with the St. Louis Rams at No. 2 to grab Robert Griffin III?

That’s right, according to Glazer, the Redskins and Rams have a deal in place that will give the Redskins the second-overall pick in exchange for the Redskins first-round pick (No. 6 overall), two additional first-round picks and additional picks. One of those additional picks is believed to be a future second rounder.

“Major scoopage: Redskins have agreed to a trade w Rams for #2 pick of draft. Rams and Skins swap first rounders this yr w Rams also getting 2 future #1s and additional picks. Story coming on fox sports dot com,” Glazer tweets.

The trade can’t be finalized until 4 PM on Thursday, the first day of the new league year.

This is a huge move for the Redskins and probably one they had to make. Sure, they are missing tons of pieces on offense, but how many times can you continue to trot out crappy QB’s like John Beck and Rex Grossman and expect to win a Super Bowl? This is a bold move and possibly an all-in move by Mike Shanahan.

Now, this isn’t to say that the Redskins are definitely taking RGIII. A lot can happen between now and the draft, and it’s quite possible that the Colts would like to grab Griffin No. 1 overall. We don’t see it happening, but you never know. The Dallas Cowboys were expected to take Rocket Ismail No. 1 overall back in 1991, but he skipped town the night before to sign with the Toronto Argonauts (forget the details, but I believe it included 10% ownership of the team…oops!). So they took Russell Maryland instead, and no one saw it coming.

So who knows? But regardless, the Redskins will be getting their quarterback of the future. At the very least, their quarterback of the very-near-future-until-he-bombs-and-we-have-to-go-back-to-the-drawing-board.

A story that really went under the radar this week, the Indianapolis Colts released QB Peyton Manning this week. He’s actually a free agent now and is free to sign with anyone else. It’s true. Look it up.

But, the Colts aren’t done with their overall. Not only does it look like Reggie Wayne will be allowed to walk in free agency, but they just told S Melvin Bullitt, RB Joseph Addai, TE Dallas Clark, QB Curtis Painter and LB Gary Brackett.

Yikes. Have fun, Andrew Luck!

Cutting all these guys reportedly will save the Colts some $14 million in salary this season, but only $5 million in salary cap. That sucks.

Clark will be 33 this season and was miserable last year. Yes, he was hurt most of the time, but he dropped too much and is pretty much holy hell when it comes to blocking. Painter is garbage. Brackett was a nice LB for a while, but wasn’t worth all the money left on his deal. Plus, the Colts are going to a 3-4 defense, which would explain Brackett and the team’s attempt to shop Dwight Freeney.

As for Addai, I can’t decide what the Colts were more frustrated with: His constant injuries or his absolutely lack of burst.

The Colts were in the Super Bowl in 2009…how far back does that seem now? I hope everyone got a chance to enjoy it and really soak it up because they ain’t going back for a long time.

The New York Giants and Brandon Jacobs had talked about re-structuring his contract. He was due a ridiculous $4.9 million this season and he’s not close to worth it. He’s a big back but tends to run with his pads too high and he’s not the bruiser he should.

Apparently, the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement because they cut him.

Jacobs turns 30-years old before the season starts, which is bad news for a running back. And his 3.76 average-per-carry is not going to tempt other teams to sign him to big money.

They could always bring him back, but he’ll probably test the free-agent waters first. I don’t think he’s going to love the temper of those waters. Bring a wet suit, it’s going to be cold.

Wait a minute. I think we got a little ahead of ourselves with that headline. It doesn’t look like Peyton Manning is dead, he was just released by the Indianapolis Colts.

Phew!

So yeah, after passing for more than 54,000 yards, earning four MVP’s, 11 Pro Bowls and one Super Bowl title, the Colts have cut Peyton Manning.

So now what? Now, the speculation starts. It’s rumored that just about every single NFL team wants to sign this guy (Tom Brady is getting old). The Cardinals just gave up a second-round pick and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie for Kevin Kolb. Doesn’t matter; they are linked to wanting Peyton. The Seattle Seahawks are rumored to be willing to sign him for any amount of money. The Miami Dolphins think they have the leg up on everyone.

In short, there are a lot of teams that need QB’s (like the Colts!) and anyone would love to have Peyton provided he can still play. And all indications and reports are that his neck and arm strength are improving.

Let the rumors and speculation begin…Peyton is officially a free agent.

When we last saw do-it-all big man Rasheed Wallace, it was Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals. He retired after that game and agreed on a buyout with the Boston Celtics on the final two years of his contract.

Now, CSNNE.com has learned from league sources that Wallace is set to return to the league. Specifically, they are told that he is going to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers. Andrew Bynum has a creaky knee and they say he’s fine, but is he really? Could this be a little extra insurance in case that knee gives him some issues?

The Lakers only have 14 men on their roster right now, so adding Sheed wouldn’t require them to apply the hatchet to another player. That’s great news for Derek Fisher (I’m kidding, Derek…sort of).

Actually, this move will strengthen the notion that the Lakers are trying to move Pau Gasol. But, one front-office executive tells CSNNE.com not to buy into all of that. He says this is purely a move for depth.

“His days as a starter in this league are gone,” said the source. “I think he knows that, and so do the Lakers. But think about it. Of the big men that are available, is there one that’s really better? And if he’s gotten himself in shape, adding him becomes a huge get for them.”

We agree. And we aren’t sure why the Philadelphia 76ers didn’t get involved with Sheed either. They are playing f’ing Lavoy Allen and Tony Battie these days.