We’re very excited to announce that this week on “G. Cobb in the House” Alan Page will be joining us! OTR’s Micah will be co-hosting with former Eagle Ray Ellis so be sure to listen in at 7pm EST and call 1-888-346-9144 with your questions.

Page spent 15 years in the NFL building an impressive career as a “Purple People Eater.” Alan’s Wiki page speaks for itself:

During Page’s 15-year NFL-tenure, the Vikings won an impressive four conference titles. Page played in 218 consecutive games without an absence, during which he recovered 22 fumbles, made 178½ sacks (Vikings-138½, Bears-40), and scored three touchdowns (two on fumble recoveries and one on an interception return). He also had three safeties, the second most in NFL history. He set a career-high in sacks with 18 in 1976 and is unofficially credited with 5 other seasons with 10 sacks or more.

While in the NFL, Page earned All-Pro honors six times and made second-team all-league three additional times. He was voted to nine consecutive Pro Bowls. Eleven times he was voted All-Conference, in 1968 and 1969 as All-Western Conference and 1970 through 77 and 1980 as an All-National Football Conference.

In 1971, Page was named both the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year (the first player to be named such) and the AP’s NFL Most Valuable Player. Page was the first defensive player to be named MVP since the award’s inception. In addition, he was voted the NEA NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1973.

As if that wasn’t enough, Page attended law school at the University of Minnesota during the height of his football career. He became Minnesota’s first African-American Supreme Court Justice in 1992. He was reelected in 1998 and 2004.

Page is also an ardent defender of equal education for children. He is the founder of the Page Education Foundation, which assists minority youth with post-secondary education.

Portland Trailblazers center Greg Oden had surgery in December on his fractured left knee cap. The hope was that he could mend quickly and maybe return for a playoff run, just in time to hurt himself again. But as of now, the chances of that happening are slim and none.

“The chance of that happening is remote at best,” veteran Portland trainer Jay Jensen says.

Oden doesn’t sound too optimistic either.

“I have no idea when I can get back to playing,” Oden says. “Until I get better, I won’t know for sure.

“I want to get my knee feeling good to the point where if (a return this season) doesn’t happen, I can at least go into the summer knowing I’m ready for next season. I’m just being realistic.”

So far, Kevin Durant was clearly the better choice in that draft. Oden might be able to play, but no one will ever find out if he can’t stay on the court.

So it looks like New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter James Varney didn’t do his homework when he reported that Pacman Jones didn’t show up for his workout for NFL teams. NFL Network’s Jason LaCanfora says that he is there and working out.

“He’s running the 40 right now and just did an interview with the camera crew we have there,” LaCanfora said.

Only five teams showed up for the workout, but that’s five more than we would have expected.

If the 73 other numerous indiscretions didn’t lead you to believe that this guy is a Grade A chowderhead, then this certainly will. Out of football, Adam “Pacman” Jones was planning for months to have a private workout for a few NFL teams. So what did he do when the big day arrived? Just didn’t show up.

Jones had planned to hold his own workout after the Tulane Pro Day for the school’s NFL hopefuls. No one knows where he was or why he didn’t show. We’re pretty sure that any NFL teams who sent representatives weren’t overly thrilled.

We just don’t know how you can trust this guy at this point. Well, we don’t know how any could have ever trusted him to begin with, but this definitely seals the deal. Moron.

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said Thursday that while Matt Hasselbeck is the QB right now, Whitehurst will have a chance to compete. This isn’t shocking, they didn’t give him $10 million over the course of two years to be a backup.

“Well, it’s clear to us that Matt has paid his dues,” Carroll said. “And he’s done a great job in the program. We’re excited about him coming and leading this program, but in all phases of our program, in every aspect of it, we’re trying to make it as competitive as possible.

“So Charlie is coming in here to battle. He’s going to show where he fits into the whole thing. He doesn’t have a lot of playing time in the regular season, but he has logged a lot of time in the preseason. . . . We would not have done this if we didn’t think we were bringing in a highly competitive player.

“We’re counting on Matt to lead this thing,” he continued. That sounds to us like Hasselbeck has the job for now, but Whitehurst will take over when he stinks up the joint and that will probably be soon.

Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney said that he will allow the sexual assault investigation regarding QB Ben Roethlisberger to run its course before deciding what action needs to be taken.

“I mean, look that’s one of the things, we do have a little bit of luxury of time,” Rooney said this afternoon during an interview at Steelers offices. “If we were at a different point in the year we may have to be thinking and doing something different. But at the moment, I think we’re in a situation we’re going to let this investigation play out and then go from there.”

We would have to think that the Steelers have some sort of out clause in Big Ben’s contract that would allow them to void the deal if he’s somehow found guilty. And if there isn’t, you can bet your rear end that the next contract Ben signs (with the Steelers or elsewhere), there will be a “no raping” clause in the language of the deal.

It is a blood bath in Philly if you are getting older and/or have injury issues. This time, it was Darren Howard’s head on the chopping block as the Philadelphia Eagles sent him packing along with Kevin Curtis and Shawn Andrews.

Howard is 33-years old, but can still be productive. He’s a natural defensive end, but the Eagles used him mostly as a tackle in obvious pass rushing situations. He recorded 6.5 sacks in 2009, but the Eagles are clearly moving in a different direction.

The Eagles really liked Howard when he was with the New Orleans Saints, but probably acquired him a few years too late. He was brought in to improve the pass rush, but was never the force they envisioned.

The Philadelphia Eagles continue to overhaul their roster. Shawn Andrews was dropped recently and this time it was WR Kevin Curtis’ turn. Curtis was very productive and explosive when he first joined the team in 2007, but he’s been plagued by injuries since then.

During that 2007 season, Curtis had 1,110 yards and was a nice weapon for Donovan McNabb. Since then, however, he’s caught just 39 passes in 12 games over the last two years.

We think Curtis can still be productive, but it seems like his body is wearing down on him. He’s been battling knee and sports hernia issues and has struggled to get on the field.

This is by far the biggest upset of the NCAA Tournament today. #13 seed Murray State dropped a bad one on #4 Vanderbilt, when a last-second buzzer beater fell in to give the Racers as 66-65 win.

So how far did you have Vandy going? Hopefully not too far. And if you picked Murray State to win this game, then you are as smart as our president. That’s right, Barack Obama picked the upset and now he’s looking quite intelligent. Now if he could just make picks this good when choosing his staff.

Photo Caption: Murray State is in New Zealand.

So anyway, yeah. Danero Thomas was the hero of the day as his last-second 15-footer dropped in to give Murray St. their first NCAA Tournament win in 24 years.

And how about Vanderbilt? The last time they were seeded fourth was in 2008 when they faced Siena. How did they do? They f’ing lost then too.

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News tweets that Oakland Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell weighed in at a svelte 271 lbs. when he reported to voluntary workouts this week.

“Raiders note: JaMarcus Russell weighed 271 pounds when he reported for voluntary work-outs this week, according to source,” he tweets (just like we said he did).

Since he’s listed at 260 lbs., shouldn’t he still be considered overweight? This doesn’t sound like the body transformation that we previously heard about. The guy has always been chubby, we understand that, but we were told that he was going to surprise people.

Maybe he’s put on 11 lbs. of muscle. Anyone buying that? We sure aren’t. And we’ll refuse to believe that he’s changed anything other than his underwear until we see a difference in his play on the field.

We feel bad for the kids of Robert Morris. They stuck it to Villanova all afternoon, but in the end the Wildcats were just too much, downing them 73-70 in OT.

We don’t know if it matters, but that little Karon Abraham is a mini powder keg of dynamite. He gave Nova all they could handle and then some. We also like Dallas Green because of his name. We just checked and it’s not the same guy that managed the Philadelphia Phillies to a World Series title in 1980.

Photo Caption: Scottie Reynolds stunk up the joint.

So what’s this mean for Villanova? They almost lost to a #15 seed for god’s sake. Scottie Reynolds, who was benched to start the game along with Corey Fisher for disciplinary reasons, was horrific. If it wasn’t for the free throw line, he’d have been worthless. He was just 2-15 from the field, but made up for it a little bit by going 15-16 from the stripe.

Nova doesn’t look good, folks. If you have them going to the Final Four or farther, you might be in deep trouble.

A source tells Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News that the San Francisco 49ers are reshuffling things in their front office to prepare for the exit of GM Scot McGloughan.

“Source: 49ers are making short-term adjustments in front-office structure to fill McCloughan’s duties. Nothing final on a departure, but…” he tweets, leaving us all hanging.

He says that the surprise breakup is “not about football, not about power struggle, and not about a move to any other team.”

Hmmmm…this is odd. Could it be that the 49ers are tired of stinking? Can’t be because the team finally is starting to look like a professional franchise again. It could be that McCloughan is just tired of his role and wants to do something else. Stay tuned on this one.

UPDATE: Thanks for staying tuned. He’s out. Supposedly it was for personal reasons and the decision is mutual.

Big news day in Seattle, huh? The Seattle Seahawks traded a second-round pick in 2010 and a third-round pick in 2011 to the San Diego Chargers in exchange for QB Charlie Whitehurst. The Seahawks then turned around and gave him $10 million over two years, according to Adam Schefter.

“Seahawks gave QB Charlie Whitehurst a two-year, $10 million contract — unprecedented for a veteran who never has started an NFL game,” he tweets.

That’s a lot of money for a guy who has never thrown a pass in the NFL. Pete Carroll and Co. must really love this kid. Some people are making a big deal about this because this is a guy that couldn’t beat out Billy Volek for the backup job in San Diego. Ummm….Billy Volek is an excellent backup and not some slouch.

We’ll see what happens with Matt Hasselbeck. He’s 35 and breaking down. We would have to think that he doesn’t have a ton of time to stumble out of the gates.

Maybe the Philadelphia Phillies knew what they were doing when they shipped Cliff Lee out of town. Ok, not really. But the Mariners’ Lee did get suspended for the first five games of the season after he threw at Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Chris Snyder on Monday.

Of course, Lee can appeal, but we don’t see him winning. He’ll begin serving his five-game suspension on Opening Day April 5th. This isn’t major, but the Mariners will have to do some shuffling of the rotation early on.

This would be a much bigger deal if he was an everyday player and would miss five games. Lee will only miss his first start.

Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington failed a drug test last year, according to Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman. Why on Earth was a manager using steroids? The easy answer is that he wasn’t; he was rolling up dollar bills and snacking a little cocaine.

“I did make a mistake and I regret that I did it,” Washington told SI.com by phone from Surprise, AZ, on Tuesday (Surprise, AZ? As in “surprise! We found out you did coke!”?). “I am really embarrassed and I am really sorry.”

We don’t think this was a single mistake. Based on interviews we conducted with people we went to college with, cocaine only lasts 2-3 days in the system. So, the odds of him getting drug tested only a couple days after he made a mistake at a party and blew a line off a hooker’s back side aren’t good.

“Any attempt to try to explain it is going to sound like excuses,” he said. “There is no right way to explain something wrong, and I did wrong. Was it tension? Maybe. Anxiety?”

In any case, we think that it’s best for Washington to retain his managerial role. We just don’t know if he’d be completely focused as a first- or third-base coach. Those big white lines are awfully tempting.

The Chicago Bears have released former All-Pro CB Nathan Vasher, according to Adam Schefter. Vasher, 29, was an All-Pro in 2005, but has been pretty much ineffective the last few years. Many league observers didn’t think Vasher would even make the team out of training camp anyway.

Vasher started 13 games in 2006, but has started just 11 games since. He was a stud when Ron Rivera was the defensive coordinator there and we aren’t sure if he’s a main reason why. But, Rivera is now down in San Diego and they could use a cornerback or two.

We expect the Chargers to at least kick his tires to see what he might have left.

This is somewhat surprising considering the fact that he was signed to a huge long-term deal that didn’t cost a ton. But, it’s happened. The Philadelphia Eagles have released former All-Pro guard Shawn Andrews.

“We appreciate the efforts and contributions of Shawn while he was in Philadelphia,” said head coach Andy Reid. “We have, however, decided to move in another direction.”

Andrews is still in California recovering from back surgery. He went down for the year after one quarter of play in 2008 and never suited up for the Eagles again. He was expected to be moved to right tackle last year when the Eagles signed his brother, but his back failed him again and he was lost for the year.

PFT asked him on Twitter if he planned to continue playing football and he replied, “U bet chur sweet Bippy.” That’s a yes.

According to Foxsports.com’s John Czarnecki, agent Drew Rosenhaus is trying to get at least $5 million a year for his client Terrell Owens. It’s enough to make us giggle, and unless the Chicago Bears do something stupid (like sign him to that kind of money), we think T.O. is going to be a free agent for a while.

Owens is 36-years old and only got that $6.5 million contract last year with the Buffalo Bills because owner Ralph Wilson was trying to make a splash. Well, Wilson ran up to the pool, yelled “Cannonball!”, jumped in and then no water moved. Owens had his worst season in 10 years and the Bills stunk.

So we just don’t see this happening. He can want $5 million per season all he likes (we want a pony), but that doesn’t mean he’ll get it. And let’s not forget, it’s not just that his skills are declining, T.O. also has the ability to shred a locker room and be a real pain in the petute.

If you’re looking for a Cinderella team to root for or even a player during the 2010 NCAA Tournament, don’t look any further than BYU and Jimmer Fredette.

The Cougars finished 29-5 this season, one of two teams (New Mexico) in the Mountain West with that many wins.  The Mountain West sent four teams to the tournament this year, UNLV and San Diego State being the other two, and all of them could make some noise.  However, out of these four teams, I’m taking the team (BYU) with the best player, Jimmer Fredette.

Fredette has that silky smoothness that gives you a feeling the NCAA tournament will be his stage.  Fredette had six games this year where he scored over 30 points, including a BYU record 49 against Arizona and a Mountain West Conference tournament record 45 against TCU.

Fredette is great at attacking the lane and getting to the free-throw line where he shoots almost 90 percent.  But if the defender gives him enough room at the top, he can drain the three, shooting close to 45% for the season.  And his mid-range jumper is as good as it gets.

Let’s watch a few clips from the Arizona game:

Fear Fredette!

Fear Fredette!

Fear Fredette!

Washington Huskies defensive end Andru Pulu turned himself into Seattle police on Tuesday and was booked into King County Jail on investigation of assault.

A police report was filed last week involving Pulu by a 22-year old who was injured at a house party.  The victim was knocked unconscious and suffered a broken nose and possible cheek fracture.  He was then taken to the emergency room at the University of Washington Medical Center where he gave his report to a police officer.

According to the report, the victim was at a party in the 5000 block of 15th Avenue Northeast and saw a man (Pulu) arguing with another person just after 12:30 a.m. on March 7. He tried to break up the fight, telling the man (Pulu), “It’s not that big of a deal,” at which point the man (still Pulu) grabbed the 22-year-old’s neck, telling him, “It is that big of a deal.”

PHOTO CAPTION: Two witnesses saw the man (Pulu) strike the 22-year-old in the face, knocking him to the ground, and stomping on his right temple, the police report says.

Pulu, who was also suspended indefinitely from the UW football team for a violation of team rules on March 9, will be a sophomore in 2010 and was expected to contend for significant playing time, if not a starting role, but ‘it’s not that big of a deal.’

The Oregon Ducks have decided to part ways with Ernie Kent after 13 years as men’s basketball coach.

Kent compiled a record of 235-173 becoming the Ducks winningest coach, but Oregon now sucks.

PHOTO CAPTION: Oregon Ducks alumni are pulling for Isiah Thomas to be the next coach and president of basketball operations

During his 13-year career as head coach, Kent made the NCAA tournament five times making it to the Elite 8 twice (2001-02, 2006-07).  His best season was the 2001-02 season when he finished 26-9 and 14-4 in the PAC 10, winning the conference.  His winningest season was in 2006-07 when his team went 29-8.

Philadelphia Phillies fans probably won’t see Dominic Brown play at Citizens Bank Ball Park this year unless there’s a bunch of injuries to their outfield, but this kid is ready to tear it up.

Against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday, the former 20th round (yep, 20th round) draft pick went 3-for-3 with two bombs and four rbi’s.  One of the homeruns pretty much cleared everything that could have been cleared and landed in the service road behind the stadium.  It was an estimated length of 500 feet.

PHOTO CAPTION: Yes, I did say 20th round

After the game, Brown was told by manager Charlie Manual that he will be headed to the minor leagues tomorrow, a place where he thought he was headed a couple weeks ago.

During spring training, Brown has hit .416 with 18 total bases in 11 games, also knocking in seven.  These are numbers you would expect a team to keep on their roster, but the move to send Brown back down to the minors, where he will stay all season, is clearly all business.  Any major league reps this year could get him to arbitration a year early.

Phillies fans can expect him to be ready to join the team in 2011 when he could be replacing Jason Werth or Raul Ibanez.  Personally, I’m ready to see him play now.

Jay Glazer of Foxsports.com is reporting that the Philadelphia Eagles have sent hybrid DE/OLB Chris Clemons and an undisclosed draft pick to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for DE Darryl Tapp.

Tapp, 25, signed his restricted free agent tender a day or so ago and then tweeted, “”it is truly a blessing to have a job doing what I love to do. Always appreciating my opportunities.”

Hopefully he’ll appreciate his opportunity in Philadelphia because that’s where he’s headed. We think this is a decent move for the Eagles, but it’s most likely for depth. Tapp is young, but we don’t know that he’ll be a huge difference maker. His seven sacks in 2007 were a career high. He started five games last year and recorded 2.5 sacks just to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with.

He’s a former second-round pick, so who knows, maybe there is some potential there. But if the Eagles only had to give up Clemons and a pick, then maybe not.

Maybe Eagles fans can hope that his sacks were down because the Seahawks were usually losing and getting run on.

As for Clemons, he’s just a guy. He’s very athletic, but he’s a tweener that might be best suited for a 3-4 defense, which the Eagles don’t run.

It’s just the Grapefruit League right now, but it’s better to hear that Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels is looking very strong as opposed to him melting down on the mound after just two innings every time he suits up. But yes, Hamels was strong again on Tuesday as he allowed just two hits and one unearned run in five innings of work as the Phils beat the Detroit Tigers 6-1.

It’s not uncommon to see pitchers struggle in spring training as they work on new pitches or throw different pitches in situations where they wouldn’t normally. And Hamels is definitely trying new pitches as he has been mainly focusing on his curveball (he’s had it, but it never worked and he rarely threw it) and his new cutter. So far, it looks like the results have been favorable.

Hamels is 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA this spring.

“There’s all different gears in there that you have to respect now,” pitching coach Rich Dubee said.

And Hamels threw his most devastating pitch, the changeup, just eight times. This is amazing for anyone who has watched Hamels work the past few years.

“I was really focused on throwing curveballs,” Hamels said in a high-pitched voice. “I threw a couple for first-pitch strikes. I threw a couple back-to-back to hitters. It’s just knowing I can get myself in a situation when I can throw it. That’s what really allows me to execute. Throwing the cutter, I thought I threw some pretty good ones to hitters.”

Hamels is the lynch pin of the Phils starting rotation. If he returns to 2008 form with even more pitches that he can trust, then he and Halladay might be the filthiest 1-2 punch in the NL, if not all of MLB.

Thanks to our buddy Kordell for tipping us off on this one. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Philadelphia Eagles will sign restricted free agent RB Mike Bell to a one-year deal worth $1.7 million.

“Filed to ESPN: Saints restricted free-agent RB will sign a one-year, $1.7 million offer sheet with Eagles, according to agent Josh Luchs,” he tweets.

The New Orleans Saints now have the right to match that offer. However, they tendered him so low that they will not receive any compensation should they choose to let him sign with the Eagles.

Bell gets banged up, but has proven to be a quality back who would be a nice backup to LeSean McCoy.

Former Oakland Raiders QB Jeff Garcia recently did an interview with Xtra Sports 1360 AM in San Diego and one of the topics was JaMarcus Russell. Surprised? Of course you aren’t!

“As much as I was willing and open to helping the young guy, he’s gotta want to be open and willing to be helped himself, and he’s gotta want to get after it himself, as far as his own goals, his own motivation,” Garcia said. “You can’t necessarily push those buttons with certain people. And so you know I hope he figures it out, I hope he turns it around, because if he doesn’t soon he may find himself out of this league, just by the way this league operates. They can’t wait around forever for the guy to turn the investment into a positive situation.”

This isn’t surprising, but should just add another log onto the” JaMarcus Russell will Stink Forever” fire. Although, according to Willie Brown, Russell is headed in the right direction this year.

We noted yesterday that everyone’s favorite NFL QB JaMarcus Russell of the Oakland Raiders wasn’t around the team facility for the start of voluntary offseason workouts. Well, according to Raiders director of squad development Willie Brown, Russell was closing on a house in Alabama.

“He’s trying to close a home in Alabama. It’s something that he couldn’t get out of,” Brown said. “You don’t want to lose your home. So he’ll be back in town today and ready to go (Tuesday).”

He also added that Russell has dropped a lot of weight and is in great shape. That’s great news for Raider fans.

“You’ll be surprised when you see him,” Brown said. “It’s quite a bit of weight that he’s lost . . . I don’t want to pin it down and say how much he lost but it will be a significant difference when you see him compared to last year.

“The most important thing is he’s getting in shape. Not only losing weight, but getting in shape. He’s watching his diet, he has special meals brought in that he’s eating, and we have one of the Raiders, a former player there with him to monitor him and make sure things are going fine. The weight thing, he’ll get it down. He’ll get it down.”

Hey, maybe we were quick to jump all over the guy, but we had two very good reasons: 1. His past history has led us to believe that he shirks responsibility and, 2. It’s fun.

According to a report from NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora, Pittsburgh Steelers QB Big Ben Roethlisberger was down in Georgia over the weekend (the devil went down to Georgia?) and spoke with local investigators about the sexual assault allegations. Well, a source tells PFT that that isn’t the case.

PFT’s source says that Big Ben was indeed down in Georgia this weekend, but he didn’t speak to the authorities. According to this source, Roethlisberger actually met with his legal defense team, which is probably a good idea too.

Supposedly, some of the members from his camp spoke to law enforcement over the weekend, just not Big Ben specifically. That doesn’t mean that he won’t be interviewed at some point, PFT if just saying that it wasn’t this weekend.

So there. Nothing new really.

According to John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Hornets guard Chris Paul has been medically cleared (knee) to begin running this week and could possibly get back on the floor later in the week. Reid says that it could be against Denver or Utah this week, or possibly next Monday against the Dallas Mavericks.

Reid notes that CP3 has been running without a visible limp and was working on his three-pointers at the Staples Center yesterday.

According to Reid, Paul said that he is extremely excited about getting the chance to get out and run again. The Hornets are about 7.5 games out of the 8th spot in the Western Conference and it might be too late for him to have an impact. Regardless, there is no way they’d make up that ground without him.

On a conference call with reporters, new New York Jets RB LaDainian Tomlinson said that he’s fine playing a supporting role to second-year back Shonn Greene.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I have no ego. At this point, it’s all about having the opportunity to win a championship … The Jets made the AFC Championship Game without me. How can I come here and demand to be the starter? They were very good without me. I just want to be able to have a role on this team and contribute.”

But we hardly believe that he is getting some $5 million to ride the pine and chip in here and there. What most likely will happen is that LaDainian will be the third-down and short-yardage guy. In other words, Greene is about to have his fantasy testicles removed.

Even Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum said as much.

“We expect him to play a lot,” he said. “We expect him to touch the ball a lot.”

So, if you are in a keeper fantasy football league, try not spending every weekend at home with your parents, then think twice about keeping Shonn Greene.