• Titans owner Bud Adams gives the Bills a double-finger salute - and gets fined $250,000 for it.

• After Stanford’s stunning slaughter of ‘SC, Pete Carroll & Jim Harbaugh both want to know what the deal is. (And Pete won’t forget it.)

• But the real deal is Toby Gerhart. Just ask his swim team girlfriend, who says that the Cardinal RB is “one big muscle.”

• Speaking of girlfriends, Erin Dewes has been incorrectly labeled as Tim Tebow’s squeeze. But that’s not stopping her from covering her nude self in number 15’s body paint.

• Zack Greinke is a real winner this week. Not only did the Royals pitcher grab the Cy Young award, he’s also tying the knot with former Miss Daytona Beach Emily Kuchar.

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TMZ reports this afternoon from Michael Barrett’s court proceeding in L.A. that the judge presiding over the interstate stalking case has raised Barrett’s bail from $20,000 to $100,000, along with forbidding Erin Andrews‘ accused stalker from texting. Barrett was also ordered to turn over his passport and he can only phone immediate family members.

Barrett did post bail and was allowed to walk out of court a free man - for now.

Michael David Barrett, the man who stalked and filmed nude peephole video of Erin Andrews, had his first day in court in Los Angeles today:

Thankfully, the TMZ cameraman had the “submarine” lens setting fully enabled and was well-prepared to query Barrett with insightful questions - as you’ll see after the jump.

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College coaching sources tell me this afternoon that the University of Kansas is in the process of discussing a possible buyout of the contract of football coach Mark Mangino with representatives of the coach. Also, the University of Maryland is meeting with reps of Ralph Friedgen to discuss a possible buyout of his contract. Additionally, Paul Wulff of Washington State is facing the same scenario at this time.

Discussions are ongoing, and none of the deals will likely be announced today. Though my source indicates agreements for each of the three could be consumated by the end of the weekend. Read more…

Has the shine worn off LeBron James in Cleveland? From the latest development from Cleveland city leaders and Nike, it appears that’s a possibility.

The CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER reports today the Cleveland Planning Commission refused to approve a 10-story mural of James on a downtown building because it was “overt” advertising. Of course, that didn’t stop the same commission from approving a Nike billboard of the same size featuring James two years ago.

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I live for non-sequiturs so I’m delighted to reported that former Miss California Carrie Prejean is now dating Rams backup QB Kyle Boller. RadarOnline.com reports the two met last summer and that Prejean recently dedicated her new book to Boller:

(Delightful coupling actually first reported last August)

“To my Kyle: I am so blessed to have you in my life. You have shown me what love is. Thank you for supporting me through all this drama. I knew when we met there was something so special about you.”

Prejean’s mongrel celebrity is purely a concoction of the gossips, having kicked off when she was ambushed by blogger Perez Hilton at the Miss America pageant. When her faux fame began a slow wane, suddenly sex tapes and lurid photos of her “surfaced.”

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Two weeks ago an urban gossip blog reported that the fiancee and baby momma of Gilbert Arenas, Laura Govan, was having a sexual relationship with Shaquille O’Neal. The blog even went so far to publish alleged email correspondence between the two.

The day after the blog report, O’Neal’s wife Shaunie, who is a friend of Govan’s, filed for divorce from Shaq. The Wizards and Cavaliers met last Wednesday in Washington, so there was plenty anticipation of a confrontation between O’Neal and Arenas, but Shaq contracted a “mysterious” shoulder ailment before the game and was a no-show.

Arenas hasn’t addressed the rumors about his fiancee’s infidelity with O’Neal, but he did mention Shaq prominently in a recent video he posted on Twitter. A strange, somewhat ominous message directed at O’Neal. Read more…

Another shot of Kiana Kim from her appearance on the Hoffman and Nuno show @ KGOW-AM in Houston this week:

It’s nice to see that Pete Rose is seeing through his promise to manage her nude modeling career. No truth to the rumor though that’s where Pete keeps a jar of his own urine, case he eyeballs Bud before Selig glimpses him.

Diane Pucin of the LOS ANGELES TIMES has the delightful news that 50 Cent’s entourage roughed up Marv Albert as the broadcaster waited to guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night.

 As Albert arrived, with an entourage of one, TNT public relations specialist Jeff Pomeroy, there was a sudden scuffle when a multitude of 50 Cent protectors seemed unfamiliar with Albert. There was shouting (”It’s Marv Albert,” yelled a Kimmel show guard, a pronouncement that seemed to have no effect on the 50 Cent phalanx.) There were obscenities. A fist or two flying. A “Don’t you put your hands on me” pronouncement.

And finally Albert made it to his waiting room, relatively unruffled but slightly puzzled. “Did you see that?” Albert said. “I thought they were kidding, but then I realized they weren’t.”

Ironic, when you consider Marv and Fitty have so much in common.

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Pete Carroll guested on the (Steve) Mason & (John) Ireland show on ESPN 710 in Los Angeles this week. The coach attempted to hedge his comments about Harbaugh’s decision to go for two with his Stanford team already ahead of Carroll’s USC Trojans 48-21 last Saturday in L.A.. But instead, Carroll let slip smoldering resentment.

MASON: What do you think, now a couple of days removed, of Harbaugh going for the two-point conversion?

CARROLL: Well, really, even since the time that it happened, you know, I haven’t bothered with it, and I know everybody else has and taken a lot of time to kinda discuss it and all. I think, you know, it is what you think it is, you know, it’s a statement that you can take away that maybe they were trying to accomplish something that seems out of the ordinary, you know, I don’t really care, to tell you the truth, it doesn’t matter.

And when you look at it like, uh, they’re ahead in the game and they’re in command of it, they really get to do whatever they want to do, and it doesn’t bother me to worry about it anymore, you know what I mean? Jim came out and said what he wanted to say, you know, a couple different times about it and, you know, to me it’s dropped, I don’t care.

Will I forget it? No, I’m not forgetting it. But uh, you know, to me, it’s in the past.

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John Taylor at NBCSports.com’s College Football Talk sources a very different side to the Mark Mangino saga at Kansas. Taylor cites a “school source with knowledge of the situation” who accuses Kansas Athletic Director Lew Perkins of a “convoluted vendetta” against Mangino which includes deceiving Jayhawk football players into speaking out against the coach and leaking embarrassing info about Mangino to the media.

(KU AD Lew Perkins, appropriately stationed behind Mangino’s back)

The source correctly notes that the complaint that started the entire investigation into Mangino’s conduct was originally made by linebacker Arist Wright before KU’s Oct. 17 game against Colorado, when the Jayhawks were 5-0. News of Wright’s complaint was not made public until this week, after the team had lost five straight games.

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