As hard as it is for me to believe, Marquis Daniels is not someone police are investigating  in connection to some criminal activity.

The Associated Press is reporting that Daniels, whose troubles with the law rival that of NFL bad boy Pac-Man Jones, is not a suspect in a rape that allegedly took place during a “small gathering” at Daniels home in the upscale Indianapolis suburb of Carmel.

I know I rail Larry Bird a lot on this blog but I think it’s worth noting that this was a guy that Pacers GM Larry Bird traded for and then stood by even after he was involved in numerous off-the-court incidents, many of which involved teammate, the oft-injured , under-producing Jamaal Tinsley. Tinsley appeared to have learned his lesson about behaving himself after his car took automatic rifle fire after an incident at an Indianapolis nightclub.

I think all Pacer fans are looking forward to the end of the Bird/Walsh regime, the rebuilding of this franchise and the return of a team that the community can be proud of because this isn’t it.

Shouldn’t have come to a surprise as anyone. Ever since Dennis Dixon went down against Arizona towards the end of the season (torpedoing the Ducks’ season, his Heisman chances and the Oregon offense), Tebow was my pick to win the award. I agree with ESPN’s Ed Cunningham that this is an award that should be voted on after the bowl season but no one, up until this point, has had been as consistently great as Tebow has. Period. Say what you want about the Gators’ three losses (which this season didn’t put a BCS bowl that far out of reach), Tebow was the reason that team won nine games this season. I thought Darren McFadden was completely undeserving of the award given his mid-season slump and then spectacular last two games. More deserving of a chance to New York than McFadden and Mizzou QB Chase Daniel was Central Florida’s Kevin Smith who, after the Knights Liberty Bowl game against Mississippi State, could put together the greatest season by any college running back ever. Despite his 2,400 yards, Smith was never mentioned in connection with the Heisman, which I think is criminal. But congrats to Tebow who becomes the third Gator to win the Heisman and the first since Destin’s Danny Wuerffel took home the prize in 1996.

The Patriots won’t lose this year

The first half of yesterday’s Steelers/Patriots game was an entertained as I’ve been watching the NFL since.. well, since the Patriots/Colts or the Patriots/Ravens last Monday night. Make no mistake, this team is beatable but none of the teams they play for the rest of the year have the means to exploit their weaknesses. The Steelers, Ravens and Colts have all found ways to take the Pats to the wire but the team always finds a way to create one or two turnovers and win late. Yesterday’s game was no exception. Struggling to stop the Steelers offense (whose strategy was conservative to say the least), the Patriots pulled out the throwback pass and broke the Steelers back. The team never recovered from that touchdown in the third quarter and the league’s only unbeaten team cruised to an easy victory. There are a couple areas of concern if you’re a Patriot fan. One is dropped passes. What I’ve seen when watching the Patriots the last two weeks is tight end Benjamin Watson, the wildly, grossly overrated Wes Welker and Randy Moss all routinely drop catchable balls, particularly in the red zone. Against a better team, that could be an issue. Two, the Patriots defense is especially weak at the corners. The linebacking corps of the Patriots is pretty good in coverage and isn’t giving up a lot underneath but Ellis Hobbs and James Sanders are hardly players without exploitable weaknesses. If yesterday’s game proved nothing it’s that you can’t be afraid to take shots downfield against this Patriot defense and the Steelers were. The last game of the season, one that many of us will never seen because it’s on NFL Network, could be a good one. The Giants have a great pass rush with Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora coming off the edge but they are weak at corner and even weaker at safety and not giving Tom Brady time to sit in the pocket and throw has been huge for success against this Patriot offense. The Giants have big play wide receivers with Plaxico Burress but I wonder about Eli Manning’s ability to hold up under pressure and the mental toughness of the Giants as a whole.

Larry Bird and Jamaal Tinsley should both be on the next flight out of Indianapolis

For those of you who haven’t heard, Pacers point guard Jamaal Tinsley has been involved in yet another off-the-court incident involving a late night, a nightclub and guns. This time, it appears that the Pacers point guard had his Rolls Royce sprayed with assault rifle fire after an argument at an Indianapolis nightclub at three in the morning. Tinsley was not hurt but the Pacers equipment manager was shot in both elbows. Again, the Pacers are reprimanding Tinsley for being out so late and using bad judgment and putting himself in harm’s way but how many times will the team stand behind this knucklehead while he continue to embarrass himself, his team, his league and the community? It’s time to cut him loose. Now onto Larry Legend. When will he and team president Donnie Walsh be held accountable for what this team has become? Upon Bird’s arrival he has made questionable, borderline awful personnel moves and took a perennial playoff team, brought in guys with questionable character and turned it into the 2007 version of the Portland Jailblazers. In a city that has a team like the Indianapolis Colts, the community will not continue to support a team that conducts themselves as poorly off and on the court as this one does and it’s time that Larry be shown the door for bringing in, and standing behind, guys like Marquis Daniels, Stephen Jackson and Jamaal Tinsley.

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Apple Fanboy News..

Wired’s Cult of Mac blog spent the weekend performing an autopsy on the iPhone.

Tech blog CrunchGear is reporting that Apple will roll out MacBooks with “iPhone-like multi-touch functionality built into the touchpad later this year.” Is Steve Jobs squashing his beef with tablet computers?

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columist Bob Smizik believes Pirates fans should continue to criticize management despite the way Saturday’s walk-out kind of fizzled out.

The Knicks are hoping Zach Randolph can steady his “up and down life.” New York City is the perfect place for that, don’t you think?

Browns center LeCharles Bentley says he’ll be ready to go for training camp this year after a knee injury caused him to miss all of last season and threatened his career.

John Feinstein labels July “the worst month in sports.”

Madden 08 and NCAA Football 08 runs better on the XBOX 360 than on Sony’s PS3.

Four magazines that cover the NFL, including Athlon Sports and The Sporting News have picked the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl.

Seriously, fire Larry Bird. Their lone draft pick is expected to remain in Europe for the next three years.

The Orlando Sentinel’s David Whitley says Grant Hill owes it to the Orlando Magic to stick by the franchise that stuck by him.

The Houston Rockets are also courting free agent forward Rashard Lewis. Who would you want to play with Dwight Howard or all-around good guy and team player Tracy McGrady? Decisions, decisions.

Warriors fans are seriously bummed about the departure of Jason Richardson.

Newsweek’s Mark Starr wonders what happened to summer sports.

If you haven’t been there, the Portland Trailblazers website is amazing.. www.nba.com/blazers …

The Worldwide Leader Pat Forde picks up some college football preview mags.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Ted Miller wonders if there isn’t more to the sudden resignation of Mariners manager Mike Hargrove than meetings the eye.

SI.com’s Michael Silver ranks the NFL owners 1-32. Dan Synder is a top-five owner.. No, seriously..

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Well-rounded news..

Universal Music Group is going to inform Apple that it will not renew the deal the company has with Apple’s iTunes music store.

An early review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The Chicago Tribune’s Julia Keller debates the “Great American Novel.”

A woman works at Los Alamos has admitted to using U.S. Government computers to stalk Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington. There was a fantastic story on this in last month’s Wired Magazine.

A British research group has determined that 68 percent of people who attend rock shows experience some kind of hearing loss afterwards. Earplugs people, they look lame but they could save your hearing.

New York Magazine is beginning to question its allegiance to “Entourage.” One of the questions The Daily Intelligencer poses is whether or not the show has always “been this obnoxious.” The answer to that question is yes. I hate, hate, hate, hate Entourage. With shows like Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Deadwood, HBO has come to be known for its outstanding original programming. HBO is a Fox show that happens to air on HBO. There’s nothing clever about the series and none of the characters have ANY redeeming qualities.

While it’s widely understood that Isiah has no idea what he’s doing in New York as the Knicks have become the laughing stock of the league, Larry Bird  has gotten a pass from many in the state of Indiana for ruining a playoff caliber team.

Let’s examine last year’s offseason for the Pacers. Free agent Peja Stojakovic  is a free-agent and instead of resigning him, Bird opted to save their money and give it to Al Harrington — again. For those of you keeping track at home, Harrington and perpetual headache Stephen Jackson were dealt mid-season along with Sarunus Jasikevicius  to Golden State for Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy and Ike Diogu. Money well spent right? It gets better. The Pacers have a grand total of ZERO picks in tomorrow night’s draft because they gave away this year’s first round pick to Atlanta in the Harrington deal and traded their second round pick on draft night last year in a deal that brought James White to the Circle City, White was released before the start of the ‘06-’07 season.

I was fixing a smoothie in my kitchen when I first heard of the four-team trade that has since fell through between the Lakers, T-Wolves, Celtics and Pacers. A trade that would have, among other things, brought Kevin Garnett to the Lakers, sent Al Jefferson and the fifth overall pick to the T-Wolves, sent Jermaine O’Neal to the Celtics and .. wait for it.. brought Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum to the Pacers. “You’ve got to be kidding!” I said aloud, to no one in particular. But this is the kind of GM Larry Bird has been. He would trade J.O. for a Odom, who is a nice player but hardly a franchise player and Andrew Bynum, who averaged 8 points and 6 rebounds a game in his rookie season. Granted this deal fell through because O’Neal balked at the idea of playing in Boston and Kevin McHale finally regained function of his brain, I would not put it past Bird to move O’Neal. Despite his claims to do so, I do not believe that Bird will be able to get value for O’Neal who has been a perennial all-star the last 5 or so seasons.

It’s time to stop giving Larry Bird a pass because he’s “Larry Legend,” he’s made moves that have undermined the integrity of the franchise (bringing Marquis Daniels, who will be in court this week with teammates and all-around great guy Jamal Tinsley who will face a trial in Sept. in connection to a bar fight, to town). It’s time to show Larry the door.