According to, well, St. Louis Rams coach Scott Linehan, the organization has hired Al Saunders as the team’s new offensive coordinator.

Linehan appeared on Team1380 — St. Louis’ “The Roll Home with Bernie Miklasz and Randy Karakker” to make the announcement of the hire.

***UPDATED at 7:47 PM ET***

The Sporting News has all the details on the three-year deal Saunders signed.

Brady: Plax prediction on Pats’ points puzzling (Boston Globe)

New England’s Tom Brady was puzzled by Plaxico Burress’ prediction that the New York Giants would beat the New England Patriots 23-17 in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Brady wasn’t surprised at the winner he picked (the Giants), but he was certainly amused by the output by his club’s offense.

“We’re only going to score 17 points?” Brady said Wednesday morning before chuckling. “OK. Is Plax playing defense?

“I wish he had said 45-42 and gave us a little credit for more points.”

Finally, some good stuff coming out of players’ mouths.

News and notes while Stromile Swift needs some anger management help…

Poulter: I can challenge Tiger (Reuters) The last guy that made such a claim got his butt-kicked.

Strahan living it up (Y! Sports) Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports writes that New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan is enjoying his second crack at an NFL title.

Tollner named QBs coach/assistant to the head coach (The Press Democrat) Matt Maiocco of The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.) writes that the San Francisco 49ers have officially tabbed Ted Tollner to coach to quarterbacks and will also be an assistant to head coach Mike Nolan.

Brooks not hired, yet (PFT.com) Despite Len Pasquarelli’s confirmation, ProFootballTalk.com states that the Washington Redskins have not hired — or have come to any agreement — with Larry Brooks to coach the defensive line.

Fresno St. OC will take same job with ‘Bama (SportingNews) Sources have told Sporting News’s Tom Dienhart that Jim McElwain will replace Major Applewhite as offensive coordinator at Alabama.

…and finally…

Mike & Mike, sad media folk and the Fox Sports Grill (Deadspin) Will Leitch’s evening in Glendale, Arizona.

Source: Stoudamire fades from Celtics picture (ESPN.com)

Chris Sheridan of ESPN.com reports that the recently-released Damon Stoudamire might not be in the Boston Celtics picture afterall.

According to Sheridan, Stoudamire is slated to talk to both the San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suna via telephone Tuesday, with a decision expected as early as Wednesday.

Stoudamire clears waivers late Wednesday afternoon, thus making him free to ink a deal with anyone.

Seattle not alone in Bedard hunt (Baltimore Sun)

Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun writes that the Baltimore Orioles aren’t the only ones waiting to take a stab at landing the best lefty ace on the market in Erik Bedard.

While the O’s are still negotiating to get the deal done (rumors persist that Adam Jones had problems with his physical, Zrebiec writes that the Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets were all in the hunt for the big lefty’s services.

Of course, there’s still that pesky Peter Angelos.

The source confirmed that there are other issues that need to be resolved for the trade to go through. One of them remains getting the blessing of Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who is dealing with a personal matter for most of the week. However, MacPhail has been in contact with Angelos about potential deals.

So much for giving the team president all the latitude he needed to get things done, eh Peter?

News and notes while rumors swirl that the Erik Bedard deal may’ve hit an injury snag…

Pettitte will discuss Clemens, lawyers say (New York Times) According to Duff Wilson and Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times, the lawyers for Mitchell Report informant Brian McNamee say that NY Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte will disclose the PEDs usage of Roger Clemens before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

With Santana Mets ease September pain (Y! Sports) By acquiring winning Johan Santana from the Minnesota Twins, Yahoo! Sports’ Tim Brown writes, the New York Mets have helped ease the pain of their late 2007 crash from atop the NL East standings.

MU hoops coach suspends five indefinitely (STLToday.com) Graham Watson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Missouri hoops coach Mike Anderson has suspended five players indefinitely for violating teams rules by being at a Columbia nightclub early Sunday morning.

Former Patriot Joe Andruzzi is in fight for his life (SI.com) Tim Layden of SI.com profiles former New England Patriots guard Joe Andruzzi, who is battling Burkitt’s Lymphoma, a form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that advances with such haste that it can double in size in just 24 hours.

Super Bowl tickets are way over price of admission (USATODAY.com) Larry Weisman of USATODAY.com reports from the “No Duh Department.”  Face value of tickets are in the ‘hood of $700.

…and finally…

NHL All-Star Game ratings up from last year in U.S., down in Canada (CP/The Hockey News) The ratings in the U.S. had nowhere to go but up.