The deranged, delusional, contradictory claptrap that has become the staple of leftist discourse would be amusing if it weren’t so dangerous to the country.

Where to begin?

Hollywood types are calling for an economic strike to punish the country for ICE deporting criminal illegals. Actor Edward Norton, whose best portrayal arguably was of the weasel, worthless friend of poker-playing Matt Damon in the movie “Rounders,” seems to have become lost in the role, transferring all the negative characteristics of the character to real life.

It struck me while watching Norton stumble thought his strike suggestion, pausing, umming and generally, like, you know, sort of, kind of, so to speak, coming off as unpolished or insincere (or both), that he’s slipped considerably. One of the Gutfeld panelists came to the same conclusion, which I will take as affirmation I was correct.

Such is the scattergun messaging of the left, emitting words without thought, meaning or significance.

What exactly would Norton’s economic strike accomplish and how?

Crickets.

Then there’s Tampon Tim Walz, who supposedly talked cordially with President Trump about Minnesota’s many problems, then raced to podcasts to act all tough.

Yes, the guy shown in videos during the last presidential campaign trying to load a shotgun and looking more like he was sexually assaulting the weapon, again has threatened to kick the ass of sitting vice president JD Vance. I’d love to see this attempt, perhaps on the undercard of the UFC show at the White House.

I think someone’s ass would be kicked, but Tim has it all wrong, as usual.

Better Tampon Man should tend to his knitting in Minneapolis, which ought to be changing its nickname from Land of 10,000 Lakes, to Land of 10,000 Fakes (Somali daycares and such).

But Rachel Maddow, left-wing cable host and winner (loser?) of a Mark Cuban look alike contest, gloats that “we’re winning” as in the left is prevailing in Minnesota with all the street violence.

If this is winning, I’ll take losing. Sure, the weak-minded are buying the narratives being spun that the two shot protesters were just innocents. Those with a brain understand the woman killed was an active agitator and hit at least one agent with her vehicle.

As for the guy, who is being whitewashed as a peaceful demonstrator, video has emerged from days earlier, purportedly showing him spitting at officers and kicking out the rear taillight of a vehicle, which resulted in him being taken down physically.

And the gun he is said to have brought to the protest that was his last, he must not be too sharp considering it’s a gun with a very bad reputation of going off accidentally, without the trigger needing to be pulled.

In an amazing bit of hypocrisy, leftists shout that he had a legal carry permit and are citing the Second Amendment. Big deal. I have a carry permit, too, but I don’t take my gun to public events and get into confrontations with police or other law enforcement types while there.

Plus, when I do carry, I always have ID with me, including the permit. Our Minnesota victim reportedly had none of this and also reportedly had been urged by his parents not to take his gun and be confrontational.

One more point, much is being made of the guy being an nurse. Has anyone else noticed the flood of medical types making asses of themselves on social media with anti-ICE posts and sometimes losing their jobs for their efforts.

The days of those in the medical profession being upright citizens across the board are long gone.

And how about the Minnesota valedictorian who had her hand blown off when she grabbed an unexploded flashbang device and tried to throw it back toward law enforcement and instead blew off part of her (its?) hand?

Did you read Mamdani the Commie is putting the heat on NY Governor Kathy Hochul to tax the rich to bail out Mamdani’s New York City? Like most 30-sometimes who have been sponging off mom and dad all their lives, Mamdani is very good at spending other people’s money.

Plus, now that he won office by promising free stuff, he needs a scapegoat when he can’t deliver. Former mayor Eric Adams and Hochul are being fitted for that frame.

Jesse Ventura, former Minnesota governor and current gaping orifice, suggests the state secede from the U.S. Sold. Maybe we can trade with Canada, offering Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois, Oregon and maybe Washington state for Alberta?

Last, shed a tear for the whining leftist “journalists” at the Washington ComPost. Jeff Bezos made billions of dollars with Amazon and he’s getting tired of throwing away $100 million or so yearly keeping the ComPost open and spewing left-wing propaganda.

That means layoffs and cutbacks, such as contemplating dropping sports entirely and certainly not spending hordes of writers to cover the Olympics.

Will the last person leaving the ComPost, please turn out the lights?

Some of the appeal has been stripped from the AFC title game today due to the fractured right ankle of Denver quarterback Bo Nix, but the NFC title matchup of Seattle and Los Angeles remains intriguing. I’ll watch both because, as perhaps you have noticed, it’s snowing outside.

Steelers fans might want to avert their gaze from the New England-Denver game. Barring a major surprise, the Patriots are headed back to the Super Bowl, while the Steelers’ run of years without a playoff win is pushing a decade. There’s a serious case of envy developing.

They’ve got to be crying in Buffalo, too. Had the Bills not blown the game at Denver, it would be them facing the Patriots and, at last report, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen is relatively healthy.

When news broke of the Nix injury after the Bronco’s OT elimination of the Bills, the kneejerk reaction was to write off Denver’s chances. Nothing really has changed in the interim.

The betting line for New England at Denver has been hopping around. I’ve seen the Patriots favored by as many as 5.5 points and by as few as 3.5.

I think both lines are too modest, but if you can find 3.5 points, book it for New England.

That vaunted Denver defense can’t win by itself and my presumption is someone will have worked with Patriots quarterback Drake Maye – he of six fumbles in two playoff games – teaching him you’re supposed to hang onto the football.

On the other side, with all due respect to replacement Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham, he’s no Bo Nix, despite the fact both played college ball at Auburn.

There is a reason Stidham has exactly four starts in seven seasons of pro football and this will be his first start of the current season.

Denver had a week to work with him and build a reduced gameplan around him. If that’s enough to win the game, color me shocked.

Take New England and give the – hopefully as few as 3.5 – points.

Moving on to the Los Angeles Rams vs. Seattle Seahawks, Seattle has been a favorite all week in a range from 1.5 points to 2.5.

Let’s presume it’s a 2.5-point favorite status. If I were betting, I’d take the Rams based almost entirely on the quarterback differential.

The Rams have a proven Super Bowl winner in Matthew Stafford. Seattle has Sam Darnold, playing for his fifth team in eight seasons.

Notably, Darnold quarterbacked Minnesota to 14 regular-season wins in 2024, but lost in the playoffs and didn’t perform well late in the regular season. The Vikings were only too happy to see him leave as a free agent.

Darnold has presided over yet another 14-win regular season, this time for Seattle. And he’s won a playoff game as Seattle trounced overmatched San Francisco last week.

This week will be much more competitive, as have been both the teams’ regular-season games.

That means Darnold will have to come through at crunch time. Maybe he will or maybe he won’t.

But I’d bank on Stafford outplaying him and thus would take the Rams and the points.

Unlike left-wing politicians and social media agitators, most of them fond of shooting from the lip, I decided to sleep on the news Saturday that the Steelers would hire Mike McCarthy as their next coach before commenting.

I awoke late this morning to snow falling from the sky like God was wielding a salt shaker. The physical landscape had changed greatly overnight. But, my opinion of the reported McCarthy hiring remained largely unchanged, that being it is a break in decades of franchise tradition and just well might prove to be a huge mistake.

To recap, the Steelers have, since plucking Chuck Noll in 1969, hired young, defensive-oriented men to be their head coaches. That formula has produced six Super Bowl championships, two Hall of Fame coaches (Noll and Bill Cowher) and likely a third Hall coach in time with Mike Tomlin.

All those coaches were between 34 and 37 years of age when hired by the Steelers. McCarthy is 62.

Noll RETIRED when he was a week or so short of his 60^th birthday.

Being an even older guy than McCarthy myself, I don’t necessarily think he cannot succeed. It’s just that the odds are stacked against him.

It is notable that both Noll and Tomlin achieved their greatest successes, their championship seasons, early in their careers.

McCarthy seems to fall into that category, having coached the Green Bay Packers to a Super Bowl win, but way back in the 2010 season. Ironically, McCarthy’s Super Bowl victims were the Steelers.

Green Bay under McCarthy never got back to winning championships and eventually he was shown the door late in 2018. He landed a job in 2020 coaching the Dallas Cowboys, enjoyed little playoff success there and got the boot after the 2024 season.

Two aspects of the McCarthy hiring raise serious questions.

First, there have been reports of rumors from within the Steelers organization that hiring McCarthy might prompt ancient Aaron Rodgers to return as quarterback. Please, no. Yes, the pair were together for great success at Green Bay. But, also yes, that was a long time back.

If hiring McCarthy means Rodgers returns as quarterback in 2026, it’s a mistake just based on that.

Second, beyond the Rodgers question, McCarthy inherits a team that’s middle-of-the-pack in terms of talent, with some notable contributors getting long in the tooth for professional athletes. Cam Heyward is 36 and will be 37 in May.

Oft-injured T.J. Watt is 31 and turns 32 in October. His pro-football-playing brother, J.J., retired at the age of 34.

Steelers president Art Rooney II is operating under the delusion that the Steelers are Super Bowl contenders instead of facing the reality that they need a rebuild.

The Steelers fired coach Bill Austin after a 2-11-1 finish in 1968 and Noll produced an even worse 1-13 record in 1969 as he cleaned house.

Noll knew, and so did the ruling Rooney class back then, that the Steelers needed to start again.

Bringing in McCarthy and thinking he’s going to be able to overcome roster shortcomings due to his coaching genius is optimistic in the extreme.

Pssst. A big snowstorm is on its way. Pass the word.

For God’s sake, rush to the local grocery store to buy milk, bread and toilet paper. Then dash home, pack the old 300-horsepower sled in the garage, and fret about coming days.

While you’re doing that, layer on clothing so that you might turn down the thermostat. Also along that line, douse the electric lights, then turn off televisions, stereos and anything that might put a load on our creaky electrical grid.

Make sure you have batteries, medical supplies, food, water. You know, be sure to have available the sort of stuff you should have on-hand at all times.

Above all else remember, when in doubt, panic.

Is anyone else getting tired of such recurring, over-the-top weather porn?

I recall in my youth, when we got major snow storms, the world continued to spin. People still were expected to go to work. Kids often still went to school, and even when they didn’t, they weren’t being indoctrinated non-stop with Armageddon scenarios.

I wonder why this has happened?

Once, we were self-reliant people. In 1979, seeking to make sure I had mobility in bad weather, I bought my first new vehicle, a Jeep CJ-7 with its four-wheel drive ability.

These days, most people seem to have at least one 4-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive vehicle in the fleet. Such people should be able to travel in adverse weather.

Hell, I recall making it to the Greensburg office of my former Tribune-Reviewing Publishing employer, on a day when we in Greater Johnstown had put the final touches on a 30-inch snowfall, using just my trusty front-wheel drive Ford Escort.

Fellow workers were mildly amazed. Actually, it was no big deal.

Panic started early regarding this storm. On Friday, I saw reports on social media that the local Woke Gazette would not be publishing or distributing its print edition Monday. My garbage collection company also was warning they wouldn’t be here for the scheduled Monday pickup.

By Saturday, closings were crawling across the bottom of the television screen and our beloved governor Josh Shapiro had signed a proclamation of disaster emergency (panic), which seems to indicate he will be able to spend a lot of money on state employees and so make sure they vote for his re-election.

Shapiro also has a ban on commercial vehicles using many of our state’s highways and byways beginning at midnight tonight. There have been conflicting reports of whether or not that includes private vehicles.

I’m fairly certain that if I feel the need to venture out in coming days, I will be able to make it, using my current ancient Jeep Cherokee, or even the wife’s front-wheel drive conveyance. But, thanks for the concern, Josh.

Why is the initial response of these governmental types always to make a power grab? You would no doubt recall COVID hysteria and all the ridiculous dictates such as wearing masks, six-foot distancing and the like, things proven in the sane reflection since to have been utter bullspit.

Even though COVID over-reach has been debunked, we still have weather. If you feel the need to panic over some snow, feel free. It is the norm in this self-absorbed, poor-me society. Just don’t count on me joining you.

For those of us who grew up watching Perry Mason and similar shows, episodic examples in which justice prevailed before the hour-long broadcast ended, it was natural to have faith in the legal system.

The fact that real-life experience back then tended to mirror the fictional shows in that bad guys (or girls) paid the price and criminals were not given a pass simply because they were leftists, buttressed that faith.

Fast-forward to 2026 and reality is something altogether different.

Jack Smith, the epitome of weaponized justice has been testifying before Congress, the tables being turned on a special prosecutor who conducted an anti-Trump witch hunt which produced – wait for it – zip.

Smith was a pathetic guy during testimony, admitting his legal beagle act pursued only Republicans. Democrats? Nothing to see there. Keep moving.

But that Trump guy, he’s Hitler, fascist, defiler of the Constitution, threat to democracy, etc., etc., etc.

And, yes, Jackie boy expects he might end up on the wrong end of some charges because Trump is such a vindictive meanie.

So, Jack Smith, acting at the behest of the Biden regime and twisting the law to dog Trump in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent him from winning the 2024 election, which was extremely likely if you were paying attention, was not political. The Department of Justice under Trump possibly looking into whether Smith should face consequences for playing fast and loose with the law, well, that’s just shameful politics.

Don’t worry, Jack. You might be charged, but these days, Democrats never have to pay the price legally for misdeeds, real or imagined.

Even as Jack Be Nimble has been fending off questions, out in corrupt Minnesota, a leftist judge of some sort said Don Lemon (aids) cannot be charged for participating in a protest that invaded a Minnesota church, interrupted a service, and harassed parishioners.

Meanwhile, three of the protesters have been arrested. Again, get back to me if and when any of them actually is indicted, convicted and imprisoned.

The burgeoning fraud scandal in Minnesota, perhaps aided and abetted by clueless Democrats in charge there, takes a media backseat to ongoing disturbances because ICE officers have the temerity to do their jobs and arrest illegals.

That an overreaching demonstrator ended up stopping a bullet after hitting one of those ICE officers with her SUV, is being politicized to fuel the brainless types who scream at their cell phones for social media posts, perhaps only after cashing their paychecks for being paid agitators.

The Democrats are in bed with criminals and they seem to have the right people in the judiciary to keep them from having to account for this.

Our country’s legal/justice system is a joke due to these politically motivated judges who are willing to ignore the law in favor of advancing an agenda.

Optimists think this can be resolved at the ballot box. I’m seeing no hope on that front. Nothing short of the imposition of martial law, with the military taking over the functions of these conflicted judges, will solve the problem.

As my late father used to say, don’t hold your hand over your butt waiting for that, lest you die of terminal constipation.

Later tonight I will watch college football’s national championship game and, presumably like most of the country, root for Indiana.

Indiana, the team from the Hoosier state, has been portrayed as a Cinderella story, which is correct as far as it goes.

Yes, Indiana University’s sporting history has been that football is just something to do before basketball season begins. Indiana plays for college national championships in basketball, not football. Truth be told, despite recent success, Indiana is second among Division I schools in all-time football LOSSES!

And yet tonight, Indiana meets Miami for the national title and the Hoosiers are 7.5-point favorites, having run through their earlier playoff games in impressive fashion.

Indiana could cap off a 16-0 season, or about what they used to win, total, in four or five years.

But Indiana is doing it with more than luck and pluck. Begin with quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the Cal transfer reportedly making $2.6 million in Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) revenue. He won the Heisman Trophy and will be picked very early in the upcoming NFL draft. Mendoza is a player, period.

His counterpart on Miami is Carson Beck, who transferred to Miami, presumably in pursuit of opportunity and money, and is said to have pulled in about $3.1 million to play for The U this season.

That’s the way the game is played these days. It’s not like Indiana was experiencing this success 30 years ago, when college football still maintained the pretense of being an amateur competition.

Regardless, Curt Cignetti has pulled off something of a miracle. The one-time coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania has taken a team from a basketball school, with a star receiver who got his start playing for St. Francis, Pa., to the pinnacle of the college football world, just a win short of a national title.

Again, I’m rooting for Cignetti and Indiana to get the job done.

But, I have more pause than most over this. I recall Oregon putting on a lengthy ball-possession drive against Indiana, even after falling behind 7-0 on a pick-six interception earlier in these playoffs.

Oregon got away from that template and lost in embarrassing fashion.

Meanwhile, Miami has been the epitome of ground-and-pound offense, sprinkling in big pass plays, but winning on the strength of a punishing ground game.

If Miami can avoid turnovers and be patient, I think the Hurricanes have a chance. Were I betting, I’d certainly take them with the 7.5 points.

Indiana doesn’t need to play perfect football to win, merely avoid committing catastrophic turnovers, or surrendering uncharacteristic big plays. That sometimes can be easier said than done, especially under the bright lights.

Hopefully, I will be wrong and Indiana will win going away. Go Hoosiers!

Apparently, one can put a price on activism and, for Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, that price is a tad under $12,000.

Al-Shaair reportedly was fined $11,593 by the NFL for wearing the message “stop the genocide” on his eye black either during or after the playoff game with the Steelers last week.

I tuned in to Sunday’s Houston-New England playoff contest in part to see if Al-Shaair was willing to invest more in spreading his political message. It was his last chance this season because the Patriots won handily in a game notable for offensive ineptitude on both sides. So long, Texans.

Interceptions and fumbles were the plays of the day in this 28-16 Patriots win.

As for Al-Shaair, I watched closely and there was one closeup shot during the broadcast, shortly after he had recovered a fumble, when I saw no political message on the black tape under his eyes. In fact, there were no messages at all, not even Happy Easter!

Yet, I saw online a report from a Houston television station that Al-Shaair sported his eye black message during the pregame activities. A confused New York Times story reported that, as I have noted, Al-Shaair had no eye black message when shown during the game, but may have had it pregame and perhaps during the game that we didn’t notice.

We are left to speculate why no very public eye black messages this time?

Yes, $11,593 would be considerable coin to me. But, if I were scheduled to make a reported $11 million in salary next year, as Al-Shaair is, I think if I felt so strongly about something, I’d keep paying the fine.

Understand, fining a guy making $11 million $11,593 is roughly equivalent to fining a guy making $50,000 a year a tad under $53 – that’s dollars, not hundreds or thousands of dollars.

I wonder how all those rabid types on social media, spouting about the initial fine, feel about their hero seemingly cheaping out?

I guess money does talk, or at least hits the mute button.

I think I will tune in today’s NFL playoff games, if only to get a chuckle over the league’s messaging conflict.

The increasingly woke NFL finds itself straddling a fence on such things. On the one hand, the league is eager to court leftists, many of whom don’t watch and don’t know whether a football is blown up or stuffed.

This metamorphosis is well illustrated by Super Bowl halftimes, which have gone from Up With People and the like in the past, to Bad Bunny this year, an unmistakable leftward lurch.

The few remaining rational individuals in the NFL hierarchy, realizing their money-printing machine exists on the back of an antitrust exemption, attempt to court the political right. We have “America 250” stenciled on the sideline of fields, admittedly not in places of prominence. It’s vintage NFL, giving a passing nod to a huge American celebration, and trying to make a buck by selling merchandise honoring it, but not embracing it enthusiastically.

Could the woke NFL be attempting to curry favor with the non-woke guy residing in the White House?

Somewhere along the line, the NFL figured out the football fields were merely huge billboards, a place to post messages with the added bonus of not just relying on foot traffic for people to see them, but instead having them beamed to millions via the magic mirror of television.

Say after me, “Choose Love” and “It Takes All Of Us,” the messages your NFL masters chose for the white strips beyond each end zone for this weekend’s games.

The Associated Press, which used to be reputable news organization, put out a story quoting an NFL “social responsibility” officer explaining that the messages this weekend were designed to honor Dr. Martin Luther King.

That story was accompanied by a photo with the “Choose Love” stencil, beyond an end zone that read Cowboys. We presume that was a reference to the Dallas Cowboys, who didn’t even make the playoffs this season, let alone remain standing this weekend. Clearly this was a very stale file photo, actually from more than a year ago, a reality that was admitted in very small type in the caption.

Typical AP.

This inadvertently illustrates the sleight-of-hand nature of NFL visual indoctrination.

I’m curious – and can’t easily find an answer on the internet – why of all four teams playing Saturday, only the San Francisco 49ers didn’t toe the line and have “Choose Love” messages on the back of their helmets. Their helmets instead had in that space a more traditional “49ers” in stylish type.

Denver, Buffalo and Seattle all dutifully fell into line on the matter of choosing love for helmet messaging.

Surely the 49ers, who admittedly play in Santa Clara, 40 miles south of the San Francisco that is their very leftist franchise namesake city (sort of like the New York Giants and Jets both playing in New Jersey) were not bucking NFL hierarchy.

But, if they were, imagine the joy at NFL offices along New York City’s Park Avenue that the 49ers came up on the short end of a 41-6 score. Yo, Western Pennsylvania yinzers, this means the 49ers lost by a larger margin in these playoff than your Steelers!

Today, the NFL propaganda machine will be on display as the Houston Texans and the New England Patriots play in an early game large with symbolism.

Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair ran ahead of accepted NFL wokeness during his team’s lopsided playoff win over the Steelers, his eye-black patch reading “Stop The Genocide.”

This message referred not to the ongoing string of one-sided Steelers losses in the playoffs, but to the code the left uses to define Israel calling Palestinians to task for murdering thousands of Israelis in terror raids. Al-Shaair is a practicing Muslim.

We might well see such sideline messaging from the NFL in the future. But this individual callout was a violation of NFL “uniform and equipment” rules and has resulted in a reported fine of $11,593 for Al-Shaair.

The world breathlessly awaits Al-Shaair’s eye black message today, in a game ironically being played against the Patriots. Their logo is a stylized combination of the American Flag and a revolutionary war type with a tri-color hat. The old Patriots logo was of a revolutionary war soldier in full uniform hiking a football.

The NFL finds itself with a thorny messaging problem.

My advice: Choose Love. Go Patriots.

In the aftermath of the putrid Ravens-Steelers regular-season finale earlier this month, we wrote here of how wretchedly both teams had played.

Now, slightly more than a week later, Ravens coach John Harbaugh has been fired and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has bowed to public pressure and resigned.

Tomlin and the Steelers put a good face on it all when the news broke Tuesday, but one has to wonder if the Steelers edged Tomlin to the door by demanding, perhaps, that he change his coaching staff wholesale. Legendary Steelers coach Chuck Noll was thought to have considered seriously resigning after a 1988 season, when Dan Rooney demanded he fire assistant coaches.

There was speculation of more of that behind-the-scenes intrigue when Noll did officially “retire” after the 1991 season.

Perhaps details of the Tomlin reasoning will leak out over time. For now, he has resigned. What we do know is there currently is an abundance of coaching openings in the NFL and I’d like to go on record proposing a wacky solution for two of them.

What if the Steelers and Ravens trade coaches?

Tomlin for Harbaugh, even up. Both coaches had existing contracts with their former employers. Both coaches had won Super Bowls previously in their careers, but had been experiencing slim playoff pickings more recently.

It has been argued that what both men needed was a fresh start, a change of scenery.

Many are speculating Tomlin won’t coach again until at least 2028, but Harbaugh already is making the rounds of NFL teams with coaching vacancies looking for a new place to hang his whistle.

It would be so ironic were Steelers fans to be expected to embrace the hated Harabugh. Same for Ravens fans and Tomlin.

The two coaches would need to face each other in games twice each season, producing soap opera story lines until either, or both, again were fired or quit.

Trades for coaches have happened before in the NFL. Back in 1970, Miami poached Don Shula from Baltimore, in what became a trade when the Dolphins were adjudged to have tampered with another league franchise and had to send Baltimore a first-round draft pick.

The New England Patriots sent first-, fourth- and fifth-round picks to the New York Jets to get Bill Belichick in 2000.

There have been others, including in 2023, when the Denver Broncos shipped first- and second-round picks to New Orleans in exchange for Sean Payton and a fourth-round pick.

Hell, the Pirates grabbed Chuck Tanner in a November 1976 trade, sending catcher Manny Sanguillen and $100,000 to Oakland to get Tanner as manager.

Admittedly, this Harbaugh-Tomlin proposal would be the first heads-up trade of head coaches we can find in the NFL. But, judging by the success of previous coaching trades, it seems to be better than a mere novelty suggestion.

It would not, however, be the largest trade in NFL history. That came in 1972, when Carroll Rosenbloom, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, swapped franchises with Baltimore Colts owner Jim Irsay.

The coaches, the players, the uniforms, the whole ball of wax, got exchanged.

In intervening years, both host cities lost their franchises. There are Cleveland aspects to both stories

The Rams, who had begun life in Cleveland (1937-1945), moved to Los Angeles (1946-94), then to St. Louis (1995-2015) and back to Los Angeles (2016-present).

The Colts have moved to Indianapolis in 1984, being replaced when the Cleveland Browns moved to town as the Baltimore Ravens for the 1996 season.

Just one question: If we’re going to trade Tomlin for Harbaugh, what’s the Cleveland angle?

Being a sportswriter is sort of like being a policeman in that you are compelled to see the often unpleasant underside of your field of work, a side that tends to escape the gaze of the general public.

And, even though I hung up writing full-time for pay a long time back, I still get feedback occasionally regarding the old stomping grounds.

I’ve committed a pun with “stomping grounds” because today we step (another pun) into the field of foot fetishism.

Once, when an athlete was credited with having good feet, it meant he or she was nimble, graceful, perhaps elusive.

These days, good feet might mean possessing a commodity marketable online to foot fetishists.

There are rumors coursing through the area high school sports community of athletes at multiple schools tapping the online market to sell pictures of their feet and reap rewards.

I’ve even heard of one team doing it together as a fund-raiser! Sure beats selling four square feet or so of wrapping paper for $15, as one school fund-raising shyster did to my mother maybe two decades back.

A story relayed to me regarding one non-athlete partaking of this foot fetish opportunity, was about a kid who discovered his feet were in demand and he could make a lot more money with pictures of his feet than he could working part-time at some fast-food joint.

I will confess right now I’m no foot fetishist – not, to borrow the phrase from the Seinfeld episode on homosexuality, that there’s anything wrong with it.

But, I hear when these young purveyors of foot fetish photos are found out, they are forced to stop due to legal concerns.

Because it is consensual, and there presumably is no physical contact, I was curious as to why, so I did some internet probing.

According to what I found, it is illegal for minors (under the age of 18) to participate. This is despite the reality that minors can risk burns operating the fryer at a fast-food outlet, be victims of robbery should the outlet be mistaken for an ATM by robbers, and otherwise face potential adverse consequences from jobs they legally are allowed to work.

But, for some entrepreneur to discover his or her feet are in demand photographically, is wrong just because he or she is 17 years of age or younger, conflicts me.

This is a chance for them go get their foot – another pun– in the door of free enterprise.

It could be a first step – again, a pun – on the road to building a successful business.

And, finally, at least the sellers of the photos are footing the bill for their upkeep, not sucking at the government teat. Dare I dream they actually pay income tax?

It is time for these content providers to organize and strike back the way abortion seekers (and, notably, minors in some states are not barred from seeking abortions) demonstrate with signs and shirts pushing back on government control of their bodies.

I’ve got a suggestion for the slogan for the T-shirts of would-be foot fetish photo providers challenging governmental regulation: Keep Your Hands Off My Feet.