They got off to a hot 10-2-1 start, but have been awful lately and can’t seem to score. They have lost 10 out of their last 12 games.

GM Glen Sather has not immediately named a replacement.

Porter, in his first year as head coach, saw the team hit a rough spot recently, going 6-10 for a 28-23 record at the All-Star Break.

Now, Chris Mortensen is reporting that the Chiefs are close to a deal with former Broncos head coach (got it right that time) Mike Shanahan. Like PFT mentioned…wouldn’t that violate the Rooney Rule? You have to interview a minority candidate in the hiring process before you can sign someone as head coach.

Photo Caption: Not nearly black enough to satisfy the Rooney Rule.

Stewart was stripped of his play-calling duties after the terrible loss to the Rams.

That’s right, the Bucs have fired Gruden and Allen and will not look to rebuild their front office.

Gruden was 57-55 during his tenure with the Bucs, but he did win a Super Bowl. Granted, it was with Tony Dungy’s defense, but he won nonetheless.

Pioli was considered one of the masterminds of the Patriots dynasty.

MESSAGE TO HERM EDWARDS: You are f’ed.

He spent the last two seasons coaching the running backs for the Oakland Raiders.

B.C. warned Jagodzinski that if he interviewed for the head coaching vacancy of the N.Y. Jets that they would fire him. Apparently, they weren’t kidding.

“Jeff and I were really divided on the future of this program,” said B.C.’s athletic director Gene DeFilippo. “I just thought I hired a coach that I thought was going to be here a long time and I thought Jeff was that guy. I am looking for someone who can give a commitment of at least four or five years, for the length of the contract.”

He said that there will be an interim coach assigned until he can find a long-term replacement.

You can check out the SportsbyBrooks.com link here.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Ok, we tracked down the link.

OTR spoke with a source who used to work for Martz and he wasn’t surprised he was fired. According to our source, Martz “might be bi-polar” because he is such a nice guy one minute and then an absolute terror the next. Our source said that Martz said things to a couple of guys that were so awful, if those guys didn’t have so much to lose they would have just beat the snot out of him. He went on to tell OTR that he could see a situation where Martz, who liked to abuse his power, tried to cozy up to the front office and position himself to be the next head coach.

Martz, who spent just one year in San Fran and one year in Detroit in 2007, might be running out of chances in the NFL.

We’d rather just shut it down than to run a boring, poorly updated blog, which is what OTR is starting to become.

We can’t thank all of our readers enough. You guys have all been great and we had a ton of fun playing with everyone. Maybe we’ll do it again some day. We could have just let the blog die slowly and not update it, but that’s not fair to anyone. We thought we would give OTR a proper burial by at least letting everyone know that we are calling it quits.

Memorial services will be held Sunday, December 21st at 2 PM at the Lodi, NJ YMCA.

You can send thoughts and regards to MPerry_77@hotmail.com and MicahW@feverpitchmedia.com.

Happy Holidays to all of those in OTR land!!

The team added pricey free agent Elton Brand to an upstart team this offseason. The problem? He is a half-court player who doesn’t really run. The rest of the team doesn’t even know what half court means. They just run up and down the floor, when overpaid small forward Andre Iguodala is at his best. The team now has no identity and just continues to lose.

Another glaring problem is the same one that plagued the Sixers during the Larry Brown era: Can’t shoot the three, can’t defend the three.

Same old crap.

OTR guesses that if Quenneville can’t win more than one of his first four games as head coach, that he’ll be fired too. The Blackhawks, at this rate, could possibly have 20 head coaches this year.

“This was an extremely hard day for this organization and for me personally,” said general manager Dale Tallon in a statement on Thursday. “Denis is forever a part of our organization. We made a tough decision that we strongly feel is the right one as we continue to evaluate our team and create a championship-calibre organization that can sustain success.”

“Joel brings us a wealth of experience and a winning track record that will have an immediate and lasting impact,” explained Tallon in the statement.

It’s believed that Davis has been waiting to pile up enough evidence of insubordination so that he wouldn’t have to pay him the balance of his contract.

It’s believed that Tom Cable, the team’s o-line coach, is the front-runner to take over for Kiffin.

This is just the latest move that makes no sense to us. Davis dropped down tons of guaranteed money this offseason to guys who didn’t deserve it (Javon Walker, Tommy Kelly, Gibril Wilson, DeAngelo Hall), yet he’s worried about Kiffin’s $3.5 million.

Al Davis shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a car right now, let alone running a football team.

We’re sure this will get the Rams turned around despite the fact that they cannot block, tackle, pass, run, kick or cover.

“I have enormous respect for Scott Linehan as a person and believe under the right circumstances he will be regarded one day as a fine head coach,” owner Chip Rosenbloom said in a release. “Unfortunately, the situation with the Rams as they exist today is no longer acceptable and we have to make a change.”

Since Millen’s takeover in 2001, the Lions have compiled an NFL-worst record of 31-84.

Millen was removed Tuesday night, but it’s not apparent whether he was fired or if he resigned from the position.  

A source close to the situation confirmed with OTR that Matt Millen called Tatum Bell to help him with his bags.

PHOTO CAPTION:  “It’s not about winning, it’s about being part of something special.”

OTR thinks this blows. The Mets could be fine this year. They will probably make the playoffs and very well could go to the World Series. Who knows? But we don’t like the makeup of the team that Minaya has put together over the past few years. They have a ton of talent, but no real leadership and certainly no bullpen.

We don’t know what else to say. The report is what it is. The Raiders blew an easy win against Buffalo on Sunday and they suck donkey balls to begin with. There have been rumors about Kiffin getting fired for several weeks. Jay Glazer is a stud for Fox Sports so we have no reason to doubt his report.

We would think that there is a good chance that Kiffin is gone.

Thanks to the Sports Idiot for tipping us off because we don’t read much about baseball when it’s football season.

So, why now?

“That’s a difficult one to answer myself,” said general manager Doug Melvin, who will address the matter further in a 6:30 p.m. CT press conference at the team hotel in Chicago. “The club is just not performing close to the way they performed earlier. We have 12 days left and we don’t know what could jump-start the club. This was, I guess, the only thing we thought had a chance of jump-starting the club.”

PHOTO CAPTION: Willie Randolph will now have plenty of time to give speeches to local high schools.

When you hire hot ball girls, that’s clutch. I love watching them run around after foul balls.

Bench coach Jerry Manuel will be replacing Willie as manager. OTR is working nonstop to see if he is related to Phillies manager Charlie Manual. OTR has stopped that work due to finding out it’s Charlie ‘Manuel.’ Oh wait, that is the same spelling. Back to working nonstop?

Look for the Mets to go 93-0 now that the change has been made.

“The Mariners have the game’s worst record despite a top-10 payroll, and it’s obviously Pentland’s fault. He’ll know better next time not to overpay for Richie Sexson, Carlos Silva, Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn. Also, he never should have traded for Jose Vidro and put together a ridiculous bench that included Miguel Cairo and Willie Bloomquist. And that’s glossing over his biggest mistake of all: he saw two lesbians kissing at Safeco Field and did absolutely nothing to stop them. Lee Elia, his replacement, is very capable of putting the fans in their place when he needs to.”

“This has been a very difficult decision because of everything that John Tortorella has meant to and done for this organization,” general manager Jay Feaster said in a statement. “Torts came to Tampa and not only built the foundation under our club but he also changed the culture and raised the expectations, eventually leading us to the Stanley Cup in 2004. What he accomplished during his tenure in Tampa was nothing short of remarkable and our organization will always owe him our thanks, gratitude and deep respect.”

Perry’s drunken thought: After a few beers he starts looking like Dennis Miller with a slight burn on his face?

Then what’s the problem, Feaster? Sounds like he was doing a great job.

The move, according to people that know a lot more than we do, clears the way for the possible hiring of Barry Melrose.

“Decisions like this are difficult to make, especially with the success we have had throughout the last three regular seasons,” President of basketball operations Joe Dumars said in a statement. “However, at this time, I feel it is necessary to make a change.”

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith reported that Pistons assistant Michael Curry will be named Saunders’ successor, according to a source close to the Pistons. Curry is also a former Pistons player and official in the players’ union.

Isiah Thomas was not considered for the job, but his current job as ‘Assistant To Not Being Allowed Anywhere Involving The Knicks Organization’ had nothing to do with it.

PHOTO CAPTION: ‘barry’ was kind enough to forward his school picture from this year.

I spoke to ‘barry’ last night to let him know he was receiving this award and I asked him to tell us a little bit about himself that the readers might not know. Before I could even get out the question ‘barry’ yelled out, “Tomorrow is Monopoly night. Baltic Ave is my favorite.”

With a little snicker I responded, “That’s great, ‘barry,’ that’s great. Tell us more?”

The conversation continued for about ten minutes before he had to finish up his life-sized Simon Birch sculpture for his LEGO contest this weekend. But let me highlight some interesting facts ‘barry’ wanted to share with OTR and you, the readers. His favorite sports team is the Charlotte Sting. He loves the WNBA, because he doesn’t feel dunking should be legal. “It’s too violent,” he said. ‘barry’s’ favorite color is dark orange. And he has a pet turtle named after his favorite person of all-time, ‘Skippy’ from Family Ties, who was played by Marc Price.

Before we ended our conversation I asked ‘barry’ what his favorite comment (or as he likes to say, ‘coment’) was on OTR’s site. He singled out this quote under a Chad Johnson article:

“no coment micah? hummmmm why? because the jimmey rollins”

“Because the jimmey rollins,” I don’t think Micah or myself could have summed it up better. Again, we salute you ‘barry’ as OTR’s Fan Of The Year. Don’t stop commenting. Continue your schooling to get that grammar perfected. And tell your friends that OTR did an article all about you, buddy. You are the best.

OTR Note: ‘barry’ is now commenting as ‘mark.’ I guess he doesn’t realize we can see his posts are coming from the same computer. You will soon see ‘mark’s’ aka ‘barry’s’ comments (same grammatical errors). They are currently in moderation.