The Akron Beacon Journal's Patrick McManamon is reporting from league meetings and this week could prove very interesting for one reason.

Click on the link above and you'll find that the NFL is expected to adopt a player conduct policy this week with the full support of the NFL Players Association.  No, it's not a unilateral decision by still-wet-behind-the-ears commish Roger Goodell.  This is coming from some of the players themselves.

Today we get notice that Adam "Pacman" Jones of the Tennessee Titans will likely face felony charges on at least one front in coming weeks - for his alleged involvement in a shooting at a Las Vegas strip club during the NBA All-Star break last month.  What could be interesting is whether the new policy, which is expected to be applied to repeat offenders, will be enforced retroactively to Jones.

Should it be?  The temptation is to say "yes."  The guy has been questioned by police in 10 separate incidents in recent years.   But the league punishing him ex post facto is way out of line.  No, this one falls strictly on one entity - the Titans.

We'll see where the team's priorities and integrity lie in this one.  I fear, however, that Pacman may end up getting another opportunity to gobble up wide receivers from his defensive back position when the NFL opens its next season in September.

By now it's all over the Internet that ESPN punted Joe Theisman from the Monday Night Football booth in favor of Ron Jaworski.  The question I have:  why now?

This is a move that would have been better off made when ESPN assumed ownership of television's top sports franchise.  After all, ESPN moved Theisman's broadcast partners Mike Patrick and Paul Maguire out when they essentially switched nights and TV contracts a couple of years back.

Hiring Mike Tirico for MNF was a no-brainer.  He's intelligent, well-versed in an endless number of sports and generally classy.  It was bold hiring Pardon the Interruption and the Washington Post's Tony Kornheiser.  They missed an opportunity to brand MNF as their own initially.

Was Theisman knowledgeable?  He certainly was.  And Lord knows he didn't lack for opinions.  But what was once attractive isn't any longer. Part of the dilemma with Theisman is that you know you're going to get those opinions and they were often in your face, completely lacking subtlety.  It didn't hurt that it often seemed that you risked his consternation in the booth if you disagreed with what he had to say.

Norby Williamson, a suit at ESPN, said that they want to find a prominent place in ESPN football coverage for Theisman.  He'd fit in perfectly on Sunday NFL Countdown, a show that welcomes bold, brash opinions.  Goodness knows Chris Berman put up with Michael Irvin long enough.

Will Jaworski work out?  Who knows for sure.  What I do know from watching him on NFL Matchup is that he has an uncanny ability to breakdown plays so that Joe or Jane Average football fan could understand them and he does so in a way that isn't condescending.

I shall have thoughts on this later, but here it is from ESPN's own computer. Their news release about Theisman being replaced:

Sports television’s signature series, ESPN’s Monday Night Football, will kick off its 38^th season with a new line-up when longtime ESPN NFL analyst Ron Jaworski joins Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser in the booth, and sideline reporters Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya.

   Jaworski will occupy the analyst role previously held by Joe Theismann, who has been offered a prominent football analyst role with ESPN. 

“This new lineup will enhance our presentation of Monday Night Football, our most important property,” said Norby Williamson, executive vice president, studio and remote production, ESPN.  “Ron has covered the NFL from many different perspectives, and he is totally tied into the issues and trends from around the league. “We appreciate the work Joe has done for 19 years and continue to talk with him about another high-profile football role with ESPN.” 

Jaworski’s passion for football and his knowledge of all things NFL have made him a fan favorite on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown and other studio shows.  Following a 17-year NFL career (1973-89), most notably as quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, Jaworski joined ESPN in 1990.  He has worked in various capacities – sideline reporter, game-site reporter, host and as both a studio and game analyst. 

 He was a fixture on ESPN’s NFL studio programs last season, including Sunday NFL Countdown, NFL PrimeTime and NFL Match-Up, a show he will continue to do.  Jaworski has also appeared as a weekly ‘Five Good Minutes’ guest on Monday editions of Pardon the Interruption with Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon and worked as an analyst during the San Diego Chargers-Oakland Raiders game as part of ESPN’s 2006 season-opening NFL doubleheader.  He continues to be a major contributor to ESPN’s annual NFL Draft coverage.

It's too early to tell what exactly is going to happen with Major League Baseball's Extra Innings package now that InDemand, a consortium of three of the nation's largest cable companies, apparently has agreed to match the terms of DirecTV's pact with MLB, according to a report from the Associated Press.

The pay-per-service has apparently agreed to carry the Baseball Channel (scheduled to launch in 2009), which is the crux of all of this metaphorical  pitcher's mound melee, to "at least the same number of customers" that DirecTV does.  MLB had decided to withhold the Extra Innings service to cable companies unless it was placed in the companies basic channel line-ups.   Were they right to do so?  That depends on your point of view.  Are they playing ummm…errr…hardball?  Yup, you betcha.

However I am scratching my head trying to figure out exactly what InDemand and the cable companies are doing.  Why?  It's simple.  DirecTV has approximately 15.6 million subscribers, the three cable companies that own InDemand - approximately 43 million.  If those companies are only guaranteeing that at least 15.6 million of their customers will see the new Baseball Channel, what's to happen to the other 27 million or so customers?

So parts of Northeast Ohio get the Baseball Channel and other parts don't?  South Jersey gets the Baseball Channel and Philadelphia doesn't?  It'll be the equivalent of chaos - dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.

What should have been a simple business right of Major League Baseball - deciding the fate of a premium package of games - has grown into little more than a quagmire.  Let MLB does what it wants - if baseball fans vacate in droves, so be it.  But given that fewer than half of Extra Innings subcribers come via cable, I don't think that's going ot happen.

Adam Pacman Jones had best look at the writing on the wall now that his current pro football home - the Tennessee Titans has signed Indianapolis Colts cornerback Nick Harper.  It looks as if Jeff Fisher and the Titans are prepared to cut the corner with questionable character.

For the uninitiated, Jones has been involved in a number of legal…ummm….errrr…problems prior to being drafted in the first round and after, the most recent being a scuffle at a Las Vegas strip club that resulted in a triple shooting.  In all there are 10 Pacman-related incidents on assorted police blotters.  The irony of the shooting was it happened in Vegas during the NBA's All-Star festivities.  You know, the NBA?  The so-called "thug" league?  The NBA goes to Vegas and an NFL player delivers the most notorious criminal activity.

I realize that Fisher probably had to wait to have a replacement for Jones' lined up before he cuts him from the team.  After all, priorities, priorties.  The Titans were close to the playoffs last year.  But he should be gone, nonetheless.

And I'm going to go one better.  If at all possible within the guidelines of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL Players Association, Jones should be suspended as long as possible.  No ifs ands buts or maybes.

For some inexplicable reason NFL players have remained immune to the sleaze that sticks to NBA players.  I guess that's a benefit of playing in the country's most popular league. However, if the NFL doesn't want to drive away fans such as myself, they'd better make an example of this thug-like individual. 

 Why should the NFL care about the likes of me?  Simple.  I love football.  I also have two sons who I'm trying to pass that love of the game on to.  That is the league's future, maintaining its popularity and dominance.  With the likes of Pacman in the news, I'm more apt to point my sons to our local high school team and the Ohio State Buckeyes.  No, they're not angels either, but I don't have to read or watch news reports about them being involved in shootings at Vegas strip clubs.

To those who say he hasn't been convicted of anything, I say:  smoke meet fire.  The Titans signed Harper yesterday, here's hoping that Jones is shown the door by the end of business today.

I've seen the hoopla over the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament grow significantly over the years.  My earliest memories of it consist of watching the Clark Kellogg led Ohio State Buckeyes battle in the West Regional years ago.  It then promptly fell off my radar.  Yes, even during the Jimmy Jackson years, Scoonie Penn's reign and last year's disapointment.  I normally greet it with a collective shrug.

I couldn't figure out why before.  No, I'm not weird - at least to most people I'm not weird - basketball has just never been my sport.  Over the course of a season it lacks drama.  I understand that element exists within the game itself, but No. 1 rankings go back and forth.  How many times has North Carolina occupied the top spot this year? Florida?  Yeah, there's my dilemma.

This is probably why I appreciate college football more.  Each week there are key matchups.  You lose you're generally out of contention for the National Championship.  College basketball teams play an entire season for a shot to get into the Big Dance as it's called and generally someone gets stood up.  Talk to me when they rectify that situation at the University of Akron.

So I arrived at The Q tonight and I'm greeted by one of the Cleveland Cavaliers' public relations staff with the news that LeBron James is out with back spasms for this evening's festivities against the Sacramento Kings.  Of course I react with disbelief because James' play has been as close to perfection as you get in recent weeks (33.3 points per game since Feb. 11).  He obviously knows what time of year it is.

Most fans would expect that given play like that the Cavs would fall flat tonight.  Some could have considered it a test.  I considered it more like a quiz.  If the team is indeed in full playoff mode than they should have been able to knock of the Kings who owned a record of 28-34 coming in. 

It's a quiz they passed with ease and left an impression.  Someone needed to step up tonight and instead everyone in the starting line-up did so, as each rang up double figures.  Larry Hughes had 25 points, Sasha Pavlovic dropped a career high 25, Z ripped off 19 and 10 boards for a double-double and Drew Gooden also contributed a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.  But the most impressive job of them all may have come from the guy given the unenviable task of stepping into James' shoes.

Ira Newble, whose named has been associated with the letters D-N-P for much of the season, came up with 12 points (including 3-for-3 shooting on three pointers) and seven rebounds.

Was it a perfect win?  Nope.  The team looked sluggish for much of the first half and they hoisted treys as if they were soon to be banned by the league.  Still, what they accomplished without James bodes well for the continuing run to the playoffs.

Well actually, Reuben Droughns is heading to the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

In what should come as a surprise to no one, especially given statements made by Jamal Lewis in a teleconference yesterday, the Cleveland Browns shipped Reuben Droughns off to the New York Giants for wide receiver Tim Carter in a trade today.

There was no way that the Browns backfield was going to be big enough for both of those guys.  And it was clear from what Lewis said that certain assurances had been made from the offensive line to what his role on the team would be.  Is there any doubt now that he's being a given a tryout with the possibility of receiving a long-term deal should he return to the form that helped him to rush for more than 2,000 yards several seasons back?

I'm still not on board with his acquisition.  I don't believe he has much left in the tank.  But we shall see.  The Beacon Journal's Pat McManamon wrote a compelling article detailing the repercussions of the move.  If nothing else, it's clear that the Browns have a win-now mentality with the possibility that the job of Head Coach Romeo Crennel and, perhaps, that of G.M. Phil Savage eventually being on the line.

So what did they get for Droughns?  In Carter they have a wideout who played in all 16 games last year but only caught 22 balls with two of those going for touchdowns.  If nothing else, Carter will fill the roster spot open due to the departure of Dennis Northcutt.  Whether his productivity will increase remains to be seen.

“Reuben (Droughns) gave the Browns our first 1,000-yard rusher in 20 years during the 2005 season. We wish him the best of luck in

Here's hoping that familiarity translates to receptions and TDs.  What is apparent is that given last year's disastrous season, the Browns are unwilling to stand pat with the players who occupy their roster.   That in itself is a wise move.

After watching the first half of the Cavs' game at a local Winking Lizard, I got in my car to listen to halftime stuff on their flagship station only to discover that the Browns had reached a deal with now former Baltimore Ravens running back Jamal Lewis.  How do I contain my enthusiasm?

Normally my gauge of local sports is my favorite watering hole, Scalpers in Mayfield Heights.  I walked in tonight, grumbling about Lewis' acquisition and my Wednesday night bartender Joey D. was ecstatic over the Browns' news.  This is what it's come to - mere desperation.

That's where Cleveland Browns fans are right now.  Lewis rushed for a massive 1132 yards on 314 carries for a whopping 3.6 yards per carry.  Hello!!!! What's mesmerizing about that?  What's significant about it?  The fact that the yards were actually in the positive?

What I like less about this one-year signing is what it possibly portends.  Could the Browns be tipping their hand with respect to the 2007 draft?  If so you can guess what General Manager Phil Savage and his fellow gurus are thinking:

With Lewis we have a viable, touch running back.  There's no need to draft Adrian Peterson out of Oklahoma.  We have a running back, now let's get a quarterback.  What?  You thought Charlie Frye was the answer?  And that's what scares me.

Notre Dame's Brady Quinn has made little secret of his desire to play for the Browns and apparently, after the recent NFL Combine in Indianapolis his stock has been very much on the rise.  Quinn apparently made all the throws and exhibited a wonderful aptitude for the Wonderlic I.Q. test.

My problem?  In big games, he doesn't really show up.  The Ohio State Buckeyes cooked his grits in the Fiesta Bowl more than a year ago and the Louisiana State University Tigers nailed him in this year's Sugar Bowl.  He's got happier feet than those penguins in the movie Happy Feet only it's a less likable feature on him. 

Taking Quinn would be a reach on a team that has far too many other holes than at QB - even with Frye there.

Last week LeBron James made the statement that he was getting ready for the playoffs when asked about his production in recent games.

Apparently one statement has never been so true - at least after tonight.  I purposely held off judgment on LBJ and crew until after this particular game.  This game is a benchmark for the second half of the season.  It showed Cavs fans a number of things.

Including:

LeBron James has a switch that shifts to "on" after the All-Star Break.  I'm not suggesting that James has been dogging it for much of the season, but you cannot deny that there's a certain intensity that you see in his eyes that was lacking for much of the season.  Read tonight's stat sheet and you'll find 41 points. Just as importantly, however, look at the intensity in his eyes and in those of his teammates.  That was lacking for much of the season.

Will that guide the Cavaliers deep into the playoffs?  No one knows, but I certainly like what I see of this version of the team than I do the one who played from the beginning of the season until mid-February.