Mike Freeman

There are now reports the Colts will not hire Jim Tressel as head coach. This after a round of reports that Tressel had received two interviews and was in serious contention for the job. As a team source told me weeks ago there is no way in hell the Colts will hire Tressel to coach the team. That mostly stands. I've also been told Tressel never received two interviews for the job as previously reported and the one "interview" he received was very casual and more courtesy than anything else.

"Jim is well liked by Irsay," said a team source speaking of the Colts owner, "but not that well liked."

We'll see. Maybe Irsay does like taking huge, risky gambles with the future of his franchise.

League sources say the Colts have interviewed numerous candidates and aren't done. They're scheduled to speak with Baltimore defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano. Foxsports.com reported 49ers special teams coach Brad Seely is now on the Colts radar. I was able to confirm that is indeed the case. Seely is viewed as a good potential head coach by people around football.

The Tressel-as-coach phenomenon got renewed life when Tony Dungy this week said he believed Irsay had focused on Tressel as head coach. That certainly opened my eyes but I continue to be told Tressel isn't getting the position.

Is it possible Irsay has become Jerry Jones and now rebuffs any notion of conventional wisdom? Possible. Irsay, again, is very different. He could hire Tressel as a giant (expletive) you to the league. Yes, that's possible, but no one on the Colts or in the league believes this will happen. They think Irsay's inner pragmatism will take over.

Irsay, I'm told, wants to hire an NFL assistant; some new coaching blood to go along with his theme of remaking the franchise almost entirely. This is the safer route and why Tressel doesn't make sense. The NFL is littered with the bodies of great college coaches who failed in the NFL from Steve Spurrier to Nick Saban and dozens of men between.

Do NFL assistants fail? Yes. But the failure rate for college coaches making the try is astronomical.

Again, Irsay is very different, and he could shock the NFL world with a Tressel hire.

But I think the team is heading in the direction of a hire like Pagano.

OPENING HIT: To say the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a little upset with Chip Kelly is an understatement. They are, well, furious.

A team source confirmed a Register-Guard report from Eugene that Kelly had agreed, then backed out of an agreement to coach the Bucs. It concludes yet another strange chapter in the history of Tampa coaching searches.

The Bucs are angry. One team source called Kelly "wishy-washy" and used a few other choice words. This is from the Bucs team perspective, and I suspect Kelly will give his side very shortly (and that side of the story will be portrayed very differently). But in the end none of this reflects well on Kelly. He looks soft, at least from the NFL side of things.

There is some history behind the Bucs being irritated. Bill Parcells had agreed to become the coach in 1992 and then famously backed out at the last second. That led to one of the funniest (saddest?) quotes in recent NFL history when owner Hugh Culverhouse said: "I feel like I've been jilted at the altar."

Now they've been jilted again.

The Miami Dolphins have completed their coaching search and hired Joe Philbin, according to a team source.

Philbin was the Packers' offensive coordinator and by many accounts he is one of the league's bright young talents. Now, it's easy to be a bright young talent when you have Aaron Rodgers as the quarterback but Philbin is still extremely innovative.

The Dolphins need an offensive mind and it also doesn't hurt the Dolphins that Philbin is tied to Matt Flynn, the quarterback in Green Bay.

A source close to Flynn told me that Flynn would "love to the challenge of being a starter" but emphasized he's loyal to the Packers. But if you had to wager don't put a lot of cash on Flynn staying in Green Bay.

It's been an emotional ride for Philbin and his family. Philbin lost his son in a tragic accident and now, just a short time later, he's set to become coach of the Dolphins.

OPENING HIT: Jim Irsay revealed his draft plans in an interview with ESPN. Just gave it all up. No waterboarding required. Here you go, peeps, what we're going to do: it's going to be Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin. So, there's that. Mystery solved.

“With Griffin and Luck and the way it’s shaping up at the top of the draft — could very likely go one and two like with Peyton and Ryan Leaf,” Irsay said. “It’s most likely one of those quarterbacks that you really feel is the best player in the draft, and where we’re at moving forward you can’t pass that up. I don’t think anyone would expect that.”

It all sounds very logical and that's what Irsay may indeed be planning but it's rare for an owner or GM to say: this is what we're going to do. In fact, it almost never happens.

So is Irsay using ESPN to help him bluff the league? Or using the network to help boost potential trade value? Or is Irsay sincere?

If you've ever read Irsay on Twitter you know he's a different sort of dude so some of this is not exactly out of his purview.

But it's still odd for an owner to declare their intentions this early which leads me to believe there is a tad bit of bluffitude going on here.

The Colts don't know about Manning's health and Irsay's logic is sound but...

This still reeks of a set up.

There was a report the Indianapolis Colts are at least considering disgraced former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel as head coach, who is on the Indianapolis staff as a gameday consultant. I checked with a Colts source and he said this: "No way in hell."

But this is the interesting part. The source explained that owner Jim Irsay likes Tressel and does want him to have some sort of role in the organization (a new head coach will have some say in that of course). Which is, well, incredible. If you remember Tressel resigned as Ohio State coach after it was determined the Buckeyes had numerous rules violations under his watch. Ohio State later self-vacated its entire 2010 season.

It would be totally out of the question for the Colts to make Tressel a head coach now. The Colts would be the laughingstock of the NFL.

But it's possible the Colts may keep Tressel in some capacity. Possible, not definite.

OPENING HIT: Rob Lowe tweeted that Peyton Manning would retire and the entire sports world lost its freaking mind.

This is a story about the power of social media and gullibility with a dash of ego to boot. It’s documented that Lowe is friends with Colts owner Jim Irsay who is a master tweeter and a guy who likes to have fun, too.

This is what I think happened. Lowe pulled the Manning news out of his ass. He tweeted it. Irsay saw his tweet and then decided to play along. So washed up actor s--- stirrer + social media + rumor = gold.

Now, my belief is that Manning just might retire. I’ve long believed that but I don’t think Lowe knows a damn thing. This is the NFL, not St. Elmo’s Fire. Future plans of one of the great passers of all time don’t get leaked to actors. Unless it’s Jim Brown. Or maybe Burt Reynolds.

So here we are. Another historic moment in social media. An 80s star tweets about Manning retiring and we all lose it. Not sure who that speaks more ill of. Lowe…

…or us.

OPENING HIT: Drew Brees' contract expires soon. It'll get done, of course. Right. Right? Hello? Is this thing on?

That's what the Saints continually say. Brees will be back, a new deal will come. I do believe that. Mostly. Kind of. But in speaking with sources on both sides of this there is a certain amount of digging in. The talks between the two sides (for now at least) have gone nowhere. That can change in an instant but for the moment the gap is wide.

I was once told months ago this would get done fairly easily but now there won't be anything easy about it. This has the potential to get long and nasty and could extend into off-season workouts and well into training camp.

I don't understand the Saints' handling of this at all. For everything Brees has done for that organization -- a Super Bowl, a class act, a great representative off the field post-Katrina -- you roll out the ATM machine for Brees. You pay the man. You freaking pay the man.

Trust me on this: Brees feels the same way. He'll never say it publicly but he does and I can't blame him. His contract status should have never, ever reached this point. It's a blemish on Saints ownership and management that it has.

According to NFL blogger Brian McIntyre, the Saints have $125M in cash committed (guaranteed and non-guaranteed) to players over 2012 and 2013. That's the second lowest in league to Cincinnati's $90M. That's pretty bad.

Time will pass, this will get done, but it may not be pretty along the way.

This could get nasty before it gets better.

OPENING HIT: One of the reasons why I've always liked fans of the Green Bay Packers is that I've always felt they're the best combination of smart, passion and non-jackass. Let me explain. Packers fans have the passion of the most rabid fan bases without the nastiness. Few fans are more informed about their team. It's a way of life for Packers fans. These aren't Gator fans or Ohio State fans who are insecure and nasty. These a true football fans who know how to have a passionate debate without getting ugly. It's the best component of their fandom.

On Sunday night, after a brutal loss, a handful of Packers fans -- malicious idiots -- engaged in some of the nastier acts by fans, any fans, I've ever seen. All on Twitter. This isn't an indictment of the entire Packers fan base. This is an indictment of a few knuckleheads and the age we live in. We live in a period where there are plenty of anonymous gangsters who have turned message boards into sewers and a nice medium like Twitter into, at times, garbage.

Some of these idiots went after Packers players on Twitter after the loss -- and the families of Packers players. They completely crossed a line. Jermichael Finley was attacked by fans for dropping a pass but some of the fans didn't stop there. They attacked his wife, Courtney, on Twitter. Leading to her posting this: "If ure bored tonight & want to see how disgusting people treat other people.. Feel free to go thru my mentions 2 see how heartless ppl r."

I won't repeat some of the stuff posted but it was truly nasty.

One fan actually went as far as to blame Joe Philbin for the loss. Philbin of course tragically lost his son.

Again, these animals don't represent the Packers faithful. But this was still bad. It was a sad moment, actually.

I've always believed the NFL should act against Twitter goons. Find out who they are and if they have season tickets, yank them. If they don't, ban them from buying anything NFL related. Use the best available technology to pursue and ban these jackasses.

This is how great the Packer fan base is: Packers fans began to blast the idiots who were posting the ugly things. It warmed my heart and gave me hope that the Internet hasn't turned completely into a cesspool.