NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

Former Giant and current MMA fighter Matt Mitrione scored a technical knockout against youtube sensation Kimbo Slice.  Mitrione signed with the Giants as an undrafted free agent out of Purdue in 2002, appearing in nine games with no starts.  He has currently fought twice and is undefeated.  You can read about the bout here.

It sounds like the Saints are not going to be bringing former LSU and Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell anytime soon. Rumors popped up upon his release that the Saints may be one team to take a flier on Russell, but coach Sean Payton says the Super Bowl champs don’t have an interest at this time.

Russell, the first overall pick of the 2007 draft, was downright awful with the Raiders, winning just 8 games in three years with them. He finally was shown the door on Thursday after a minicamp the weekend before where the team finally felt he was never going to be the player they thought they got at number one.

Eagles wide out DeSean Jackson seems to be ready to move on from the Donovan McNabb era in Philadelphia, telling Sporting News that he was “very happy with the decision” by the Eagles to trade McNabb to the Redskins on Easter Sunday. Jackson also said: “I don’t think we lost anything, even with McNabb being gone.”

McNabb, who has been working to try to win over his current teammates in the Nation’s Capital, took the high road in responding to Jackson’s comments. “It’s so wild when people get to talking when you’re not there, but when you’re there everybody loves you,” McNabb said.

“So I guess people will go deeper into it than I will. I’m a Redskin, no longer an Eagle. I had 11 great years and I’m moving on with my life, so whoever may say things when I’m gone, more power to them, but it’s not making you look like a bigger man.”

The Niners would love to have a big year from former first overall pick Alex Smith, and Jimmy Raye, the teams offensive coordinator, says he feels the QB has finally turned the corner:

Interesting quote from San Francisco offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye about quarterback Alex Smith. “There’s a tremendous change in him from the way he carries himself and walks in and out of the building with an air of confidence, a totally different guy. If you want to digress to when he came here a year ago and he was six or seven weeks into the year, it’s a totally different guy. In terms of his confidence, familiarity with what he’s doing, his sense of entitlement, I think all of those things are manifesting themselves right now because of the success that he had, even though some people may deem it as minimal or maybe even being a little suspect about it. For him, from what I’ve seen, there’s been a tremendous change.”

It sounds like from this letter that Deadspin got their hands on that Art Rooney II is starting to get a little tired of fans beating on the clubs franchise QB. Rooney sounds like while he’s still very peeved in every way about what Ben did, he sounds like he realizes it’s time to start looking ahead and putting what happened in early March aside.

Art Rooney II has been vocal about his disappointment in quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s off-field behavior and continues to condemn him both publicly, and in letters to concerned fans. The letter reads: “Thank you for your letter regarding Ben Roethlisberger. All of us in the Steelers family are concerned about the recent behavior of Ben in Georgia. I am certainly as concerned as you about our players’ behavior. I believe we have made it clear to Ben and all of our players, that there will be consequences for behavior that does not meet our standards,” the letter starts. The vast majority of our players are good people people who work hard to be the best that they can be.” In a telephone survey performed during the two days before Ben Roethlisberger was suspended by the NFL, 23% of people identifying themselves as Steelers fans said they wanted the quarterback traded.