This and that

• Hopefully you were either watching the UC-USF game last night or you saw the top of SportsCenter. Here's the background info ... Mardy Gilyard plowed into a 7-year-old boy just beyond the end zone. The boy was crying and appeared to be injured (shaken up at the very least). Gilyard took off his helmet and picked up the boy and held him to make sure he was OK. Erin Andrews interviewed the boy a couple of minutes later, asked him about Gilyard's gesture, his sudden celebrity status, what he was going to be for Halloween, etc. Get this, the 7-year-old ... Garrett Monroe ... is my next-door neighbor!

Haven't seen the clip on YouTube yet ... I've seen it mentioned on message boards this morning, mostly about what a great guy Gilyard is for showing such concern. ESPN.com's game story has video highlights embedded, including a replay and a shortened version of Andrews' interview with Garrett.

I'll be talking to Garrett tonight in Liberty Township and will add any additional details to the blog. I definitely want to ask him how he feels a day later (poor guy's got to be sore!) and who told him to take his Ohio State hat off for the ESPN interview, among other things.

• ESPN.com's Brian Bennett offers post-game analysis, mostly about the Bearcats' impressive quarterback play in the upset.

• Speaking of UC, the Pistons signed Jason Maxiell to a 4-year extension worth $20 million.

• Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik gave the "we can't comment on any specific free agent at this time" line, but I don't think anyone would be surprised if Seattle brought Junior back.

The Arizona Republic points out that Adam Dunn hasn't filed for free agency yet, but adds that Dunn "was never expected to be more than a rental."

And yet another former Red, Wily Mo Pena, picked up his own option for 2009 after the Nationals declined a $5 million club option.

• KansasCity.com has a quick item about a New York Times story (I couldn't find, hence the link to KansasCity.com about the story) about a recent survey of players asked which coach they'd most like to play for and least like to play for and the best and worst organizations to be part of. Marvin isn't one of the five coaches on either list, but the Bengals were voted one of the five worst organizations.

• ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert wrote about Nightmare scenarios: Whom (and what) NFL players fear, which includes a section about Hines Ward and his crackbacks.

• Non-local link of the day: Non-local because Jimmy Traina's list of the five biggest No. 1 draft pick busts does NOT include Ki-Jana Carter.