This and that

• A couple of Peter King's Ten Things I Think I Think from MMQB are a defense of Hines Ward's hit on Keith Rivers and doubt that Carson Palmer's elbow will be better anytime soon. Worth reading.

• Not much in the way of Reds' hot stove league action lately, but the New York Post's Joel Sherman has an item in his Hardball column about Russell Martin being a surprise name on the trade market and mentions the Reds as one of several teams looking for catching. If the Reds were to add Martin, that would be pretty outstanding, but I'm not holding my breath.

• The Oregonian's Jason Quick has a blog post about Greg Oden's reaction when he was told his performance during the preseason has been underwhelming.

• Buckeye fans also shouldn't miss Pat Forde's column about Terrelle Pryor.

• My friend Stewart Mandel offers his take on Lou Holtz's Adolf Hitler comment.

• Bill Koch has a nice Brian Kelly quote on his blog about how UC hasn't beaten anybody and doesn't deserve to be ranked yet.

• I haven't been reading Page 2 lately, but Bill Simmons' latest features a look at just how bad the Bengals are and a hilarious item about Cris Collinsworth.

• Finally: Fantasy-wise, I know I've slacked. I'm supposed to be posting fantasy advice/observations in addition to This & That, but it's been a while. All I can do is promise to be more diligent about my fantasy contributions and, in the meantime, share a link to the latest from ESPN.com's Talented Mr. Roto, whose By The Numbers includes the following:

1,000,000: Number of times it seemed that I looked up and saw Ryan Fitzpatrick get sacked.

Number of receptions each by T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Chad Johnson. There are actually signs of life in Cincy. I thought Fitzpatrick looked OK at times, and both receivers are decent buy-low options.