I'll say this about Rice: Even though he caught only 25 passes for Seattle last fall (along with five catches with Oakland), he had his highest yards-per-catch average (14.3 yards) since 1995. So his legs haven't fallen off. The three teams I think he'd be a good fit on -- if he could make it out of training camp healthy -- are Atlanta, Baltimore and the New York Giants. He could help steer Mike Vick right, be a good mentor-type for young Ravens wideouts or show Plaxico Burress how to work while giving the Giants the kind of trusty backup receiver they're searching for.

I asked Steiner how Rice sees himself as a player right now.

"He thinks if he was 31, he'd be in the league and have a good job,'' Steiner said. "But because he's 42, he feels like, 'Nobody wants me.' It's an age thing.''

And I asked how Rice would feel if forced to take his ball and go home.

"There probably would some disappointment,'' Steiner said. "But it wouldn't be overwhelming for him.''

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Yes, we sell dehydrated urnie separatley.''
 -- The Web site for "The Original Whizzinator," which, as of this morning, spelled "urine'' and "separately'' incorrectly.

My guess is that most who log onto the Whizzinator's Web site probably don't notice the misspellings.

The Whizzinator now enters football legend. It's the device Minnesota running back Onterrio Smith was caught with last month. The bizarre contraption which, if you haven't read about it, I refuse to describe here, enables players to cheat on drug tests.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Jarrett Payton, trying to make his way onto the Tennessee Titans roster, is doing all he can in NFL Europe to make it happen. He's rushing for 6.6 yards a carry, with five touchdowns, after six weeks with the Amsterdam Admirals.

AGGRAVATING/ENJOYABLE TRAVEL NOTE OF THE WEEK

So the other day I'm at King's, the north Jersey grocery store, and I have the Golden retriever, Bailey, in the back seat. Windows open.

"Hello there!'' says the lady putting her groceries into her trunk in the car next to mine.

"Hi,'' I say. "How are you?''

"I'm not talking to you,'' she says. "I'm talking to that precious dog!''

"Oh,'' I say.

I start walking toward the store.

"You're not leaving your dog there, are you?'' she says.

"Yeah,'' I said.

"People will steal your dog,'' she said. "I'm a dog breeder, and I've see cases where people break windows in cars to get at dogs like that.''

"She'll be fine,'' I said.

"You better come out to check on her!''

With that, I bid good-bye to the Doggie Nutjob and went into the store.

FACTOID THAT MAY INTEREST ONLY ME

The Cleveland Indians made two trips to Anaheim during the first six weeks of the baseball season. And today they meet again, in Cleveland. So by midweek, the baseball season will be less than 25 percent finished for the Indians, and the Tribe will have played the Angels for the eighth and final time -- while having not played Oakland, Boston, New York, Baltimore or Tampa Bay yet.