Links and notes: Odell in court, bad for CBS, and personnel arguments

I don't really care that the Steelers and Ravens are meeting up for the third time this season, playing for the AFC Championship. In one sense, it's nice that two of our teams in the division couldn't be displaced, beating the popular Chargers, the one-seed Titans, or the in-story Miami Dolphins.

We won't argue they have a better scouting department than we do, but we won't allow Paul Daugherty's point proving it either. It should also be pointed out that James Harrison was twice cut by the Steelers, then the Ravens, and back to the Steelers -- if you're a personnel person, how do you do you wake up in the morning knowing that you cut the eventual 2008 Defensive Player of the Year? Willie Parker? Heck, you signed a cheap undrafted running back for your offseason/preseason roster. Maybe James Johnson finds himself with a similar path. Maybe not. But I'm not fully on board with the scouting department argument with those two examples. Sometimes you just knock one out of the park, by chance.

I'm really disappointed in CBS' decision to give Pacman Jones a free nationally-based forum to answer questions regarding aging charges that Outside the Lines resurfaced Sunday morning. Pete Dougherty called the interview a "puppet show". I find it equally disappointing that a large part of the media accepts this, but chastised NBC when Matt Millen showed up on Football Night in America.

Former Bengals linebacker is set to appear in Erie County Common Pleas Court "for his final plea hearing on a felonious assault charge." If no plea deal is worked out, then the case is "set to go to trial Jan. 27."

Yes, yes, we know.