Andy Dalton puts end to lame 'Red Ryder BB gun' beef with JJ Watt

Right after Monday night's game at Paul Brown Stadium, the Texans' J.J. Watt and Bengals' Andy Dalton got into a public war of words after the defensive end joked on national television that "Our goal was to come out here and make the Red Rifle look like a Red Ryder BB Gun."

ICYMI: Andy Dalton lectures @JJWatt before grounding him for 2 weeks. pic.twitter.com/hoC1xKu9BY

— Faux NFL Network™ (@FauxNFLnetwork) November 17, 2015

Dalton countered later Monday night during the post-game press conference by shooting back:

"I'm disappointed in [Watt's comments]. The integrity of this game -- I have a lot of respect for him. He's a really good player. There's a lot of kids and a lot of people who look up to him. For him to make comments like that, he's showing that's acceptable to do that kind of stuff, to say that kind of stuff. It's disappointing for one of the best players in this league to come out and say something like that. That's all I'm going to say about that. I think J.J. is a good player, but for him to be one of the best in this league and to show that integrity, and to show that type of ... it shows what he's about, which is disappointing."

Hence, one of the lamest feuds in NFL history was on.

OK. Dalton may have overreacted, but on Wednesday, like making a giant Wonder Bread sandwich, the Bengals quarterback spread a comfortable amount of Cheez Whiz between the two NFL stars:

"What I did wrong is that I responded to what somebody said that he said," Dalton said via ESPN.com. "I never even heard his interview. So I don't know the context in which it was said. I don't know what he said before, I don't know what he said after. My part, I shouldn't have reacted the way I did without hearing what he said and actually hearing what he said. I was responding to what an interviewer tells me he said.

"My reaction wasn't warranted just because, again, I haven't seen it. I'm not going to watch, I don't care. I've got no ill will toward J.J. There's no feud between me and J.J. We lost the game. He said what he said, and we're moving on. That's in the past now."

There it is, beef over, Don't forget the Miracle Whip.

Are Daniel Herron's Buckeye socks adorned with marijuana plants? (PHOTO)

Following the Colts' 26-10 playoff victory over the Bengals, Daniel "Boom" Herron showed off a pair of Ohio State socks that he said contained the images of Buckeye leafs. Except they looked more like the leafs of a marijuana plant.

USA Today posted a photo of the running back's light red socks adorned with white images of what appeared to be plants of the smoking kind.

Boom Herron rocked Ohio State socks after being the Bengals - http://t.co/2jE61Zza5q pic.twitter.com/264O7Mqod2
— For The Win (@ForTheWin) January 4, 2015

Herron played for the Buckeyes, and Ohio State has a symbol on its helmet that looks like a marijuana plant, so you can give him a little slack. Except that these sock plants suspiciously had a few more “leaves” than the Buckeye leaf, which has only five.

Have fun in Colorado when you meet the Broncos next Sunday.

TV station sends little person to Marvin Lewis press conference after he called Johnny Manziel ‘a midget’ (VIDEO)

In a move directly out of a Howard Stern playbook, days after Bengals coach Marvin Lewis called Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel “a midget,” a Cleveland television station sent a little person to Lewis’ midweek press conference.

Cleveland’s FOX 8 assigned local media personality “Lil’ John” Rinaldi to Wednesday's presser to ask Lewis questions about the Browns and Manziel, who’ll make his first NFL start this Sunday against Lewis’ Bengals.

And it's no coincidence the diminutive reporter was in the room.

“Based on the height difference on a player like Manziel how has your defensive approach changed for Sunday’s game,” Rinaldi, who is 4-foot-3, asked Lewis.

Lewis answered Rinaldi’s question directly — along with a follow-up — albeit, a little uncomfortably.

The exchange happens in the video below (at 0:43):

The Bengals coach had already apologized for the comments made on a local radio show Monday night, when he was discussing how to defend the under-6-foot rookie and said “You’ve got to go defend the offense, you don’t defend the player,” before muttering “particularly a midget,” between questions from the show’s hosts.

He seems to be a reporter/employee for Fox 8 in Cleveland @WEWS @wcpo #Bengals pic.twitter.com/OqSGIpossZ
— Mark Slaughter (@MarkVSlaughter) December 10, 2014

As for Wednesday’s stunt by FOX 8, Lewis responded to it in humorless fashion and without using the M-word.

"I did not apologize directly to him, but the gentleman asked a couple questions in doing his job," Lewis told Cleveland.com of Rinaldi. "Hopefully I answered them correctly."

Bengals' Devon Still hasn't paid child support, says mother of cancer-stricken daughter: Report

Devon Still, who made headlines and won the hearts of fans from all over when the Cincinnati Bengals re-signed the once-cut player to help pay for his daughter's battle with cancer, has not paid child support in months, the little girl's mother claims.

Still, a defensive end for the NFL team, has not paid any child support for his four-year-old daughter Leah since July, according to her mother Channing Smythe.

The deadbeat claim threatens to overshadow what has been one of the few feel-good stories in a league otherwise riddled with controversy, including allegations of domestic violence and child abuse.

Smythe's attorney, Gloria Allred, has delivered a letter to the NFL asking it to investigate if Still has violated its Personal Conduct Policy by failing to pay child support, reported the New York Daily News.

"I don’t think it is fair that Devon Still, who is Leah’s father, has refused to pay any child support for her for the months of August, September, October and November of this year.," Smythe said in the letter.

Still's highly-publicized story began when he initially missed out on making Cincinnati's 53-man roster so he could be by his daughter's side while she endured expensive treatment for cancer. The sympathetic Bengals organization then offered him a spot on the practice squad, ensuring Leah would be covered under the team's health insurance policy.

Still fired back at the newspaper via Twitter:

@NYDNSports "Truth allows you to live with integrity. Everything you do and say shows the world who you really are. Let it be the Truth."
— Devon Still (@Dev_Still71) November 26, 2014

He claims he went public with his daughter's cancer diagnosis "not for sympathy," he wrote on Instagram, but "because I've come to the point where I no longer [am] feeling sorry but [want] to ask that y'all keep my daughter in your prayers...

"The more prayers that go up, the more faith we [have] that she will overcome this obstacle," he wrote.

The courageous Leah was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma in June and given a 50 per cent chance of survival. She has since endured surgery to remove a tumor, five rounds of chemotherapy, one round of radiotherapy and, most recently, stem cell treatment to restore bone marrow.

Still's trips from Cincinnati to Delaware to be with his daughter each time she goes in for treatment have been making news for months but, Smythe claims she has been unable to work at all because Leah needs full-time care.

Still's agent, a spokesman for the Bengals and an NFL spokesman did not respond to requests for comment when contacted by the Daily News.

He has set up a donation program encouraging people to pledge money for every sack the Bengals' defense gets this season in an effort to help raise money and awareness about pediatric cancer.

Hopefully this situation will be resolved right away and won't tarnish something the NFL can be proud of.

And — more importantly — a little girl's health.

Chris Simms lands football analyst gig at CBS: Report

Former NFL quarterback Chris Simms will continue following in his father Phil's footsteps and into the TV booth for CBS this fall.

Simms — who played in parts of five seasons for the Buccaneers, Titans and Broncos, but never fully recovered from a life-threatening ruptured spleen early in the 2006 season — will be analyzing three relatively low-profile games for the network, beginning with the Titans-Bengals matchup in Week 3.

The 34-year-old New Jersey native has never worked a minute in the booth of an NFL game but did work a few college games for Fox last season.

But dad thinks his son is a natural and has a lot of football knowledge under that shock of familial blond hair.

"I think he has great potential,"' Phil said. "He was raised to do it in this way. Him, me, my wife, anyone who walks into our house, most likely the conversation is going to center around football and we're going to talk about it. That's the way we've been our whole lives."

CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus went even further: "He's better looking and more articulate than his father is; he got his good looks from his mother . . . We're starting him very slowly on a few small games and we'll see how he grows, but he's got a great football mind and has worked not only as a player but as an assistant coach also." 

Simms had worked as a coaching and scouting assistant for the Patriots, but with two young children he sought a more family-friendly schedule. 

"I struggled with that," he said. "I was offered another job in the NFL, and that sparked a discussion with my wife: Are we going to live this life and move every two or three years to climb the ladder? This is a little more stable.

"My kids can grow up. This is still work. but I get home at a decent hour and see my kids every night."

Younger Simms' current job is as an analyst for Bleacher Report so he's knows what is going on around the league.

"I have to know everybody," he said. "I really know, I'm not going to say everything, but a lot about every team."

The big question remaining now is whether or not he'll say Redskins?