Hand-me-down owners love to spend recklessly

In a town heavy on team owners who inherited their teams or the money to buy them, it’s a blessing to have been left several hundred million dollars less than what it takes to buy one.

That way, you never have to sign a check for millions of dollars, made out to complete knuckleheads.

The Buffalo Bills last week re-signed wide receiver Stevie Johnson. One week short of becoming an unrestricted free agent, Johnson, who has a nasty habit of keeping both sides in the game, signed a five-year extension for $36.25 million.

You might recall Johnson from last year’s Bill-Jets game on CBS. Without Stevie Johnson playing the fool, Woody Johnson’s Super Bowl-bound Jets might have finished 7-9 instead of 8-8.

Johnson’s the bright light who, after catching a touchdown pass to give Buffalo a second-quarter lead, did that extended, prefabricated pantomime mocking Plaxico Burress for his self-inflicted gunshot wound, then kept it up, mocking the Jets’ “take flight” TD celebration.

Johnson was flagged. The Jets then virtually were assured good field position as the Bills were forced to kick from their own 20. Dave Rayner flubbed the kick. The Jets took possession at Buffalo’s 36 and several plays later scored a TD to tie the game. The Jets won, 28-24.

Johnson also was fined for his behavior. Five weeks later, he was flagged, fined and benched for another all-about-me display.

The season before last, Johnson dropped an easy catch in the end zone against the Steelers in overtime. Perhaps he was focusing on the dance he planned to perform. The Bills lost that game, too.

Last week they renewed Johnson for five years, $36.25 million.

So thanks, Dad. Mom, too. You left me so little it was impossible for me to spend foolishly — let alone buy a big league team. I plan to do the same for my kids. It’s the least I can do.

Bobby is still a bully

You would think that Bobby Knight, given that ESPN has purged his preeminent presence from its Coaches Gone Berserk reel since Knight joined ESPN, would show a little network loyalty. But during Friday’s Baylor-Kansas State telecast on ESPN2, he ridiculed ESPN “bracketologist” Joe Lunardi as a know-nothing.

Besides, judging from Knight’s ESPN work this season, Lunardi paid far more attention to college hoops than did Knight.

The best reason to watch tonight’s Turner/Grant Hill and Christian Laettner co-produced documentary/take on Duke’s NCAA championship teams of 1991 and ’92 (8-9 p.m.) is that it will be on truTV, normally the primetime home of low-brow, scripted “reality” shows. Tonight’s Duke doc could make history as the first new primetime programming on truTV that actually is true.

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