Transaction Wire

"55, 54, and... 53" Edition

• Rockets trade Eric Piatkowski, Mike Wilks, and Adrian Griffin to the Bulls for Dikembe Mutombo. Well, the Bulls get a little younger in Piatkowski (although only by 4 years), and some almost-potential in Wilks, a '99 co-rookie of the month once. The Rockets get a decent defensive backup for Yao and perhaps the greatest dunk contest spectator of all time.


• Bears release Vontez Duff. The reasons why were covered in last week's Transaction Wire.


• Jets release Ken-Yon Rambo and Little John Flowers. Is it even legal to release guys named Rambo and Little John on the same day?


• Ravens release Javin Hunter. "MyBoyfriendJavinHunter," as he is known to Niele Ivey, Javin played in 12 games for the Ravens, making five catches and returning 4 kickoffs. He missed the 2003 season due to injury, and apparently was switched to cornerback some time between this year and last. Well, the experiment at corner obviously didn't work, and now it looks like Hunter will have to live off of Niele's WNBA money.


• Texans release tight eng Jabari Holloway. Holloway, who started his career with the Patriots but did not play for them, had 16 starts and 15 catches in 26 games for Houston. Unless Jabari is picked up by somone soon, Notre Dame's Computer Science and Engineering Department will have to change all of their "Where Do Notre Dame CSE graduates end up? 1% - NFL" pie charts. That's unfortunate, because that was one of the few jokes they used in the department graduation ceremony.


• Eagles cut Dorsey Levens. If only ND were that deep at running back again....


• Cardinals release Cedric Hilliard. If Mike wasn't married already, he'd definitely be upset that he wouldn't be able to use "I got blocked by an NFL player in a Bookstore Basketball game once" as a pickup line after this.


• Seahawks sign Sigmund Jalapeno favorite Taco Wallace to their practice squad.


• Packers waive Tyreo Harrison. Harrison spent 2002 and 2003 with the Philadelphia Eagles, making 3 tackles in 14 games. I'm assuming that those were mostly in a special teams role.

Even with these cuts, there are still more than a few Irish making it in the NFL, including some recent ones (Arnaz Battle and Rocky Boiman were thrust into starting roles this year, and David Givens is starting to get some attention as a Super Bowl-winning receiver). Tomorrow: my "trying to stay positive" ND-Michigan preview.