CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)—Michael Jordan and his Bobcats NBA team donated $250,000 to middle-school athletics programs in Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city.

The Charlotte Observer says the NBA hall-of-famer and North Carolina native announced the gift Monday.

Jordan, who made a fortune playing in the NBA and marketing his image as one of the world’s best-known athletes, talked about being a contributor to the Charlotte community when he bought the Bobcats this spring.

That was it. Yeah, that’s the ticket. It was the thin air. It was jet lag. We had trouble breathing. There are mountains of excuses that could be used to justify the less than stellar performance of the Steelers third, second, fourth, or possibly first string quarterback Dennis Dixon and possibly the odd man out, Charlie Batch.

Let’s deal with first things first. Denver beat Pittsburgh, 34-17. The sirens are wailing and mouths are flailing. Here are a few of the things that are burning up the wire. “Dennis Dixon is not ready. He is nothing more than a third-string quarterback, whose legs are far more equipped than his arm or his brain.” Some of these folks seem to be as Aretha Franklin would so aptly point out card carrying members of “the chain of fools.” Why do I have to keep beating my prognosticator, “Kemosabe” drum?

Pittsburgh is rivaling the rest of the country as the hot spot for City of Championship Supremacy. Former world champion Monty Meza-Clay, (29-3), fighting in front of the “City of Champions” crowd, needed less than three rounds to stop Allen “American Boy” Litzau, (13-6), of Minnesota, at the Rivers Casino Amphitheatre last Saturday night.

FIGHT FANS COME OUT—A large crowd and boaters on the Ohio River watch the live boxing action at the “Rumble on the River” at the Rivers Casino Amphitheatre.

Meza-Clay got the sellout crowd hyped before the fight by doing the Rankin “Electric Slide” and shadowboxing in front of a big glass overlooking the amphitheatre.

(AP)—There’s always been a place in college football for the undersized back, but it seems as if there are more great little guys than ever before. Here are six (in no particular order) who will star in 2010. And since small is subjective, we’ll make the cutoff 5-10 and 200 pounds.

Dion Lewis, 5-8, 197, Pittsburgh. As coach Dave Wannstedt puts it, Lewis does not run like a small back. Unlike some others on this list, he doesn’t play in a spread which allows him to operate in space. He runs between the tackles and went for 1,799 yards and 17 TDs as a freshman last season.

PITT ALL-AMERICAN—Running back Dion Lewis scoots away from a defender during practice. Lewis will need to do the bulk of the work for the Pitt offense in the opener against Utah.