With the Cardinals scuffling this week, the Cubs had their chance to cut their National League Central lead and make this weekend more interesting.

Naturally, they declined to do so. After a 7-4 loss to the Brewers Thursday afternoon, exasperated Small Bears manager Lou Piniella initially refused to speak with reporters.

The Chicago Tribune gave us a harrowing look inside the Cubs locker room after their latest fiasco.

ChicagoTribune.com blogger Steve Rosenbloom recently offered assessment of enigmatic outfielder Milton Bradley: “The Cubs’ $30 million right fielder was taken out in the third inning Wednesday night after striking out looking and after looking particularly uninspired on a ground ball. This, mind you, from the big-talking $30 million right fielder who claimed he always goes 250 percent. Or maybe he said he was just hoping to hit .250. Hard to know sometimes, you know?”

Finally, would-be pitching ace Carlos Zambrano is now willing to accept a trade out of the North Side. Here is a probing interview with the Z.

Florida has assembled one of the most talented college football teams in recent memory. So Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin will soon regret agitating Gators coach Urban Meyer.

You may recall that after taking the Tennessee job, Kiffin told folks he looked forward to “singing Rocky Top all night long after we beat Florida next year.”

Uh, oh.

Kiffin personally angered Meyer by wrongly accusing him of a recruiting violation, Yahoo! Sports reminded us of how Kiffin is viewed down at the Swamp:

Florida offensive lineman Matt Patchan recently referred to Kiffin as “a bozo,” and pieces of paper with Kiffin’s quote about singing “Rocky Top” after a victory on Saturday have been hanging in the Gators’ locker room since March, when players reportedly texted Meyer and told him to save some extra timeouts for the end of the game so they could soak up – and rub in – a blowout victory.

Yes, even if it’s only for one day, Kiffin’s mouth finally appears to have pinned him into a corner from which he can’t escape. Barring an upset of mammoth proportions, he’ll be given his medicine as more than 90,000 Gators fans cheer on each dose.

Finally, let us not forget the unfortunate “Wild Boys” recruiting skit from earlier this year — a scene that will live in SEC infamy.

Here is a recreation of that event.

Sigh. It’s a shame they don’t make Cubs like Mark Grace anymore.
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering why the Flames are giving 900-year-old Theo Fleury his comeback opportunity:

• Is there any chance the Redskins will try to goad Richie Incognito this week?
• Are the Rams aware that Washington has an elite tight end? Are they planning on covering Chris Cooley or letting him run free, as they did with John Carlson?
• By the way, is there a better NFL blogger than Cooley?
• Is it possible that Derek Jeter is overrated, giving the over-the-top coverage he gets in greater New York City?
• Why does Major League Baseball force also-ran teams to play out the string? Isn’t there something better they could do with their time?

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “I am not making this up. I just received an email from a PR company in New York touting the next issue of  ‘Success’ magazine. Imagine my surprise when Serena Williams was on the cover, with the headline, ‘A champion on the court and off.’ Unfortunately, tight deadlines prevented the magazine from including the subject’s most recent champ-like moment: ‘I swear to God, I’m [bleepin’] takin’ this ball and shovin’ it in your [bleepin’] throat . . . I swear to God.’”

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “Houston puts up 512 yards on Oklahoma State I have to wonder: is this the best defense that T. Boone Pickens can buy?”

Ray Ratto, San Francisco Chronicle, on the A’s: “Truth is . . .  they are playing better baseball this month than in any of the past five - just enough, perhaps, to hang their hats on something good come winter. We say perhaps, of course, because September is a small sample size for a team that’s been out of contention since June. I mean, knocking the Texas Rangers out of the playoff race is nice and all, but it’s not really the sort of thing you put on the front of the media guide: “A’s 2010: We Eliminated a Team Whose Owner Is Broke!’”

T.J. Simers, Los Angeles Times: “It was hard to argue with the accountant, John Shaw, recommending to Georgia Frontiere she move her Rams to St. Louis, where she would collect more than $25 million a year. A woman has to shop after all. The blunder of all blunders, though, belongs to Al Davis, who has become a blithering idiot with the passage of time and so many losing years, the Rams handing the Los Angeles market to him in 1994, and Davis fumbling the opportunity.”

MEGAPHONE

“You go out from the first quarter on, from the first play on, and try to embarrass them. Not just go out there and try to win, try to embarrass them. Try to make them feel bad when they leave here. We don’t want to just beat them. We want to send a message to them, ‘We’re not backing down from you and we expect to win this game, and it’s not going to be luck, it’s not going to be a mistake.’”

Jets safety Kerry Rhodes, to the New York Daily News, on the Patriots.