So far, the Rams feel good about taking tackle Jason Smith instead of tackle Andre Smith with the second overall pick in the NFL Draft.

Jason signed on time and made steady progress through the preseason. Andre, who fell to Cincinnati at No. 6, didn’t sign with the Bengals until after the third preseason game.

And then he immediately suffered a broken foot. He won’t be back until some point in the regular season. Nice.

“Andre suffered a small fracture in his left foot during a non-contact drill,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said in a statement. “Our medical staff tells me the injury will not require surgery. It’s too soon to closely predict how long it will be before he can return to practice, but it looks like he’s going to miss a few weeks.”

That is reassuring for long-suffering Bengal fans, who have seen one draft bust after another come through.

While sidelined, can Andre keep his weight down? To put it politely, his size tends to fluctuate.

Andre has a weight clause in his contract, reportedly set at 350 pounds. Smith’s conditioning became a bit of an issue for NFL teams before the draft.

He was a sloppy mess at the scouting combine . . . until he abruptly left the proceedings, presumably to get something more to eat.

This being the Cincinnati Bengals, Tipsheet expects this to end very badly for all parties involved.

THE JOYS OF “SHAQ VS.”

When the Cards game dragged a bit at Busch Stadium, Tipsheet stepped into the Busch Stadium media lounge to watch a bit of the Shaquille O’Neal-Albert Pujols showdown on ABC.

We get that Shaq is going for comedy here, but couldn’t he have taken a few hitting lessons to realize that power is derived from the waist down? He looked more than silly flailing away with those huge arms.

Check it out here if you missed it.

And just for laughs, watch the man dabble in beach volleyball.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering if Troy Glaus will get a couple of starts at third base before this season ends:

• With Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Kyle Lohse, Ryan Franklin, Dennys Reyes and Trever Miller locked up for next year — and with Kyle McClellan, Blake Hawksworth, Mitchell Boggs and Jason Motte under contract control — would Dave Duncan really step aside as pitching coach?
• When was the last time the Cards headed toward the offseason with so much pitching in place?
• When Adrian Beltre finally returned from his severe testicle injury, did they really have to play the “Nutcracker Suite” before his first at bat? (Evidence provided in the Seattle Times game blog.)
• Is it a good idea for Ron Artest to cover Celine Dion songs within range of camera phones?
• Isn’t it nice to see David Ortiz hit like his old self again?

QUIPS ‘R US

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

Steve Rosenbloom, ChicagoTribune.com: “The Cubs were coming home to the NL East’s Club Med package of the Nationals and Mets, and not only did they barely win half the games instead of sweeping the way they absolutely needed to, the Cubs fell out of the division race by double digits.”

Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Shortly after getting the Denver job, Josh McDaniels explored trading for New England backup quarterback Matt Cassel. McDaniels studied under Bill Belichick. But he must’ve flunked covert operations. Word of his interest in Cassel got back to Jay Cutler, who demanded a traded and ended up in Chicago. McDaniels also has suspended his best offensive player, Brandon Marshall, for two weeks, but it’s kind of hard to pick sides in that one. McDaniels is replacing Mike Shanahan, one of the best coaches in NFL history. This certainly has worked out.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Bobby Knight will be inducted into the Indiana University Hall of Fame. IU will accommodate an expected large crowd by asking Knight to throw several more chairs into the room.”

Bill Simmons, ESPN.com: “Are we happy with these matches of sport and celebration? For instance, I’d love to see baseball players adopt the tennis celebration: hit a homer and just sink to your knees in complete shock for five seconds as everyone angrily stares at you. Wouldn’t it be more fun if the winning tennis player sprinted 40 yards like a soccer player and acted like a crazy person? What if a golfer and caddy did a two-man jump-up-and-down celebration like baseball players after a walk-off?”

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “Joba Chamberlain, a big, strong guy in his third major league season, is being limited to three-inning stints. And I’m wondering, do the Yankee trainers powder his bottom, too?”

Norman Chad, syndicated columnist, on Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez: “As soon as the media declared Sanchez was the greatest thing since the combine harvester and the Lions had taken the wrong QB (Matthew Stafford) with the overall No. 1 pick in the draft, I realized the pretty boy from Southern Cal was going to be a pretty big bust. Because, as a rule, when the media and/or public go one way, it’s a pretty safe bet to go the other way. Sanchez has movie star looks and throws a nice pass. If he can act, Hollywood should cast him as a quarterback in its next big football blockbuster. As for playing a quarterback in real life in New Jersey, I think he’s going to be more Turnpike Mark than Broadway Joe.”

MEGAPHONE

“Do I regret it? Absolutely, It was a very, very bad moral decision on my part and an even worse financial decision on my part. So everything is cool now. I talked to who I needed to talk to and apologized to those I had to apologize to. It was so stupid and trivial for me to do that. Sometimes when you get emotional, things happen like that.”

Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora, apologizing for his brief walkout.