Gunther Cunningham saw something that angered him through his yellow-tinted duck hunting glasses on Sunday. In response, he extended his middle finger, apparently in the direction of some Cowboys defenders. But it’s OK, Gunther… Dick Vermeil ain’t mad atcha.

“Hey, he made a mistake, and that happens,” Vermeil said. “I have seen that sign of peace in a national broadcast by an NCAA college football player (ed note: WHAT UP, CHRIS HENRY!). That’s a sign of frustration more than anything else, and sometimes, they deserve it.

“We all should demonstrate more professional poise, and he would tell you the same thing. But in the heat of the battle sometimes when you’re an intense, passionate, guy like he is… I don’t know how many of you have ever put yourself in that kind of environment to know what finger you might wave.”

Vermeil didn’t even cry. Gunther could still be fined by the league, which might put a dent in the number of clay discs he can purchase and shoot at in the offseason.

Police officers in Utah were questioning Deron Williams and Robert Whaley about a bar brawl, when Williams and Whaley decided to give the cops fake names. Whaley went with “Bobby Williams” and Williams went with “Torry Ellis.” They both could learn a lot from Michael Vick.

They’ve both been cited with providing false information to an officer, and neither of them would’ve faced any charges at all had they just told the truth. And it’s hard to imagine how they got caught, especially in the case of Robert Whaley, because 6’10″ black men are so common in Park City, Utah. Half the black people in Utah play for the Jazz. How did they think that no one was going to catch on to this?

I think we should give Whaley the benefit of the doubt for now… after all, he did go to Cincinnati (before transferring to Walsh), where Bob Huggins taught the team about lying to the cops right after he taught them to play the 2-3 matchup zone. “Alright boys, you’ve got to stay with the cutter until he gets close to another guy, then you switch it. Also, never tell the cops your real name.’ Okay, let’s run that again.”

Jermaine O’Neal is already talking glowingly about potential replacements for Ron Artest. Since this all went down, O’Neal’s done everything but offer to pack Artest’s bags for him and drive him to the airport. And I guess it’s hard to blame him. I don’t think he ever really disliked Ron Artest the person, but he clearly feels like the Pacers are better off without him. When the trade goes down, you may hear Jermaine actually burst into song.

The two guys he has in mind are Al Harrington and Bonzi Wells. Even more telling, however, is someone he specifically does not have in mind. Peja Stojakovic.

“If Peja was brought to this team, we’d do what we can do to help him get into our style of play,” says O’Neal. “Western Conference basketball is much different than Eastern Conference basketball. It’s more of a slowdown pace. We don’t run around, we don’t do the fancy passes, we don’t do any of that stuff. We don’t have the space, especially with me being on the team. It gets real crowded, and guys help a lot against our team.

“He’s a big time shooter, but I think there would have to be an adjustment period for him defensively with our style of play.”

I’m sure that Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh appreciate the help, but I don’t know if Jermaine O’Neal is yet in the stratosphere of players who can have a say on roster moves. He may be exactly right, I don’t know, but it’s not his place to say so. And even if he does really feel the need to say something, he shouldn’t be doing it in public. Because if Larry Bird goes out now and does trade for Peja, it creates some friction. If they trade for anyone other than Bonzi Wells or Al Harrington now, it creates at least the perception of friction. It will look like Bird has gone against the wishes of his star player, and they’ll both be answering questions about it for a month.