Brownie Points - Cardinals should give Green pink slip

I sincerely hope the Arizona Cardinals have quit on Dennis Green. Otherwise, a team embarrassed by Oakland and Green Bay — pathetic squads themselves — is worse than anyone could have imagined.

Flat out, Green is a terrible onfield coach. Again, down three touchdowns with eight minutes left, his team showed all the urgency of a bank line. Then with three minutes left, Green discovers his playbook contains a twominute offense?

Should he be fired after losing seven straight games in every way possible? After blaming and demoting everyone but himself?

After being given complete control of the roster and salary and taking it nowhere in three years? Of course he should.

The only reason he might keep his job today is the only reason he got it in the first place — because the cheap-till-they-squeak Bidwills rarely make the right decision.

REMEMBERING RED

To my dad, he stole Bill Russell from the St. Louis Hawks for Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan in 1956.

To me, he stole Dennis Johnson from Phoenix for — get ready to cringe, Suns fans — Rick Robey in 1983.

But Red Auerbach, who left us Saturday at age 89, was an equal opportunity thief. Ask Golden State, which obtained the No. 1 pick in 1980 from Boston and Auerbach for Robert Parish and the No. 3 pick.

The Warriors took Joe Barry Carroll. The Celtics took Kevin McHale to go with Parish and were set for a decade.

IT COULDN’T HURT

On the surface, the $700,000 the Coyotes spent to sign Yanic Perreault looks like another reach since he’s 35 and coming off always-risky abdominal surgery.

But if healthy — and cappedout teams like Ottawa and Tampa Bay were trying to get him, which is a good sign — Perreault isn’t washed up.

He had 22 goals and 57 points in 69 games while playing responsible defensively (minus-3) last year in Nashville.

In addition, he wins 62 percent of his faceoffs and had 10 powerplay goals last season, and he surely couldn’t hurt a Phoenix team that doesn’t have a top line or a checking line to stop the opposition’s stars.

QUICK HITTERS

• Give the St. Louis Cardinals credit — they broke the jinx of a city (24 years), a manager (Tony La Russa, 1-3 in previous World Series) and the National League (1-3 since the Diamondbacks won in 2001) all in one shot.

• Arizona State saves its season (for another week) with an overtime win in Washington despite doing everything possible to give away a 14-point fourthquarter lead (penalties, bad special teams, poor defense, etc.).

• Tough year to be a Steelers fan? After losing in Oakland and sinking to 2-5 Sunday, it just got a whole lot tougher.