Don’t count out a Ricky Williams return

PHILADELPHIA — Ricky Williams is a lot of things, but he’s still a 27-year-old all-pro tailback who gained 5,470 yards from 2000 through ‘03. If you don’t think there will be significant interest in him next season, you haven’t been paying attention. Latrell Sprewell, reviled after choking P.J. Carlesimo, became a hero in New York once he put on the home whites.

“You’re going to need a team like the Raiders who don’t care about things like” Williams’ off-field habits, one general manager said Friday afternoon. “He’s not the first guy who’s been on strike two who came back. His contract isn’t that bad.” This GM maintains that even Miami shouldn’t be written off as a destination.

“The Dolphins are kind of in a tough spot,” he said. “Maybe a new coach comes in and maybe he takes the guy back.

“I know some of the players are negative but some of them aren’t as negative.”

One league source says that at least one team is “very enthusiastic” about Williams and wants to work out a deal with the Dolphins, provided Williams OKs the proposed deal being worked out between the league and his representatives. That deal would reinstate Williams once he served his four-game suspension for a second failed drug test — a suspension that would be served during the last four games of this season.

Can you say defense?

Peyton Manning’s assault on the record books is the stuff of an MVP-type season. But who expected the 8-3 Colts to really contend for the AFC title with their defense?

In its last three games, Indy’s defense has produced 14 turnovers — which has helped the Colts lead the league in takeaway-giveaway ratio at a sterling plus-17. Indy’s defense had produced only 15 takeaways in the team’s first eight games.

Defensive ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis have combined for 17 sacks, the most by any tandem in the league. But even after Indy’s 41-9 rout of Detroit on Thanksgiving Day, its defense is still ranked 31st overall in both total yards and passing yards allowed.

No crying in L.A.

There’s still hope among some in the league that pro football will return to Los Angeles by 2008. Some. A little.

Last month’s owners’ meetings in Michigan continued the slow process, with four prospective sites still alive. But at least a few owners wonder if it wouldn’t make sense to keep the L.A. market — the nation’s second-largest — open, at least for a while.

While the Raiders and Rams played there, because of blackout rules, stations couldn’t show a doubleheader game when the home team was playing on another station. And there was almost always a home team playing. Without a team, the L.A. market gets doubleheaders almost every week. NFL fans in the City of Angels are happy. Local stations are happy.