Rams report, 12/15

* Now the Chiefs are in trouble: Hyphen Jr. is back on the Rams' practice squad. That would be Jimmy Saddler-McQueen, replacing fellow DT Mitch King.

* SI.com has made the article disappear, but one of their fantasy columnists feels Matt Cassel is a certain starter for K.C. Sunday because appendectomies aren't the invasive surgery they used to be. Ben Roethlisberger missed Pittsburgh's season opener in 2006 because of an emergency appendectomy, but that happened only 4 days before a game on Thursday night. He started week 2, 15 days later. Cassel will have had 10 days after surgery coming into the game Sunday. Update: Cassel participated in today's Chiefs practice, at least at the beginning.

* Leonard Little has officially retired. He had been keeping the door open for a comeback if Steve Spagnuolo needed to call on him, and turned down offers to play for other teams. I'd have thought the Rams' meager pass rush the last couple of weeks would have made him think differently, but he's decided they're more than good enough without him and is calling it a career. A very successful career on the field that will always be marred by a terrible mistake and poor judgment off the field.

* Sunday's game will almost certainly be on TV; there are less than 500 tickets left to meet the NFL's requirements to lift the blackout. Note that the game will be on CBS/KMOV, not Fox/KTVI, since the road Chiefs are an AFC team.

* The Cassel situation currently has the Rams-Chiefs game off-line in Vegas.

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