Welcome to Friday’s Morning Mashup. For the latest news, start at our WEEI.com home page or click here for the top stories from our news wire.

FRIDAY’S BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS:
NBA: Rockets at Celtics, 7:30 p.m. (CSNNE; WEEI-FM)
NBA: Bulls at Knicks, 8 p.m. (ESPN)
NBA: Thunder at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. (ESPN)
College basketball: Fairfield at Loyola (Md.), 7 p.m. (ESPNU)
College basketball: Wright State at Loyola (Ill.), 9 p.m. (ESPNU)
College hockey: New Hampshire at Boston College, 7 p.m. (NESN)
College hockey: Union at Princeton, 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN)
College hockey: Nebraska-Omaha at Denver, 10 p.m. (NBCSN)

AROUND THE WEB:

Jets backup quarterback Tim Tebow likely will have a new home next season, but it doesn't appear that it will be Jacksonville. (AP)

♦ So much for speculation about Tim Tebow‘s triumphant return to Florida.

New Jaguars general manager David Caldwell, speaking at his introductory press conference Thursday in Jacksonville, said Tebow, expected to be traded or released by the Jets this offseason, does not fit into the team’s plans.

“I can’t imagine a scenario in which he’ll be a Jacksonville Jaguar — even if he’s released,” Caldwell said.

Owner Shad Khan previously has expressed an interest in the former University of Florida standout, but on Thursday he said he’s standing behind his new GM.

“I’m telling them to take a look at Tebow, and they’re saying, ‘We’re going to go in a different direction,” Khan said. “That’s the difference.”

Blaine Gabbert might survive as the starting QB, but the Jaguars will have a change at coach, however, as Mike Mularkey was fired after one season and a 2-14 record, the worst in franchise history.

“We needed a rebuild from the ground up,” Khan said.

♦ The Lakers continue to struggle along at 15-20 and on a five-game losing streak while they deal with injuries to four key players (Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Steve Blake), but executive vice president Jim Buss said he has no plans to rebuild the aging roster.

“We still like this team a lot,” Buss said Thursday in an interview with ESPNLA 710 radio in Los Angeles. “How can you not believe in this team? This team is built to win. It’s a very, very solid team. We haven’t seen them all together and play together for games. In my mind, we would not consider a temporary fix or blow it up. Why blow up something we have a future with?

“It’s very difficult to talk this way because we’re five games under or six games under .500, and we’ve dug ourselves a hole. But at the same time, I feel that if we put it together, we can string seven or eight games in a row and dig ourselves out of this hole. If we play with the energy we’ve seen in the last two games, then I think you go into the playoffs with momentum.”

It cost the team $99.2 million to assemble this roster, but Buss said he doesn’t regret going all in.
“We stuck our neck out with this payroll because Kobe [Bryant] is in the twilight of his career and we want to win championships,” Buss said. “Now, am I upset that we might not make the playoffs? Of course. I’d be upset if I had a $10 payroll or a $200 million payroll. I want to make the playoffs and I want to win championships. But to panic? No, we’re not going to panic.”

♦ Hall of Fame reliever Goose Gossage, who previously has voiced his opinion that players linked to performance-enhancing drugs should join him in the Hall, took things another step Thursday when he said he might boycott the Hall if such players were to be enshrined.

“What kind of a society and what kind of world are we living in where we reward these guys for cheating?” Gossage said on New York sports radio station WFAN. “What kind of message does that send? And you know what? If any of these guys ever get in, I probably will never go back to the Hall of Fame.”

Added Gossage: “Nobody got in [this year], and the guys that are performance-enhancing drug users … I think [the voters] sent them a statement that they didn’t get in, and nor should they ever get in. They’ve got to make an example [of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens]. If they let them into the Hall of Fame, they might as well forget about testing and everything else.”

However, former Astros star Craig Biggio, who fell 39 votes shy of election, said if he had a vote he would have tabbed Bonds and Clemens.

“Barry Bonds was the greatest hitter that I’ve ever played against, the greatest players I ever played against. … Roger was one of the greatest pitchers of all time,” he said, adding. “I would have [voted them in]. Yes. I think those guys are Hall of Fame players. There’s not doubt about it, Barry and Roger, their numbers speak for themselves. And what they did on a baseball field speaks for themselves.”

ON THIS DAY TRIVIA: On Jan. 11, 1977, with a 3-2 victory over the Capitals, which player became the fifth goaltender to record 100 career wins with the Bruins?

Read the rest of this entry »

Goose Gossage said Roger Clemens lied about his steroid use and doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame. (AP)

In an interview Thursday with ESPN New York 98.7, Hall of Fame pitcher Rich “Goose” Gossage called out Roger Clemens, saying the seven-time Cy Young Award winner is a cheater who shouldn’t be allowed to make the Hall of Fame.

Clemens was acquitted Monday on all charges of perjury in denying he used performance-enhancing drugs during his playing career.

“Are we going to reward these guys for cheating?” Gossage asked radio hosts Michael Kay and Don La Greca. “Even though he was found innocent, it was because of the bad testimony. No one believed [Brian] McNamee, and [Andy] Pettitte kind of changed his thing — ‘Did I really hear what he told me?’ ”

Gossage even compared the situation to that of O.J. Simpson’s murder trial in 1995, when Simpson was acquitted on all charges, a verdict that still today is highly controversial.

“O.J. Simpson, did you believe he didn’t kill those two people?” Gossage asked.

In light of the trial, Gossage also admitted that if he played during the steroid era, he “probably would have” taken performance-enhancing drugs. Gossage played 22 seasons between 1972 and 1994, and steroids were just starting to become prevalent towards the end of his career.

“Steroids weren’t a part of the game when I was playing. Toward the end, we wondered what was going on. We knew something was going on. Absolutely, I probably would have,” Gossage said.

“The peer pressure is what is so dangerous about steroids. It is affecting our kids in high school and into college. These things are bad for you and they have got to get rid of them. If you are lying, shame on you.”