MORNING BRIEFING : TOTALLY RANDOM : He must find new way to spice it up

Canceled, perhaps in the nick of time: One shipment of mustard, originally targeted for Heinz Field.

Or, to put it another way, Marvin Lewis intercepts the best-laid plans of Chad Ochocinco.

Trying to stir up more interest in the Cincinnati Bengals’ rare big game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Ochocinco announced in a Twitter feed this week that “I got a nice present for the Steelers -- sending them some mustard since they’ll never ketchup when we play Sunday.”

Last week, Ochocinco sent some members of the Baltimore Ravens sticks of deodorant before their game in Cincinnati. The Bengals won, 17-7, leaving Ochocinco in a giving mood for the upcoming Steelers game.

Lewis, the Bengals’ coach, is no fan of these stunts, so he ordered his wide receiver to give it a rest.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to send anything this week, thanks to Marvin Lewis,” Ochocinco told reporters. “That’s the way to spoil the fun, boss man. I guess I have to talk trash to motivate myself this week.”

Give Ochocinco time and he’ll think of something. Wednesday, he tried to motivate himself by putting up a laminated sign in his locker that proclaimed him “still the most uncoverable receiver in the league.”

Trivia time

Who was the first Bengals player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Crop dusted

Practice makes perfect? Not in the mind of Cleveland Browns running back Jamal Lewis, who believes Coach Eric Mangini works his team so hard during the week that the Browns are physically spent by game time.

Lewis told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the Browns have spent more hours practicing in pads in one half-season than the Ravens, his former team, did in three full seasons.

“You can work hard as you want,” he said. “You can work all day, seven days a week all the way up to Sunday in practice. But at the same time, if you’re going to work like that, then maybe on Sunday you’re probably not going to get what you want out of your players.”

Lewis said the Browns players are “just a crop. You’ve got to take care of your crop. If you don’t take care of your crop, when it comes time to harvest, you’re not going to make no money because the crop ain’t no good. You know about farming?”

Maybe Mangini should do some reading.

Detour

Bound for Boise was bad enough for University of Idaho Athletic Director Rob Spear, headed last Saturday for the state capital to participate in fundraising events.

Then he discovered this about his Horizon Air flight: The plane was painted in Boise State’s colors, blue and orange, with Boise State’s logo on the tail.

Spear says he declined to board the flight and instead drove about 90 miles north to Spokane to fly from that airport to Boise.

This Saturday, Idaho tries to defeat No. 6 Boise State for the first time since 1998.

Trivia answer

Former USC offensive tackle Anthony Munoz.

And finally

Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press doesn’t imagine Allen Iverson will embrace retirement, whenever it comes.

“It’s not like he can spend his days feeding pigeons at the park,” Schrader writes, “because that would mean sitting on the bench.”

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