Next week, look for Tracy to be sporting her new Patriots Jersey

Sprint's "Now Network" commercial: A woman in a Steelers jersey is sitting with two "friends" on a couch situated roughly 18 inches from the tv set. Like all sane Americans, this woman and her "friends" are shouting at the tv, waving foam fingers, etc.

The disembodied voice narrating the commercial arbitrarily decides that Tracy Palmer, the female in question, isn't having enough fun with her friends, and tosses her a new Sprint phone with the "Now Network." Now she's saying "hey hey hey, goodbye" to the old "restricted" service which condemned her to an afternoon with these particular people. She's popping out of the bubble and doing something much more fun than watching tv- "she's calling every NFL fan in the country to talk a little smack about her team."

And not just talk. Tracy is using every cliche'd gesture in the book, jumping up and down, lunging, etc. as she calls one unsuspecting cell phone owner in the United States to rave about her team. At the end of the commercial, a talked-out Tracy shuts the phone and walks off into oblivion.

Here's what is especially funny about this ad- that Steelers Jersey. I wonder, during which of the Steelers five straight losses was Tracy Palmer "talking smack about her team?" I wonder why she's still "talking smack" about the golf course-bound Steelers this afternoon, during the Bengals-Jets game (what do the Bengals and Jets have in common? They are two AFC teams in the playoffs. Unlike the Steelers.)

So go ahead and talk your smack, Tracy Palmer. Call every NFL fan in the country. When you get to me, I'm sticking it right back in your face. Your team is sitting home today- maybe you would have noticed their exit, if you had stuck to watching tv with your friends instead of giving in to the impulse to brag on your team as it flushed its season down the toilet. My guess is that Sprint is scrambling to photo-shop you into a Colts, Patriots or Cowboys fan even as we speak.