Among the Holy Trinity of old, ornery screamers at ESPN – Jay Mariotti, Woody Paige, and Skip Bayless – we must say that the one we detest least is probably Woody Paige. Bayless is simply a buffoon. Mariotti is too negative and his face says, “I’ve been bullied, back off, or I’ll knife ya.” All Paige can be faulted for is trying too hard to be funny.

In response to yesterday’s item about him writing for the Denver Post again, Paige talked to a Denver Blog to shoot down the report. Sort of.

How much truth is there in this gossip? None, says Paige, who responded to questions about the assertions by cell phone during one of his regular strolls around New York City; at one point, he mentioned passing Trump Tower. According to Paige, he still has one year left on his ESPN contract, and he’s already had a conversation or two about extending the deal. Moreover, he insisted that Cold Pizza’s ratings are healthy. Hence, he doubts the show is going anywhere.

Define healthy? Somebody wake us when Cold Pizza tops the list of highest rated sports shows on cable. This is just a guess, but there are probably some blogs (certainly not ours) that pull more readers daily than Cold Pizza pulls viewers.

Later in the interview, after Paige disclosed he had recently visited the new Post digs, he coyly stated:

But the call was strictly social and had nothing to do with a possible Denver comeback, Paige says. Not this time, at least. Although he thinks he’ll wind up in Denver again eventually, he doesn’t have an estimated time of arrival, and he continues to enjoy his ESPN duties.

He’s a crafty one, that Paige. He’s setting himself up nicely: Appearances on Around the Horn until that machine runs out of gas (unfortunately, probably not in the near future), supplemented by a once or twice a week national column in the Post. When Cold Pizza goes under, he’ll have plenty of time to write. Which will be good news for Denver readers, who had the misfortune of having to witness Paige licking the stamp and mailing it in in 2005.

More Messages: Woody Paige Rumors (Westword)