Little, Hoyer and a bevy of hot topics

Like Greg Little’s mouth, which works much better than his hands, let’s go here, there and everywhere. ...

• For an athlete to use a perceived slight from a former team as motivation when he faces that team as an opponent is nothing new. For a terribly underperforming athlete, however, who has since been released by another team, and was without a job in a 32-team league until a few weeks ago, is just a little bit nervy.

Greg Little, who caught flak better than he caught passes in three seasons with the Browns, was signed by the Bengals three weeks ago after multiple injuries to their receiving corps, and is fired up for the nationally televised game against the Browns on Nov. 6.

“Somebody has to pay,” Little told the Cincinnati media on Nov. 4, while criticizing Browns’ head coach Mike Pettine for releasing him in May.

“Everything about this game is personal for me,” he said.

That’s all well and good except that the Browns already paid — a little over $3 million, to be precise — to watch Little catch passes as if he were wearing boxing gloves.

Little signed with the Raiders in May, but was cut by August. Fortunately for Oakland, the Raiders aren’t on the Bengals’ schedule this season, or they would likely have to face Little’s wrath as well.

As for the Nov. 6 game, Little is listed third on the depth chart. If he really wants the Browns to pay, he will have to call Tim Misny.

• Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is on a historic roll, having thrown 12 touchdown passes in the past two weeks against two playoff-contending teams — the Colts and Ravens. And with every throw made by the Ohio-born and Ohio-bred two-time Super Bowl champion, I’m reminded of the 2004 draft, in which a certain Ohio football team drafting five slots earlier ... took Kellen Winslow, Jr.

• Speaking of quarterbacks, Browns’ General Manager Ray Farmer is probably wishing he hadn’t.

Farmer spoke with the media on Nov. 4 and addressed a multitude of topics, but the one that had armchair GMs peeking between the lines was the one involving his franchise’s backup QB.

“Brian’s contract expires at the end of the season. Johnny’s doesn’t,” Farmer said of starter Brian Hoyer and backup Johnny Manziel. “We’ll see what happens with Brian between now and then.”

Does that indicate willingness to part ways with Hoyer after the season, turning the keys over to “Johnny Football”?

“I want Johnny to play when Johnny’s ready to play,” Farmer explained, clarifying nothing and fueling speculation — for those who speculate on these types of things — that Hoyer is merely keeping the seat warm for Manziel. Bob Frantz