-A couple of days late. But congrats to Junior Seau on a fantastic 16-year NFL career. The linebacker went on to have a great career mostly with the Chargers where he spent his first 13 seasons en route to 12 Pro Bowl appearances (1992-2003) before concluding the final three years of his career with the Dolphins. Seau helped lead San Diego to its only Super Bowl appearance a decade prior. The popular linebacker was also named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-Decade Team for the 1990’s. The 37 year-old had some interesting thoughts about his brilliant career:

“Don’t think you’re going to come here and get a press conference where I’m going to cry. Listen, I win. I’m not going to cry. You know what? I won...So please, understand when I say this. I’m not retiring. I am graduating. Today is my graduation day. Retirement means that you’ll just go ahead and live on your laurels and surf all day in Oceanside. It ain’t going to happen.“

Amen to that! We definitely get what Seau meant. He had a great NFL career that most could only dream of. Not everyone makes it that big. Especially at such a tough sport where injuries shorten careers. It sounds like he’s ready for the next phase of his life and that’s good to see.

-We see that Arizona first round pick Matt Leinart finally decided to sign the other day, getting six years and $14 million guaranteed. He had to realize that veteran QB Kurt Warner is off to a great start thus far in preseason. Even if we don’t put much emphasis on it like ESPN where EVERY DOWN MATTERS, by Leinart continuing to hold out, it wasn’t doing him any good. Now, he can get some snaps and make an impression hopefully with Coach Dennis Green. Even if he gets backup duty and sits behind Warner, he can learn a lot from the former Rams’ Super Bowl MVP. Just ask Eli Manning.

-Our favorite article of the day was once again from the Post on the continuing Paul Lo Duca saga which won’t go away. Now, there’s another 19 year-old brunette from Philly who claims she too had an affair with the now Mets catcher which began a year ago while he was with the Marlins. This time it’s Christina Alisio who says she met the All Star catcher at where else but an OTB where she was a teller. And in similar fashion to Long Island’s Krista Guterman, he left a note with a co-worker saying she was cute along with his number. Some highlights from the latest gossip article:

“I guess Paul likes young girls and has one in every city - I must be his Philly chick. You never know how many are out there. He put on a good show. [It seemed like] he cared about me. He was a nice guy. Now I know it was all a show.”

Alisio said they had “quick sex” a couple of other times that year and then enjoyed several more trysts this year, the last time in mid-June. She said that he only called her when in town with the Marlins or Mets and that the pair had their romps exclusively at the Westin and the Hyatt, where he occasionally stayed.

A co-worker whom Alisio let listen in on some of her phone conversations with Lo Duca told The Post: “He would ask her what she was doing and if she wanted to go out.”

“She was excited,” the young woman said of Alisio.

When the player came into their gambling hall, “he would flirt with her all the time and invite her to the games . . . He was just back there betting and talking to her.”

Asked if anyone else at work was aware of the alleged affair, the woman added, “They all knew.”

The young woman then started to say, “He has a particular taste . . . ” Before she could finish, Alisio piped up, “Yeah, 19-year-olds with long brown hair.“

You got to love it. Alright. So a Lo Duca representative denies this or the other alleged affair took place. Who knows? Why are these stories coming out? It doesn’t seem that either is after his money. Maybe they did take place. So he’s not perfect if true. Is there really a crime in that? I say unequivocally, ‘No.’ Maybe his marriage to PlayBoy model Sonia just wasn’t working out after six years. You never can tell. An athlete’s life is far different than an normal person because they’re constantly on the road. It can’t be easy. Sometimes there is a lot of temptation out there which can be hard to resist. I just don’t see the big deal except that he was married man. But maybe that didn’t matter. It seems like if you were an athlete, it would be a lot easier to be single than be married just for the simple reason that you wouldn’t have to deal with such problems arising in the paper. Especially in the media circus here in NYC. Anyway, leave the guy alone and let him continue to star for the Mets and help them win a third World Series. At least it’s not affecting his on field performance.