CYBERSPORTS MURDOCH ISN'T INTO LOSING E-DOLLARS.

Byline: - Tom Hoffarth

We've heard that Rupert Murdoch isn't a big cheerleader when losing a bunch of cash in Internet projects. With decisions made late last week to shrink the three key stand-alone Web sites in his News Corp. food chain - including FoxSports.com - it's been confirmed.

``You can put in the time and money to try to be the leader in sports (on the Net), but at the end of the day, you'd lose as much money as ESPN.com,'' Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert's son and deputy bigwig of the the parent company, told Bloomberg News.

About 450 employees in L.A. at the News Digital Media units that include FoxNews.com and Fox.com have been laid off, reports Daily Variety, although the content on the FoxSports.com site continues to chug along.

Maybe it's because of the influx of cash raised on an online auction of 20th Century Fox movie props last week. Someone actually paid $18,400 for one of the three Wilson volleyballs used in the Tom Hanks movie ``Cast Away.''

--The ``Enraged Cincinnati Bengals'' Web site that goes by www.mikebrownsucks.com (in honor of the team's general manager) has been issued a cease-and-desist letter from the NFL. The league says it's because the site uses the modified team logo (a frowning bengal tiger) and puts it on related merchandise for sale.

``We would have the same position if the site was welovemikebrown.com,'' NFL director of corporate communications Brian McCarthy told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

A petition to have Brown suspended from the day-to-day operations of the team has already attracted more than 2,250 e-signatures.