It's March. That means March Madness.

But this March Madness has nothing to do with basketballs and hardwood.

It has to do with footballs and what will be on the gridiron in the fall.

It's free-agent frenzy time in the NFL, the time of the year when teams spend money faster than Paris Hilton on Rodeo Drive.

In the weeks before the NFL draft, NFL moguls try to fill as many holes as they can with veterans looking for a change of scenery — and a change of tax bracket.

And, inevitably, they overpay — a lot.

The Miami Dolphins snagged Joey Porter Tuesday for a cool $20 million in guaranteed cabbage.

Porter is good. In fact, he is very good. But $20 million guaranteed good?

Wes Welker, whose main claim to fame when he was with the Dolphins was kicking a field goal and making a blind side hit in the same game, got $18.1 million from the suddenly free-spending Patriots, who also inked Adalius Thomas for the gross national product of Nicaragua.

And then there's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are collecting quarterbacks like Britney Spears is collecting wigs.

The Bucs signed the 37-year-old three-time retread Jeff Garcia, then went out and traded for Jake Plummer.

Tampa has six QBs on its roster right now: Chris Simms, Tim Rattay, Josh McCown, Bruce Gradkowski (remember him?) the starter for most of the season, Garcia and Plummer.

Jon Gruden sure likes his quarterbacks. He's had plenty of them.

He needs them. He goes through them faster than Sam Adams through a buffet.

Who knows? Maybe he'll sign Otto Graham next. Or maybe Joe Namath.

Vinny Testaverde is looking for work.

It further shows NFL executives have gone nuts.

There are more free agents out there, licking their lips to take advantage of crazed NFL execs, who are looking to make a big splash so their fan bases feel good.

It seems only the Steelers are immune to this whacked out disease.

Pittsburgh has dipped in the free agency waters twice in this period, signing Steelers running back Najeh Davenport to a contract and San Francisco's restricted free-agent punter Andy Lee to an offer sheet.

The Steelers have long been an organization that builds with the draft and player development, not by throwing money at a free agent just for the sake of it.

That plan has worked for them.

It would seem that other teams would learn from the Steelers' model. But they haven't.

For every Rooney family, you have a Jerry Jones or a Daniel Snyder who between them have spent a billion dollars on free agents.

And have zero playoff wins.

Very few NFL teams have found success with flashy free agent signings.

Yet, teams still open their wallets for guys like Wes Welker every year and wonder why they are sitting at home in January, a little poorer for the experience.