January 2007 Archives

Motorola has a gigantic football field set up on the sand. It has goalposts and yard lines, surrounded by a huge U filled with shots of fans so it looks like there are people sitting in the stands. They have three different pylons set up with jerseys: one is Brian Urlacher, one is Reggie Wayne and one is Marvin Harrison. You're supposed to stand at the 20-yard line and try to hit each one with a pass. You get points for hitting the pylons, and double points for knocking off their helmets.

My friends Todd and Geeter decide that I need to play the game. So they get me the small football (because I have midget hands), and I get ready. Geeter is on the microphone and there are people everywhere watching. It's all on a Jumobotron set up nearby, and there's a camera man filming you while you do it, so basically anyone walking past will see you. A little intimidating.

So I step up, throw my first one, hit Urlacher, and his helmet falls off.

My second throw is a little to right of Wayne, so everyone's cheering. Geeter is on the mike shouting, "TIFFANY SIMONS from Florida State, NBCSports.com!" So I say I want to try one more time. On the first throw, I hit Reggie Wayne, the helmet falls off. I was so excited -- everyone was high-fiving everywhere, and crowd was cheering.

I didn't get Marvin, but I did get two out of the three, and so far, no one else has gotten two out of the three (and they've all been men after me).

We're going to come back here tomorrow, when they're going to have an end-zone dance off. The winner gets two tickets to the Super Bowl. The judges will be Chad Johnson, DeAngelo Hall and Steven Jackson. Todd and Geeter said we could interview the judges, so we're looking forward to that.

Right now, we are on Motorola Mile. It's still under construction, but it's a strip of Ocean Drive where all the celebrity events and concerts are going to happen.

The cars that we have passed are insane: We've seen every hummer, Lexus, stretch limo, Yukon, Escalade, and of course they are all black with dark tinted windows. We think we saw T.O. in one, but that's questionable. Everyone is strolling up and down the street, checking out the other cars.

John and I got interviewed by a Hungarian TV show. The reporter spoke English but was also saying things in Hungarian, so we have no idea what we did.

After that we ran into a friend that we met at the New York Rangers fundraiser. He's from Bader TV, after we said hey, he told us that Friday night, J. Lo and Marc Anthony would be doing a duet on the stage that happens to be right where we were standing. He also promised us a sound bite with J. Lo on the red carpet. We're definitely holding him to it, so check back for that.

Right next door to where Miss Thang is going to perform is the Sprint Style Villa. It's this gorgeous two-story glass house that cost $500,000, complete with an elevator, even though it's built on sand. The entire purpose of the house is to look good. Right now there are random people milling about outside it, but they're still getting it ready. On Friday, it will be the place where all the celebs will be hanging out. Of course, yours truly will be sneaking in back door to get in on the action.

We're continuing down Motorola Mile, to check out some more of the stuff. I'll be back soon with an update.

Media Day is crazy in the sense that not only are you trying to get down the stadium stairs and onto the field in one piece, but you are surrounded by every major sports guy/gal in the industry. Maybe if you were in my shoes, you wouldn't gawk, but for just a moment put on a pair of Bernardo's and let's gawk.

Sighting: Security Line
Who: Chris Berman Stuart Scott going straight through (because they, unlike the rest of us, had no gear to carry)

Sighting: Media Day Circus
Who: Michael Smith from Around the Horn hanging out with Michael Strahan in the stands

Who: Terri Okita from CBS. When I was an intern I had to take down the feed (TV talk) when her packages would come into the newsroom. I'd recognize the voice anywhere and sure enough, when I looked up it was her.

Who: Kevin Frazier from Entertainment Tonight. He tried to present an award to Rex Grossman in the middle of the circus. Judging by the camera guys reactions and the producers face, I don't think it went down how they wanted. It's so hard to get the shot you want because you are literally standing on top of people smooshed. The camera guys are on step stools or bleachers. Actually its an ideal situation for an awards presentation, what am I talking about?

Who: Tom Jackson. He and I are going through the lunch line together and we are both trying to do the "Is this the kind of bagel tray that is chewy or hard as rocks?" You know what I mean, you want to check it out but then if you touch the bagel, you kind of have to take it whether you want it or not because you've already put your grubby hands on it. Well, we both touched them and they were hard, put the bagels back, laughed, said don't tell and moved on. Let's keep that one just between us.

Who: Howard Eskin. We ran into each other at lunch as well. He said the QB job at the Eagles is McNabb's hands down. No question. Regardless of what Jeff Garcia does.

Who: Shannon Sharpe. Umm...best dressed award maybe? For sure.

Who: Warren Sapp. He's down here working for the NFL. He's also the biggest man I've ever seen. Which is good if you need a body guard. Not good if you were by yourself in a dark alley.

Who: Maria Menounos from Access Hollywood. She told me because her assistant wants the Bears to win, she'll pick the Bears on Sunday. Fair enough.

I could keep going, but the people at Starbucks are starting to give me weird looks. I've moved from chair to chair because as the sun rises, I can't see my screen. However the lady next to me is from another country and just asked if I thought she could take a seven dollar magazine out the door for free. Maybe my musical chairs act is fine.

DOLPHIN STADIUM - The Colts will be on the field at Dolphin Stadium for their mass meet-and-greet with the media in about 10 minutes...we are currently enjoying brunch on a loge level in the stadium...and listening to people complain. ... the Bears already had their media period. ...This blog took a media shuttle over to the stadium from the Miami Beach Convention Center. ... I was the only guy on a Greyhound bus. So there was nobody to complain with. ... Joe's Stone Crab was apparently a place to be last night...several media folk and a few Bears including Rex Grossman were there...

I'm interested to see how sharp the Colts look today. First of all, they arrived late yesterday. Then, around 10:15, they were still mobilizing to go out and enjoy their only curfew-less night. South Beach, where many would assume the young fellas would like to go, was about 40 minutes away. Mathematics tells me they were probably rolling in near dawn. Bad playcalling by whoever made the plans in Indy.

On Monday, around 11:30 a.m. a 20-something man with a black leather jacket and neatly-trimmed goatee peered into the media workroom. Pointing a finger at a man 30 yards away giving a stand-up interview to a TV reporter, leather jacket asked me, "Is that Brian Urlacher?" It was actually Sean Salisbury.

I went on walkabout to find some lunch. I eventually wound up at a walk-in sub shop called the Miami Grill on Washington Street. Upon going in, I saw Mark Schlereth and Trey Wingo from ESPN and said hello, introducing myself. After they left, a man and a woman who'd been speaking Spanish turned to me and said, "Are you from NBC?" I said, "Yes, NBCSports.com." A few seconds later, the man held out a piece of paper and a pen, apparently asking for an autograph. I shook my head. Then, not wanting to seem like I was giving the Bill Russell treatment, I tried to explain, "I'm not..." The woman interrupted, "You're not anyone?" Correct.

Hopping, hopping Miami Beach has Collins Avenue running along the shore for miles. I'm fortunate to be staying in a hotel on the beach. Sadly, hopping, hopping Miami Beach where I am has shut down at 11 p.m. so far this week. Monday night that posed a problem because after returning from the Colts press conferences at 11:10, I was starving. So I took an $8 cab to Lincoln Road Mall which was tumbleweeds as well. I got a piece of pizza at this joint Pizza Rustica and a coke and headed back to my hotel in another cab. This is where it gets kinda funny. My cabby is sitting at a red light when, inexplicably, he starts backing up. He doesn't hear the tinny little horn beeping behind him and backs into a 1987 Honda Civic. "Ooooh!" he shouted. I wanted answers. "Why were you backing up?!" He explained that he wanted to get into the right lane to take a right and needed room. Whatever. No damage. Little was said until the end of the ride when I paid him and said thanks. "Sorry for the accident," he hollered as I got out. Not what you want to hear at the end of a cab ride.

We're at Media Day, which is held at Dolphins stadium. We got here early this morning and had to go through intense security: dog-sniffing, metal detectors, the whole nine yards.

Finally, we get in, and there are thousands of media here. We've seen Chris Berman, Stuart Scott, Warren Sapp (who's working for the NFL Network), Tom Jackson, and even people from Entertainment Tonight, including Kevin Frazier.

Basically, what happens is, everyone rushes down the steps onto a blocked off section of the field, and all the Bears players are set up at different stations. You have to push your way through to the podium and ask your questions.

I talked to Rex Grossman, and asked him about all the criticism he's taken this year. Now that he's made it to the Super Bowl, would he like to say anything to his critics? Rex said no, that he was excited to be here and that's what matters. The time to respond to the critics is after Sunday, he said.

After Rex, we walked around, and hung out with a few different players, including safety Tyler Everett and guard Anthony Oakely. I even wound up getting interviewed by Telemundo.

There are not a lot of girls here, so when I found Maria Menounos from Entertainment Tonight, I did a little interview with her.

The Bears have all left now, and people are just hanging out or going to get food, which I'm about to do, too. We are just waiting until the Colts come at noon.

Location: Hollywood, FL
Venue: Hard Rock
Party Purpose: Kick off Super Bowl Festivities
Sightings: Jerry Rice, Shannon Sharpe, Don Shula, Leslie Visser, Jason Taylor, Bob Griese, Dolphins Cheerleaders, random mascots, among others
Musical Guests: Hootie and the Blowfish
High/Low: H: Dancing with Jerry Rice; L: Waiter spilling an entire pitcher of coffee down my jeans and into my purse. Awesome. Love the smell.
Simons Says Score: 7.5

The Hard Rock in Hollywood is this massive grouping of buildings. Kind of like a City Walk in Orlando. There is an outside area for bands and bars and then you can go inside venues to hang out. Thankfully tonight's party was inside in the main concert area (it's freezing outside).

So let's get right to what was cool: Jerry Rice standing next to me working it while listening to Hootie and the Blowfish perform on stage. [Side Note: Don't know when the last time you listened to Hootie, but the man sounds good! I was impressed.] So Jerry starts doing some moves, my producer moves to start filming him. I am watching thinking, 'Hey this is a once in a lifetime shot' and say to Jerry "Don't be shy, you know you want to dance for the camera." He then takes my hand and starts spinning me around. Ha. Man's still got them moves. Later when the concert was done I interviewed him and he insisted that he didn't get to dip me earlier and it must be done now. I wasn't about to tell him no. DIIIPPPPPPP....

I mentioned Hootie ... seriously even live, they sound exactly like the radio version of their songs. Well done.

Don Shula walked out on stage and the entire room erupted into applause. The man is a legend around these parts and rightfully so. Do you know anyone else who has coached a perfect NFL Season? Won 328 regular season games? Won two Super Bowls? Exactly.

Bob Griese took the time to speak with me right before Hootie jumped up on the stage. He was in attendance along with several other Dolphin Alums. He told me he's rooting for the Bears because his son will be out there BUT that he's very good friends with the Manning's and would be happy for them if the Colts won. I told him my prediction was 27-21 Bears. He smiled, said he liked it, and then agreed. I knew we'd get along.

The only thing that wasn't fun: coffee. All over me. In purse. Smelled. Gross.

Moving on... so the forty-first Super Bowl is officially underway. Let the parties begin.

Canisius scored the final 8 points of the first half, shrinking the Iona lead from nine to just one, 32-31.

Iona played an inspired first half, especially the first five minutes, but they allowed the Golden Griffins back in with turnovers. Eleven days ago Iona led this same opponent by two at halftime, 31-29, before losing in overtime. In that game Canisius' Chuck Harris buried a three with 4.3 seconds remaining to tie the score in regulation. That was the first of three consecutive defeats in which Iona was either ahead or down by one with the ball in the final ten seconds.
The Gaels understand misery.

On to the second half...

Iona freshman point guard "I'm Too Sexy 4" Milan Prodanovic has been lighting it up in the first half with 7 points as the Gaels lead Canisius 2-21. Iona raced out to a 13-3 lead and have since been weathering Canisius' pressure defense ever since.

Give the Gaels credit. They've been playing Jack Black/Kyle Gass (Tenacious D), which has kept Canisius from getting any easy buckets.

Maybe Milan is an appropriate name for this occasion. Milan High School was the real-life name of the Indiana high school portrayed in the film "Hoosiers".

(Sniff, sniff) Can you smell it? What is that invigorating scent, you ask? It's the smell of victory. It's permeating the Hynes Athletic Center here in New Rochelle this evening. We're fifteen minutes before the tip-off between Canisius (God bless you) and Iona. The Gaels, as you know, are 0-20 but, as that great British soccer player/rock star Rod Stewart once said, "Tonight's the night/gonna be alright."

He also said, "If you like my body/and you think I'm sexy/c'mon baby let me know." Which, of course, has very little to do with tonight's action, on or off the court.

So it's a frigid January Monday night in the northeast, but there's heat here on the campus of Iona. The Gaels are going to end the nation's longest losing streak--I cannot just feel it, I can actually smell it-- and our wistful cries for justice in the roundball biosphere will at long last be heard, our prayers answered. The jackals and vultures who descend upon such carcasses (to wit, myself and tonight, SI.com's Luke Winn) will cease following sports journalism's version of the woman with the 300-pound tumor and move on to other matters.

(Say it with me): "LET'S GO GAELS!"

Press pass. Credential. Plastic ID. Weird photo with name and affiliation. Call it what you will, but during Super Bowl week the thing is invaluable. You must at all times have this hot number around your neck if you want to hang out in the media room and eat for the next seven days.

So today, John Moody (my producer, cameraman, partner in Miami) and I went to go pick up our little golden ticket. We took the shuttle (sooo trendy to be riding on a bus down Collins Ave on South Beach. Really I suggest you try it) and arrived at the Miami Beach Convention Center. We made our way inside to get our passes and after the nice gentleman behind the desk told me I looked to young to be here, he handed me my pass and my free Super Bowl notepad. I officially became a member of the Media.

John and I decided to check things out (because we are nosy) and found ourselves at "Radio Row". This is where every radio station known to man calls home during Super Bowl week. The guys you are listening to on your way to work, on your lunch break, or while your wife is sleeping are all huddled in desks scattered around a huge ballroom. This is where the hype happens, the arguments rage and the fun starts. John and I decided to shoot some footage and as we did we began to get noticed for several reasons. A) John is really tall. B) He's carrying a camera around a bunch of guys who wear headsets and speak into microphones. They don't do cameras.
C) I'm the only chick to be seen anywhere.

Seeing as how I really thought we were just going to go and pick up our badge of honor, I didn't really put on make up or try to do my hair. This is South Florida. We don't do 'done up' we do 'beach messy and sunny cool' looks. So when I got asked to do interviews, I thought why not, its only on the radio. So here I am-the one who is there to interview other people-suddenly sitting at random tables with headphones and speaking into a microphone. I did a radio show broadcasting to Hawaii, ESPN and Denver. It was a blast. We talked football, FSU, Gators, Super Bowl predictions, parties and the good ole boys from Denver even had random questions for me to answer. I think I held my own against the boys. I just never imagined picking up a credential would be so fun.

Off to Hard Rock for the official kick off party. More later tonight!!

MIAMI BEACH - Here's a quick tour of the accomodations we the media have for doing our work this week.

The media center is in a massive, blue-carpeted hall in the Miami Beach Convention Center.

As you come in the door, directly in front of you is what's called radio row. Sporting News Radio, ESPN Radio and Sirius have prime spots near the door. Current and former players and coaches traipse past on their way to flap gums on the air.

Florida quarterback Chris Leak is conducting interviews as is Green Bay Packers receiver Donald Driver. The NFL Network crew of Deion Sanders, Jim Mora Sr., and Jamie Dukes is here as well as Adam Schefter and Fran Charles. Their setup is on a riser in the middle of radio row.

To the back of the hall, behind blue curtains and portable walls is the working media section where hundreds of tables with 20 seats at each one are laid out.

There's a media lounge with pool and foosball tables, several flat screens (all tuned to the NFL Network), free muffins, coffee and donuts. Mod seating areas are laid out with low-slung couches and coffee tables.

Back in the front room, there is a tapestry hung from the wall with scenes from each of the first 40 Super Bowls aligned chronologically.

A red 2007 Cadillac XLR Roadster is out front. It's the car that will be presented to the game's MVP. The MVP has the option, however, of ordering another style.

The Tampa Bay tourism folks are here handing out candy cigars and screen swiffers. Also, with the Super Bowl in Arizona next year, their host committee is here as well with handouts and propaganda puffing up their region.

This afternoon at 2:30 p.m. the NFL will address the security measures it has in place for the game. We'll get to the bottom of the "why no tailgating at the game" issue.

MIAMI - This blog, its luggage, four breath mints and a Nature Valley peanut butter granola bar arrived in Miami Beach yesterday at 5:30ish.

And I can't say I'm unhappy to be here even though many of my media brethren and sisteren will lodge formal and informal complaints about their hotels, the food, the access to the players, the relative humidity in the media center, rock and roll music, Bill Polian, Rich Eisen, the speed with which we receive transcripts, Tank Johnson and people who insist on saying they're standing "in line" when everyone knows the proper word is either "on line" or "queue."

This blog is under direct orders to chronicle the Colts. And since they don't get here until tonight, we'll fill ya in on the Super Bowl Experience so far.

It's a no-cloud Monday. We took a media shuttle from our hotel (Four Points Sheraton) to the media center. When jumping online (as opposed to "on line") we had to agree to some NFL stipulations to get access.

As a result, this blog is banned from: "developing, implementing or sending viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, or other computer programming routines or engines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or information."

This blog has also agreed to this code of internet conduct.

"CONDUCT

The foregoing notwithstanding, you are responsible for, and assume all liability associated with, any material you make available or transmit through the Internet service, whether through chat rooms, messages boards or other forums, including, without limitation, liability for claims of infringement, libel and/or slander. You may not post, transmit through or otherwise make available on or through the Internet service any material that violates or infringes in any way upon the rights of others, that is unlawful, defamatory, obscene, abusive, profane, vulgar, sexually explicit, racist, threatening, hateful, inappropriate or otherwise objectionable, in the NFL's sole discretion, or that encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any law. Breach of the foregoing may result in legal action against you."

So there's that.

Chew on that for a few and we'll hit you back in a few minutes with some more observations.

"I could have blogged all night,
I could have blogged all night
and still have typed some more,
I could have owned this screen,
Like Mirren inThe Queen ,
Although the film's a bore,
'Notes on a Scandal', there's a lesson in prudence,
Which is, Hey, teachers, lay off your students,
But were mine Cate Blanchett, I'd be the teacher's pet,
I could have blogged, blogged, blahhhhh-ged...all night!

Yes, the Screen Actor's Guild (or SAG) Awards took place last night, a.k.a, We've gone an entire week without a an awkward red-carpet moment, for instance Ryan Seacrest welcoming "James Gandolfino" and the rest of the cast of The Sopranos . A few inappropriate comments on last night's telecast:

--Freddy Rodriguez ("Six Feet Under") gave the best "and I'm an actor" vignette to open the show, but I was distracted by the young woman immediately to his right who stuffed a full piece of sushi in her mouth just as the camera panned to him. Poor girl. She didn't know whether to spit it out or just hide under the table. Unscripted comedy is the best kind.

--Surely I'm not the first to suggest this, but next year they should take the cameras out to bars and restaurants and have the wait staff at those venues provide the "and I'm an actor" vignettes. Because so many of them in L.A. are. As Hugh Laurie, who is simply the smartest guy in the room, said after winning his SAG award, "It's not whether you do good work; it's whether you get the chance to do good work."

--I also enjoyed the Marg Helgenberger "and I'm an actor" story. It would have been sweet if below her husband, Alan Rosenberg, they would have run a graphic saying, "Over-chicked". (Over-chicked, def.--When you've married/are dating well above your station).

--Somebody kept their eye on the ball, inviting Georgia Engel (Georgette) to be onstage with the rest of the cast of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". A little montage would have worked nicely there. And no mention of Ted Knight, the greatest comic figure of them all? Cloris Leachman, by the way? Eighty years old.

--"The Office" won best ensemble comedy, even though I'll continue to argue that the show that comes on immediately afterward, "Scrubs", deserves that honor. And "Entourage" got screwed again. The reason so many people laughed when Julia-Louis Dreyfus and Steve Carell did their bit later in the program and she said, "The British version of 'The Office' is so much funnier" is because it's true.

--If I were producing this or any other awards show this year, here's what I'd do. The moment that the winner was announced, I'd run a quick 3-second clip of Faith Hill's reaction at The Country Music Awards. You're telling me that wouldn't be the best running gag?

--Anyone else notice that after Eddie Murphy gave his speech for Best Supporting Actor for "Dreamgirls" that the camera panned to a pair of his fellow ex-SNL castmates, Brad Hall and Louis-Dreyfus? Where was Robin Duke?

--Hugh Laurie, for the second Sunday night in a row, best speech. He noted that his fame will pass, and followed by saying, "It may have already passed while I was still standing here." And he took a return swipe at Murphy, who mocked the British acceptance speeches (of which there were so many) by saying, "I'm British, by the way, which accounts for why I'm so smooth .

--Admit it. When you saw Dennis Haysbert standing all by himself up there introducing the "They Died" segment, you were wondering, "Is this another ad for 'accident forgiveness'?"

--By the way, it was a bad year for The Munsters , eh? Both Lily and Grampa. How come they never did an episode where The Munsters and The Addams Family met? Maybe they could have played Family Feud? Woulda been a classic.

--Cate Blanchett: Classic movie star. And she's cool, too. And is it just me but does Cate bear an uncanny resemblance to a younger version of Helen Mirren? Maybe she'll star in The Helen Mirren Story some day and pick up a boat load of trophies herself.

--Greg Kinnear had a funny line and reminded everyone why he's so likeable. You know how when you attend a wedding you hope to be seated at the fun table? So why not put together your dream SAG awards fun table? You get to pick the eight people around whom you'd want to sit and to whom you'd whisper put-downs about the other actors at the show. Here's mine:

--Helen Mirren, because I think she's game for anything.
--Kinnear, because he's the king of not taking himself too seriously.
--Reese Witherspoon, because everybody loves her and we want to hear the Ryan Phillippe tales.
--Kevin Connolly (Eric on "Entourage"), because that way there'd be one other dude at the table besides me with an "I have no idea how I got here" look on his face.
--Cate Blanchett, because she's Cate Blanchett. And because I think if she got together with Mirren, they'd be quite bawdy.
--Hugh Laurie, to engage us with his charm.
--Abigail Breslin, so that I'd have at least one peer in terms of emotional maturity.
--Isaiah Washington, so we could ask him how his "treatment" for being politically incorrect is going.

That's a wrap. Next Sunday it's the Super Bowl and the Sunday after that The Grammys. I almost do not want winter time to end.

By the way, I saw Pan's Labyrinth this weekend. It's awesome. It's as much of a fairy tale as The Wizard of Oz while being as unflinchingly violent as Goodfellas . Don't worry about the sub-titles. You'll be glad you chose this over Norbit .

It was 1995 when we were first introduced.

He- a famous witty writer for a heavily circulated newspaper.

Me- an 8th grade brace-faced blonde toting around bags of candy to 'fundraise' for the cheerleading team.

The man who introduced us- my history teacher (or maybe that year the class was titled Civics? Should've been called 'Waste of your Time' but either way its irrelevant). We'll call him Mr. Woods. (Not because I think he would read this blog and figure out it was me writing this but because I can't for the life of me remember his name. And right now ESPN is running for the seventh time a story on Tiger Woods).

Moving on... Mr. Woods was short, scratch that, very short. He had messy (and at least two times a week greasy) brown hair. He wore un-tucked shirts, glasses, and triple knotted his shoe laces. He was the kind of teacher who must've hated teaching us and we were the kind of 8th graders who were... well typical. We didn't care about anything except what happened in the hallways between classes for the five minutes we were allowed to roam among our friends.

So when Mr. Woods read the column of He- a famous witty writer for a heavily circulated newspaper, none of us liked it. Nor did we get it. We were 12 and 13, way too young to appreciate the humor, the witt or the just plain original writing style of the author. Besides if Mr. Woods thought he was cool, then clearly there was no way He was remotely cool.

So today when I picked up the Miami Herald, I was surprised to see that on the cover was an article by who else? He-a famous witty writer for a heavily circulated newspaper. It'd been years since we'd last spoke, but this time I decided to give him another chance. I read it. I got it. And I laughed out loud at least four times.

So, if you're still reading this... I really suggest you go and read this It turns out Mr. Woods was right. Dave Barry is actually really funny.

Brian Urlacher at the Miami Press Conference...

On arriving in Miami...
Weather was perfect number one. It was exciting... I'm going to say that a lot cause I'm excited to be here. I slept the whole flight which was nice.

On Peyton Manning...
It's his 8th or 9th year. I think he'll be one of the best of all time (numbers wise). He has a start streak of 100 games in a row.. (On his commercials) I think he does a good job with the acting .. I like his stuff... It's going to be tough... we've got Peyton throwing all over the place... It will be a challenge but we're happy to meet that challenge...We are where we want to be since day one...its the biggest challenge to date for us..

On the last time he heard Lovie Smith yell on the field...
I don't think I've ever head him yell on the field.. never heard him say a cuss word... He gets his point across to us very well... It's the same with our assistants .. They all get the point across without yelling at us.. There is no doubt on what your job is on every play.. But the number one thing is your effort has to be good.. Everyone runs to the football, offense and defense. All he really cares about is effort... He cares about mistakes but efforts cure a lot.

On finishing the season and about the banner with word "finish" all over the hotel...
To finish it to us would be the Super Bowl champs... It's been the goal from day one.. We felt like we had the team to do it this year after what we did last year...and then coming out of nowhere... It's been our motto all year for the most part...whatever happens happens but make sure you finish all the time.

On following in footsteps of famous backers in Chicago...
It's a huge honor to play same position as Bill George, Dick Butkus, Mike Singletary.. a great honor and tradition... not fair to compare me to them... they are in the Hall of Fame.. maybe one day I will be there.. but great tradition to play linbacker...

On the Super Bowl being a business trip...
It is a business trip... We had to wear our suits on the plane down here.. I'm just going to concentrate and practice... I'll get back to my room and be just like it's in Chicago.. I'll try to take my mind off the game when I'm not doing too much...

On dealing with media attention...
When I have to speak I will.. When I don't I won't. I do what I'm told when it comes to this stuff no more then I have to no less then I have too...

On is it easier to be here (Miami) rather then Chicago because they are the underdogs and what is Chicago like...
I'd rather be home... in my bed and my house.. in my own element with my routine...instead of having to travel.. Chicago is crazy right now... They are excited just like we are... but I'd much rather be there.. in my own environment.

On how important it was for Tank Johnson to make this trip...
My man Tank... He's great, he's a big part of this team.. we need him to win this game... For the most part he's got things cleared up. We're excited to have him here... He's my buddy, my friend... it's over with now and I'm just glad he's here.

Here are a few things Coach Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears just said at a press conference after arriving in Miami for the Super Bowl...

On being the underdog...
Have a hard time saying we've been in an underdog role with our record...we've met all the obstacles... here's a stage where we can finish the job one more time... we will get that respect that we deserve.

On Peyton Manning...
Again we give them all the respect that they deserve... I've known Peyton for a long time, since he was a freshman at Tennessee but we have a couple of scholarship players too.. hopefully we can slow them down a little bit.

On prep for the game...
We got a chance to put in 80-85 percent of our game plan...right on schedule.. we need this week. Been a couple of weeks since we've played... get in some practice. Get one good padded day of practice in...we'll go from there.

On impact of Big Sandy (Smith's hometown)...
I don't know how much impact I've had on Big Sandy but it's had a lot on me...proud to be from there. A lot of people making the trip down.. It's a town about hard work, small town, football town, more in that Friday Night Lights type of setting.. proud to be from there. Hopefully we can make them proud.

On the word "finish" being hung on signs throughout the Bears hotel...
After last years playoff loss... we had to come up with something... we needed to finish the season on a high note, we didn't do that last year. It seemed fitting to have that as our word...we've stuck with it. We've had a chance to finish a lot of football games... we've played a lot of close games (Arizona) and some kind of way we find a way to pull it out. We're anxious to have that opportunity.

I'm here! Back in my home of South Florida for the Super Bowl. Flew down this morning. I always forget how on any flight into Miami International Airport they always announce everything in BOTH English and Spanish. Maybe by the end of the week I'll be able to blog in both English and Spanish. Today was a perfect sunny day. Its so pretty outside. Plus its nice to know that I don't have to use my winter coat for the next week! Got all settled in to my 'home' for the week. I'm staying at one of the many NFL Media Hotels and already the media are storming South Beach. When I pulled up to the hotel, the guy in front of me got out of his car wearing a Bears sweater and carrying camera gear. Then at check in I saw another camera guy and his reporter come in. "We" as in the media are resorting back to the days of elementary school for transportation. Everyone is hoping on the bus and being shuttled from place to place throughout the week I'm sure new friends will be made considering we're all going to be at the same spots.

This whole week is looking to be pretty packed with all kinds of parties and events to celebrate the big game. We get our 'golden ticket' aka credentials on Monday. I think that night our plan is to head over to the Hard Rock and attend the kickoff party. And then on Tuesday its an early morning as it is Media Day.

I know the Bears Team arrives tomorrow around 4. They are doing a little photo shoot at the airport and then going to their hotel.

The streets on South Beach are lined with Super Bowl banners and signs. Ha, I'm watching the local news and they just ran a story on the Super Bowl Trophy. There was a presentation today upon its arrival and then it was taken to the stadium in a guarded car. Wow. Talk about taking things seriously. The next news story was on the NFL Experience at the stadium. Its definitely a little kids dream where you can run around all day and play football, take pictures and hang out.

Alright... I'll be back tomorrow with more from Miami! Have a good night...

(Thank you, Hanna-Barbera)

The Knicks played last night (nice game, Mr. Crawford) and the Nets are still out west having their hearts broken (tonight at Denver). They've lost three games by a total of three points.

So what's going on in New York City, then? Well, there's a hipster happening in Brooklyn, the Idiotarod, which is a five-person, one shopping cart race inspired by the Iditarod.

http://cartsofbrooklyn.com/

There are two checkpoints and a lot of beer involved, and this madcap event will continue being cool until people like me begin to cover it. And then the hipsters, I'm sure, will move onto something else. Something, perhaps, such as Pillow Fight Club.

http://www.pillowfightclub.org/

The other happeing sports event is college men's basketball, Loyola at Iona, live from New Rochelle. I don't know what the opposite of a bandwagon is, but I've jumped on it. The Iona Gaels are 0-19, the last winless men's hoops team in Division I, and my editor (and former friend) Barry has dispatched me to cover them until they win.

To which I can only reply, "Why can't Hawaii-Hilo be the last winless team in Division I?"

Anyway, I'm here in New Rochelle (not to be confused with "Rochelle, Rochelle"), NY, for the game. I'm hoping that my presence here will bring the Gaels some luck (though it didn't the other night in Bridgeport). Barry tells me that Loyola is only a 2.5 favorite, despite their having won 11 of their 19 games this year. Then again, the Gaels have a 19-1 record record against Loyola here at the Hynes Athletic Center. Oddsmakers, they know their stuff.

As for luck, I have this bizarre habit of being present when teams end streaks. A quick summary:

October, 1992: Covering Williams College men's football team, owners of a 24-game win streak. The Purple Ephs lose to Trinity on a touchdown scored with no time remaining on the clock.

January, 2001: In the span of 48 hours I witnessed (or put a double-whammy...as opposed to the much less hyped "single whammy") on the nation's two biggest women's college hoops win streaks. In Division I UConn falls at Notre Dame, 92-76, ending their 30-game win streak, the longest at that level. The following night I found myself in St. Louis covering Washington U., which at the time was threatening UCLA's legendary 88-game win streak. Wash. U. had won 80 straight and were taking on literal next-door neighbor Fontbonne College, which had a .500 record. Fontbonne won and afterward Washington U.'s coach, Nancy Fahey, looked at me and sighed, "You're just bad luck."

April, 2004: Long Beach State University had this amazing pitcher, Jered Weaver (now with the Angels), who was 12-0 in 12 starts for the Dirtbags. Weaver's strikeout-to-walk ratio was 11 to 1 and he was rolling in yet another game, with his team up 4-0 in the bottom of the 7th inning. Then he walked a batter. There was an infield error. Then Weaver struck a batter. The next batter up put one into the rightfield stands to tie the game.

The Dirtbags lost in extra innings, after which Long Beach State's sports information director, with a smile on his face, asked me never to return.

So here's my question: Am I a streak-buster or, as is more likely the case, am I just bad luck? Or is it all a coincidence?

Loyola leads 16-11 at the 12:47 mark of the first half, by the way. Please, Gaels, please, put something together.

The NBA All-Star Game voting results came in earlier today and tell me you're not as shocked as I am. Yes, most of the names on that list are deserving. But maybe the NBA needs to review its voting procedures to safeguard itself and the integrity of the league.

Because there's always one or two perfomers who get the shaft. Performers such as Becky, who was beaten out by fellow Laker Girl Jessica. And what about Chelsea of the Detroit Pistons' "Automotion" squad losing out to teammate Erin? You wonder if the voters even watch the games. Or, the timeouts during the games.

This year, for the first time in its history, the NBA is staging the NBA game in a non-NBA city. The game will be held in Las Vegas, which means that it will probably by the most highly attended All-Star game by players not named to the All-Star team in NBA histoy. But that's an aside.

The real issue is that, since there's no NBA host team, there is also no host dance squad. If, say, Indiana was hosting the All-Star Game, then the Pacemates would be the designated dance troupe. But, since there's no home franchise this season the folks at the league offices in New York City found themselves in a bind. Sure, there is no shortage of dancers in Las Vegas--some of them, I presume, quite familiar with NBA rosters--but the league couldn't use them.

Then someone at the NBA had a brilliant idea. If fans can vote for players, why not dancers, too? Especially since this is the first season in which every NBA franchise has a dance squad now that the Celtics have succumbed to the terpsichorean wants of the masses. And thus, a new term was born:

ALL-STAR DANCERS!

Each team was asked to submit three nominees. Then, beginning on January 4th and running until January 21st, fans were invited to vote for their favorite dancer from each squad. Apparently--I am told--there are those who log on to NBA team sites and browse pages other than player bios, schedules and stats. Apparently--from what I hear--each site has links to a dancer page and individual dancer bios.

And so some fans already felt connected to a dancer or two before this balloting got underway earlier this month.

Admittedly, I was a latecomer to this leggy new world, but I happen to be a huge fan of suffrage in all forms and of democracy in general. So I assessed the candidates without any sense of guilt, since it's not really an election year anyway? From what other political races was I being distracted?(I'll leave the risque "exit polling" jokes to someone of less refinement and taste).

And so, last Tuesday, I was as anxious as James Carville was in November of '92 to learn of the results of the All-Star balloting. I'd handicapped the races and I really felt that Becky was a shoo-in for the Lakers. Four years on the squad and she majored in dance at Colorado State. Jessica was a worthy opponent, it seemed, but she had only half Becky's experience with the Laker Girls and (unofficially) had fended off only one-third as many marriage proposals from Jack Nicholson. Becky, it seemed to me, was the obvious people's choice.

But, alas, this lass that I supported failed to win.

As for the Automotion, again I went with Chelsea and experience. On her bio under "Dance Experience" it says "18 years of training and counting." Erin is a solid candidate, no doubt, but she has only 14 years' dance experience. The vox populi spoke and they apparently said, "Chelsea, we don't care about your four more years of dance experience."

By and large, the voters spoke and they spoke responsibly. For example, Julie of the Houston Rockets Power Dancers (whose favorite movie, ironically, is "Failure to Launch") is the "Yowza!" to the Rockets' Yao.

But some of the selections, I'm sorry, I just cannot get behind. Maybe next year they will tweak the balloting. First, every dancer on every squad is eligble to be elected. And maybe, just maybe, they leave the balloting to their fellow dancers. Or to the NBA players.

By the way, I hear that two-time reigning MVP Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns failed to be voted on to the starting team for the West. Big deal.

Any credibility I ever had as a journalist was lost last night in the back corner of Virgil's Restaurant in Times Square. I interviewed two friends who dress as Da Superfans and cheer on Da Bears. There are actually four but tonight only two could make it. I don't think I would have survived all four together. So, two of the four dressed in true character joined me for some ribs and to talk a little football. They talked alright. However it was me who couldn't keep a straight face.

Let's discuss Da Superfan's outfit first so you can get a visual. The following are necessary before ever leaving the house:

Long hair-Check
Chicago Accent-Check
Bears gear (including but not limited too t-shirt, sweater, jacket, watch, and hat)-Check
Whistle-Check
Fanny pack-Check
The Bible: A book on Mike Ditka-Check
Mustard (Chicago Yellow Mustard)-Check
Pepcid AC-Check
Mustache (preferably one that stays on IF not authentic)-Check
Sunglasses (any style that existed in the 80's)-Check
Hatred for the Packers (apparently this is a gene you are born with if a true Bears fan)-Check

Now do you have a visual of what was sitting across the table from me? Is it possible to begin to understand why I couldn't stop laughing? These two 'fans' walked right into that restaurant chanting 'Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears, Da Bears' causing everyone to look and either cheer or yell something back about the Colts. Rory O'Callahan from Gurnee, IL and Larry Puchalski (pictured above) from Aurora, IL sat down and immediately tried to explain to me what it means to be a Superfan.

Watch 'Da Superfan Shuffle' music video

After ordering the sampler (ribs, popcorn shrimp, hush puppies, sausage and the key item: corn dogs) plus some PBR's the two began to talk. They read to me from the Bible-that of the man, the legend, Coach Mike Ditka. They told me how to make a true Chicago hot dog (there is so much junk on there, I don't think they even know what the actual hot dog tastes like). I listened to their favorite Bears players and how they are 100 percent behind Rex Grossman, Lovie Smith, Bernard Berrian, and Brian Urlacher. According to Rory and Larry, Peyton Manning's thumb hurts because he got a paper cut looking at his playbook and is wasting his time even showing up in Miami.

Rory had a hard time keeping his mustache on. Ha.. so thankfully he had a backup. When the video goes up, you'll see what I'm talking about. Scene 1-dark long black mustache, Scene 2-no mustache at all, Scene 3-short brown mustache. Awesome.

When I asked them what they would do if Mike Ditka walked in the door and offered them a beer I actually had to lean out of the camera shot so you couldn't see me laughing and the tears rolling down my face. I tried really I did. But I just couldn't get a question out without smiling, muffling laughter, or just plain cracking up. Nope, not exactly one of my more serious pieces in my career but definitely one of my favorites.

So I am hearing so many good things about this movie Pan's Labyrinth that it is going from being on my "Kinda Wanna See It" list (where "Dreamgirls" and "Babel" currently reside) to my "Heck Yeah I Wanna See It" list (joining "Hitcher" and "Saw IV" ). And I'm wondering how long until someone concocts a porn parody entitled Pants Labyrinth . "Hi, my name's Khaki and I'm kinky."

I'm sorry. I'm just having a Beavis and Butthead-type day. I was flipping channels earlier and came across the ABC Family channel (which is another way of saying "I was watching the end of 'Gilmore Girls'"). Anyway, here was the promo that made me do the Butthead giggle: "Everwood is next, followed by Smallville."

I need to get out more.

Right now I'm debating between heading to the gym and becoming far too involved with watching the Straight-to-Lifetime flick, "Dancing With Danger" (not to be confused with "Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?"). Seriously, if you ever come across this, I don't know how it is possible to turn away. It stars Ed Marinaro and Cheryl Ladd as a detective and a taxi dancer (I'm not sure who plays which role at the moment). There's a lot of good cheesy background saxophone and Ladd even does an undergarment scene. TV rules!

Phoenix was up by 13 with about seven minutes left, but the Knicks have converted three straight three-point plays (of both varieties) and now it's 99-92. Meanwhile, Amare Stoudemire has five fouls and David Lee is playing like Keith Lee when he was at Memphis.

But Phoenix has Mr. Potential Three-Time MVP. Nash buried a three from straight away and then he drew a charging fould on Jamal Crawford on a drive where Crawford made the basket (discounted).

But now Nash was just stripped and David Lee just scored on a lay-up and got the foul. The Knicks might have won this game if Eddy Curry hadn't gone down with what looked like a high ankle sprain early in the fourth quarter.

Right now it's 106-95 Suns with 2:24 to play. Not a piee of art, but Phoenix is getting the job done.

The Knicks, on the other hand, have some nice pieces that just don't add up to a puzzle. Curry can be a workhorse. Nate Robinson, Jamal Crawford and David Lee are all solid off the bench. And of course Starbury and Franchise are not playing tonight. But this is a team in search of a core, and of a style. Phoenix knows exactly what their roles are and what they want to do. That's the difference.

Kara Searle, ladies and gents:

http://www.karasearle.com/

Do you think Rolando Blackman resents that the Knicks have a player named Renaldo Balkman? I can just see him sitting there in retirement, watching his plasma TV, as this rookie usurps his name, somewhat, and saying, "Damn! A Blackman can't get a break!"

And has Knick forward David Lee met David Lee Roth yet? Twenty years ago his nickname would be "Diamond Dave". Today it would be "Blood Diamond Dave".

My sister emails teo tell em that on TV you can see that Stephon Marbury is wearing the equivalent of a four-year college education on each ear. Hey, it's his money. But it does make me think a little bit about "Blood Diamond" and the upcoming SAG Awards on Sunday night. I really hope that Leo or Djimon Hounsou win an award. Then, as say Leo is walking to the stage to accept his award, I want the producer to order his camera guys to shoot nothing but earrings of the actresses (or actors) in attendance. And as Leo is speaking, I want non-stop cutaways of those baubles. I want self-conscious expressions, awkward moments. Please.

Phoenix scored 40 points in the first quarter last night against Washington. Tonight they didn't break the 40-point barrier until about four minutes until halftime. Phoenix is not very impressive this evening, but still they're up 81-68 at the start of the 4th. Leandro Barbosa is just a roadrunner on the court and there's no other player like him. Right now he has 12 points but it's just fun to watch his motor. As I wrote earlier this month, if the NBA had a marathon, I think he'd win. I also think only three guys would agree to run it.

Had an old friend stop by at halftime. Sports Illustrated senior editor Mark Bechtel, alias "The Kid". The Kid and I have been friends for almost a dozen years now (non-consecutively) and he leads the league in "So's your mother" comebacks or variations thereof. But he's one of the wittiest people I know. If there's a real-life Chandler Bing, it's "The Kid".

And now, your moment of model...Missy Rayder (I wanted to run a photo of Loan Chabanol, but I couldn't find one that I'd be able to run without being unemployed tomorrow. You'll have to do that search yourself. You'll have to be the Loan Ranger).

By the way, Sam is looking at the Photo Tip Sheet and noticed that Mike D of the Beastie Boys gets to be cited as "Mike D". "I like that," Sam says.

Okay, there's no Models vs. Cancer Classic, but who wouldn't watch.

Anyway, the Knicks went up by as much as ten points, thanks to center Eddy Curry playing as if he's only getting paid should New York win. Curry has 21 points; his career high, which came earlier this season versus Milwaukee, is 36.

And that's how many points the Knicks had when they held their ten-point lead, 36-26. But then the Suns, who looked rusty throughout the first half, clawed back. Raja Bell tossed a skyscraper high alley oop to The Matrix, who was floating along the left baseline, and that seemed to fire up the Phoenicians. They tied it up at 42, and lead 49-46 at the half.

So I'm at the World's Most Famous Arena, watching my favorite team as a boy (the Knicks) play my favorite team since my teen years (Phoenix).

First Knicks game. I think it was 1974. My dad took my brother and I. The Knick starters were Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, Bill Bradley, Dave Debusschere and Willis Reed (all now in the Hall of Fame) and the sixth or seventh man was Phil Jackson. The opponents were the Milwaukee Bucks, who started Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson (two of the top ten players in league history) and--I think--Lucius Allen, Bob Dandridge and Curtis Rowe. Anyway, that was the beauty of the NBA when there were about half the teams that exist today.

Great thing about the Garden's p.r. staff: they hand out a "Photo Tip Sheet" to us scribes to let us know what celebs are in the house. Tonight's sheet includes eighteen names, eight of whom are designated as "models". Spike Lee is here, but he's not on the sheet. They've sort of retired his number.

Patrick Ewing is here under the affiliation "Knicks Legend". I would have written "Knicks Legend/Model Connoisseur".

For your enjoyment this evening, I'll try and feature a different model in each blog entry tonight. For my entertainment, too, of course.

The Game

If you think counterintuitively, which I like to do, you have to go with the Knicks tonight. Because everything is slanted against them. Two nights ago the 'bockers gave up 27 unanswered points at Miami, which is believed to be a league record. And one night before that the Suns outscored the Minnesota Timberwolves 31-2 during one stretch of the game.

I'm going with the Knicks tonight.

Speaking of 31-2, should the Suns win tonight that would be their record in their past 33 games.

I like the Knicks.

The Suns scored 76 first-half points at Washington last night.

Knicks cannot lose. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not.

Finally, the Suns currently lead the NBA in FG %, FT %, 3-point % and scoring. Never has an NBA team led the league in all four categories.

Knicks. Pick the Knicks. It'll be close, but this is the Knicks' seventh game of the World Series. For Phoenix it's Wednesday night and they're pissed that they have to fly out to Milwaukee right after the game.

More with Mardy Fish...

Andy said he was playing as good as he cany play when you two met up in the quarterfinals. How would you describe your playing?
Andy played great out there yesterday. Everything that I came up with, he came up with someone better. Just one of those matches I guess.

What has this Major done for your confidence as a player?
Doing well in this tournament has been great for me, not only has it moved my ranking back into the top 25 in the world but it helps with confidence as well, knowing that I can play with anyone.

Can Roddick beat Federer?
I think Andy has a great shot of taking out Roger. If he plays as well as he played out there yesterday he can beat him. Roger is playing great as well and when he is playing his best tennis no one can beat him. But it will be interesting to watch!

Obviously you're going to move way up in the rankings. What are your goals for this year?
My goals haven't changed for this year. No real ranking goals, simply to just get better and better and keep working hard. I think everything else will take care of itself if I do that.

INDIANAPOLIS - Asked today if there was any chance the Super Bowl would be the final game he coaches for the Colts, Dungy said, "It's something I haven't thought a whole lot about. I'll sit down with Jim (Irsay) at the end of the year and I'll sit down with my wife and we'll do what we do at the end of every year. The first thing is you have to make sure they want you back. I never take that for granted anymore."

Not thinking about it "a whole lot" means of course that he has thought about it some. According to some of the local beat writers here in Indy, Dungy intimated in past years that he might step down if he ever won a Super Bowl.

A few other nuggets....

On When He Realized He Was "OK" After the Death of His Son James Last year

* "I still don't know that I'm going to be OK. It was never anything that flashed for me, it just was time to move forward."

On Who He Feels Happiest For
* "I was very happy for our staff. I was standing up there on the podium thinking these guys are going to get to go and experience it. You're happy for equipment men and trainers, guys who work 20-hour days all year and never get any notoriety. You're happy for them. And I'm probably most happy for (owner) Jim Irsay. I thought (the runup to the game in Baltimore) the way that thing was played up was not right and he came through it like the strong man he is."

More on Irsay
* "When I was let go in Tampa, Jim called and said, 'This is not good negotiating but I want you to be my coach I don't care what it costs.' He's a very honest guy and his emotions are out front. It took me about an hour to say, 'This is going to be a guy I'll love to work for.' When we would get close and lose, he was the most disappointed person but it was always encouragement. Just a special guy to work for."

On Receiver Reggie Wayne, whose brother Rashad Died Earlier This Year
* "Reggie has done (played) in such a way that you know he was playing for more than himself this year."

INDIANAPOLIS - The Colts have stepped out of the AFC Championship afterglow and are now onto preparing for the Bears.

Here at the Colts complex, head coach Tony Dungy just finished speaking at the podium. He was preceded by Adam Vinatieri, Booger McFarland, Rob Morris and Peyton Manning.

Some highlights from the Dungy press conference were:

On the Team Behaving Itself in Miami
* "We stressed that it's a business trip. We want to go down and enjoy our families and enjoy the moment. It's got to be a business trip and you're going down to win the ballgame. I had three guys speak to the team, Adam Vinatieri, Anthony McFarland and Ricky Proehl, all guys who have gone to the game and won. The guys did a good job of painting the picture for the team."

* The Colts will have no curfew Monday but will for the rest of the week.

On Peyton Manning's Bruised Thumb
* "He's fine. I didn't even really know about it until the next day. He threw the ball on the sideline and felt like he was going to be OK. He'll practice today and we anticipate everything being fine."

* Corner Nick Harper will sit for most of the week due to a high ankle sprain and his readiness will be gauged when the team gets to Miami.

On Bears coach Lovie Smith
* "Derrick Brooks (who played for Dungy and Smith in Tampa) called me and said, 'I'm so happy for you getting to the Super Bowl but you know I can't root against Lovie even though you were my head coach."

****More to Come******

So I was rubbing my eyes awake this morning when I came upon a story on the college basketball page of this site whose headline read, "SHAME ON NOTRE DAME".

Now, I don't object to that headline. No, in the words of Lt. Cmder. JoAnne Galloway, "I strenuously object."

Seems the writer of the piece, Roger Rubin, is taking Notre Dame to task for too harshly discipling senior basketball player Kyle McAlarney. In late December McAlarney was pulled over by cops and was found to have a joint in his car. McAlarney, the starting point guard for the Irish, entered a pre-trial diversion program to avoid facing prosecution.

Notre Dame, as is its policies with all of it students, sent McAlarney home while a faculty-student advisory board decides McAlarney's fate.

That the Irish are having a surpringly successfull season (16-4) or that other Big East schools have meted out softer punishments for worse transgressions--crimes that Rubin cites to bolster his argument--is not the point. Though the writer of the piece believes it is.

To which I can only respond, "Are you high, man?"

If you don't agree with the rule, Roger, that's fine. But the rule is the rule. And Notre Dame is a private institution, so McAlarney freely chose to obey those rules when he accepted his scholarship. What gives a place (or a person) integrity is the fortitude not to let mitigating circumstances, ones that will benefit them in the short term, tempt them into doing what's convenient.

First of all, Notre Dame was on winter break when McAlarney was caught and has been on such for most of the time since. So his issue needed to wait until classes reconvened. But McAlarney was on campus as a representative of the university, in the midst of his season, that day. So he is accountable.

I'm not interested in seeing Kyle McAlarney's life get ruined over one joint. But can you imagine if McAlarney had been given a free pass as opposed to a non-varsity athlete student who would have had to face possible suspension and an advisory board review? Then the columnists would have been all over the Irish.

Rubin's two arguments appear to be, 1) It wasn't that serious and 2) All the other kids are doing it. Those are indefensible positions--if you're five years old.

At Air Force Academy (or the Naval Academy, or West Point), if your professor catches you cheating on just one assignment there's a good chance you'll be out of that institution within 24 hours. At Notre Dame if you break parietals (curfew; each dorm at Notre Dame is single-sex), which is to say, if you're caught staying beyond midnight (or 2 a.m. on Friday at Saturday) in the room of another student of the opposite sex, you're gone for the semester. No questions asked.

If you don't like it? Go to St. John's or UConn. But don't condemn Notre Dame to a double standard. The Irish are always knocked for being hypocrites, for supposedly being no different than any other school when it comes to major revenue sports. But then when Notre Dame takes a stand that shows it isn't, it still gets beaten up in the press?

There's a college basketball analyst on ESPN-- a very good one, in fact--who also began his college career as a point guard at Notre Dame. But in his freshman year he stole his roommate's credit cards and ran up $900 worth of charges. He was booted off the team. Two years later, at Oklahoma State, he led the nation in assists.

Is he a bad person? No. But he broke an established rule and he faced the conseuquences. I'm sure Notre Dame missed him on the court, but those are the rules.

Oh, and while we're at it, why not take the Ivy League and Harvard to task? Harvard's top scorer and rebounder, senior 7-foot center Brian Cusworth, had to stop playing for the Crimson after their Jan. 12th game versus Dartmouth. It's kind of a drawn-out tale, but basically Harvard students have only eight semesters in which to finish their undergraduate studies and Cusworth, who sat out a year, has used up his academic eligibility. So while if Cusworth, a legitimate NBA draft pick, were at most any other Division I school he'd still be playing, there in Cambridge he is now just a very talented student assistant coach for the remainder of the season.

Stupid Harvard. They should change the rules to suit their needs and let Cusworth play. That's why Harvard remains so muddled in mediocrity.

Thoughts from a guy at 2 in the morning after watching a hard-luck hoops team lose its 19th game without a win this winter:

OSCAR NOMINATION THOUGHTS

1. If Jackie Earle Haley, nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "Little Children", should happen to win, that would give the Bad News Bears to Academy Award winners from their team. How cool is that? Sure, the Durham Bulls can make the same boast, with the battery of Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) and Crash Davis (Kevin Costner), but there's something about seeing Kelly Leak winning an Oscar that gets me so excited that I may just, I may, well...I may even see "Little Children".
Let's assume Leak doesn't win. Then here's what I'd like to see: When the winner in that category finishes his acceptance speech, Chris Barnes (you know him as shortstop Tanner Boyle) enters from the side of the stage and barks, "Hey, Eddie (or Marky Mark)... you can take your apology and your trophy and shove 'em straight up your ass!"

2. These things happen in threes. Some smart casting agent should book the kid who played Engelberg for a John Candy-type role.

3. How pissed is Dakota Fanning that some other pre-pubescent female (Abigail Breslin) got an Oscar nomination before she did? "I will end her!" You can just see that, can't you?

4. "Good Morning, America" gets little Abigail (who played Olive in "Little Miss Sunshine") on the phone right after the announcements and honestly, you'd have to be an idiot not to ask her with the first or second question if she shrieked when she found out she'd been nominated as Olive had when she got her good news. Of course, no one did. And that's why Diane Sawyer makes the big bucks and you and I don't.

5. I hear Fanning read for a part in "Dreamgirls" just because she heard it was an Oscar lock.

6. No love for "Van Wilder 2: Rise of the Taj"?

7. Okay, so I was sitting courtside as a former Washington Bullet (Jeff Ruland) coached his team to a 19th straight loss. Meanwhile, the present-day Washington Bullets (Wizards) were losing to a team, the Phoenix Suns, that had just won their 14th straight.
I know what I wrote about the Suns the other night, and I still stick by it. But consider this. Not only are the Suns 30-2 in their last 32 games, but here are their two losses:

1) Arriving in Phoenix TWO HOURS before game time for an overtime losses to the Wizards because of the blizzard in Denver.
2) Losing on a last-second shot to the Dallas Mavericks, who are 35-4 since starting the season 0-4. And the guy who made the shot is arguably the league's most unguardable offensive weapon, seven-footer Dirk Nowitzki.

Give the Suns those two games ( I know; you can't) and that's 32 wins in a row and they'd be heading into Madison Square Garden this evening with a chance to match the greatest team record in NBA history: the L.A. Lakers' 33-game win streak in 1969-70. Think of how the Garden would be buzzing tonight if that were the story.

[DISCLAIMER: IF THE ABOVE TITLE DOES NOT MAKE SENSE TO YOU, PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER, PUT IN THIS DVD, AND WATCH. YOU'RE A FEW YEARS BEHIND IN THE WORLD OF POP CULTURE. CATCH UP MY FRIEND!]

"Pose, turn, tilt, lean, smile, fluff, look....right there! That's good. NIce."

So I went to a professional photographer today to get headshots done. First time for everything and in true Tiff fashion, it was an experience. I am not a model. Nowhere close to it. Yet, after today, I am a tiny bit closer to understanding what Tyra is talking about on America's Next Top Model when she says "You gotta own it." However, understanding doesn't exactly mean executing.

"Pose, turn, tilt, lean, smile, fluff, look....right there! That's good. NIce."

Derek Zoolander maked it look so easy in Zoolander... Blue Steel, Magnum, always nailing just the right look into the camera. He was the perfect male moo-dell. I was, well, a fun participant. We were set up in a make shift studio in an apartment on the Upper West Side with lights and gear and a computer ready to download all of the images as soon as they were ready. Since I just bought a new camera (Nikon D50) I was more interested in learning how to use it then making sure my hair was in the right spot.

"Pose, turn, tilt, lean, smile, fluff, look....right there! That's good. NIce."

We had to go into Central Park and shoot some 'summery' looking pictures as well. Reminder it's late January with a high of 38 degrees. Once you take away the dead trees, the fleks of snow on the ground, the black winter coat and get rid of my red nose and cheeks, it will totally look like a nice 80 degree day in the middle of July! Say Cheese! After what seemed like three days, ok three hours, we narrowed down 400 plus pictures to some 260. It's pretty easy to pick out the bad ones, trust me.

The funny thing is once Gregg got on IM, I asked him how it went. He says: "It was fine. Pretty quick." Boys have it sooooo good. Overall, I have to admit I had a blast. The guys I worked with have done so many cool shoots within the fashion, music, TV and sports industries. They had some great stories... but we'll save all of that for another blog, another time.

Until then... "Pose, turn, tilt, lean, smile, fluff, look....right there! That's good. NIce."

I got up wayyyy early today. I am scheduled to go take 'official photos', if you will, to glam up my soon-to-come NBC page. These should be real funny for all of us... However, since I am up before the day ever sees light I had to check out how our friend Mardy Fish did at the AUS Open.

Roddick fries Fish, advances to semis wasn't exactly what I was hoping to see. Turns out, Roddick brought his A-Game and Mardy may have brought the nerves. Which is too bad. But let's be honest, when you go the furthest in your career at a Major and then have to face one of the best guys in the game, you can't be too upset if you don't win. Afterall, you're in Australia during the summer. I'd say G'Day mate to the courts and go hit up the beach.

Roddick still has his work cut out for him. If Roger Federer wins, the two will face each other in the Semis. "I would love to play Roger, I've lost to him a bunch of times. He's a great player, but I feel like I am improving a lot right now." said Roddick. Watching Roger Federer right now play against Tommy Robredo. Its actually quite good. 6-3, 7-6, 5-5 at the moment.

Enjoy the match for me would you? I have hair to dry and make-up to put on. Oh the joys of being a girl...

Bill Parcells has retired from the NFL. Do you think it will last? Is it for real? Or is this just a "I am tired. I need rest. This season sucked. So I quit." Either way, he always keeps us guessing.

So in case you are looking for a job, it's time to dust off that resume. Cowboys might be interested.

INDIANAPOLIS - Colts coach Tony Dungy just concluded his first Super Bowl preparatory press conference at the Colts Complex here in Indianapolis.

The expansive talk went for at least a half hour. Some of the key football-related talking points...

* The most significant injury sustained against the Patriots was corner Nick Harper's possible high ankle sprain. Ben Utecht had a sprained knee that came while pass-blocking Rosevelt Colvin. Peyton Manning's thumb was "discolored" after the game according to Dungy and pretty uncomfortable. Manning is set to have it X-rayed. Dungy said he's not sure if it's a concern.

* Dungy said that the Colts will use this week as a normal week of preparation in which they'll bring their game plan into focus and implement it. The aim is to get the learning stuff out of the way in terms of personnel and matchups so that by the time the Colts head to Miami they're in a review situation.

Getitng that resolved will allow them to "handle the sideshow" that is Super Bowl week. "I haven't been there since 1978 and it's much more of a sidesahow now than it was then." Dungy said he will talk to former colleagues with the Buccaneers who were in the 2002 Super Bowl to get pointers on setting up his week.

* Dungy said that overall the Colts special teams were good but three bad plays were costly. One was an 80-yard kickoff return yielded to Ellis Hobbs. Another was a 41-yard return by Hobbs in the fourth. The other was a punt return in which Troy Brown went 15 yards and a personal foul advanced the ball another 15. Mistakes like those against Chicago's Devin Hester would be "catastrophic" in the Super Bowl.

* Dungy said the one play he looked to as a changing moment was when Peyton Manning hit Reggie Wayne for 18 yards on a third-and-10 play with 2:18 left in the half. The Colts were on the verge of going three-and-out and, giving the ball back to the Patriots there with the specter of going down 28-3 was a scary thing. But the Colts turned that drive into a field goal.

If you have not seen HBO's Extras yet, try to catch this week's episode in which David Bowie makes a brilliant cameo. If you don't have the time or energy to find it, at least watch this YouTube clip of Bowie's appearance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQG_UOuqlM0

The set-up: Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is lamenting to Bowie in the VIP area of a trendy club that his sitcom (they call it something a little more profane on the show) is not what he'd hoped it would be. It's doing well in the ratings, but it's a critical flop. This is Bowie's response.

And when you consider that Gervais wrote the self-abasing lyrics? Classic.

Mardy Fish is set to take on Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. It's number 42 (Fish's world ranking) versus number 7 (Roddick's). These two go way back and are long-time friends. Fish actually lived with the Roddicks in his last year of high school. So to think that now, finally, after getting his big break and advancing the furthest he's ever been in a major tournament, he has to look on the other side of the court to the very person he considers to be like a brother.

Big big win! You made it to the quarterfinals ... did you expect to be in this position when you first began the tournament?
No I def didn't expect to be in this situation, but it feels good to make my first quarterfinal in a major.

You and Andy are such good friends. How is playing against him any different from playing against another fellow competitor?
It's tough to play friends, but at the same time we are both professionals and we both know how much each other wants to win, so once we get out on the court we will be enemies for a few hours.

What's one way you have to adjust your tennis to play against Andy?
We have practiced together so many times so we know exactly how to play each other. We have probably played together hundreds of times.

Give me one funny story about you and Andy growing up together and being friends. (Keep it PG! Haha)
Growing up Andy and I were more like brothers than best friends. We fought a lot and competed at everything from tennis to basketball to racing to school.

Mardy's competitive drive has been key. This is a guy who played less then 20 matches during the entire year in 2005. Two wrist surgeries took his tennis a few steps backwards. Now, however, it looks like all Mardy is doing is moving forward.

It's decided. A done deal. The Bears, whether you believe in Rex Grossman or not, and the Colts, whether you root for Peyton Manning or not, are headed to South Florida for the Super Bowl.

Did you see...

...Bill Belichick pacing on the sidelines, right after Brady threw the interception that sealed the Pats fate. He just kept running his fingers through his hair, pacing back and forth. I think I'd want to pass on that locker room conversation.

...Reche Caldwell's eyes after he dropped the ball(s)? His whole face just said: "Did I really just drop that?" Yup, buddy. You did.

...Peyton Manning, sitting on the sidelines, not wanting to watch that last throw by Tom Brady. Too many times this game has not gone Manning's way. There was no way he was going to watch it happen again. So he sat with his head down and waited. Except today, when he looked up, this time it was different. It was his team with the win.

...The announcer congratulating Peyton and then saying: "One of the guttiest performances you'll ever see." Is guttiest a word? I'll have to get back to you on that one.

...Belichick's post game interview. I've never been so scared of a man who said so little in an interview.

What about Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith... two close friends taking their teams to the biggest game in sports. Wow. Not only is this already set up to be a great game, but what a story.

For Dungy, this time last year was possibly one of the hardest times he'd ever faced. At the end of 2005 he lost his son. Then just a few weeks later, his team went on to lose to the eventual Super Bowl Champions-the Steelers. Thankfully for Dungy, this time the month of January isn't quite so dark.

Next up: sunny South Florida, the Bears, the Colts and a game guaranteed to make history.

That's the kick people have been waiting for him to miss, one with the season on the line from deep. That was the one he was supposed to duck hook and put the flame to a bonfire of "I told ya sos". Now he's made it.

And it's 34-31. And the heat could well come down on the man he replaced, Adam Vinatieri.

If you're the Patriots, do you play to keep the ball to the end here?

The Patriots are battling cramps and just seem incredibly slow at the moment defensively. The Indy defense? Fresh like daisy.

Vince Wilfork is out and Mike Wright is in for him at nose tackle. If New England's going to keep the Colts out of the end zone, they need someone to make a play.

Manning know has the sword in his hand and the chance to slay the dragon himself with 11:06 left.

Rolled back the Patriots contested touchdown several times showing one particular spot where it appeared Jabar Gaffney's heels were on the end line before he went up to make the touchdown catch that gave New England a 28-21 lead.

They just kept rolling it forward and back, not showing whether or not Gaffney caught the ball or not, just the band angle of his heels. Not surprisingly, Colts fans felt they got jobbed.

After getting scored on by their former defensive lineman, the Patriots just took a kickoff from their former kicker and Ellis Hobbs went 85 yards to put the Pats in business at the Colts 20. Hobbs made about 30 extra yards by sidestepping Vinatieri.

The Colts have scored 18 unanswered to tie this one on a TD pass to former Patriot Dan Klecko. Then they got the two-point conversion on a flip to Marvin Harrison and it's 21-21.

The Patriots defense has been on the field for 35 plays to three for the Colts since late in the first half.

Verrrrrrrrry interesting.

Indy ought to be feeling pretty good about itself. They just put up 10 unanswered and are within 8 at 21-13. They've now run consecutive drives of 15 and 14 plays and a New England team that was badgered by the flu this week needs to keep its defense off the field now.

On November 30, 2003, the Patriots held a 31-10 lead over Indy in the RCA Dome but Manning led the Colts all the way back to nearly pull off the W.

On that day, the Patriots stopped Edgerrin James on fourth-and-goal from the 1 on the game's final play to win 38-34.

The Colts great wideout Marvin Harrison has been ineffective for much of these playoffs. He entered the game today with six catches for 93 yards and hasn't made one yet today. He just had a possible huge completion bounce off his hands and his helmet and fall incomplete on third-and-22.

This place is starting to grumble.

And everybody is seated.

This is not going as well as planned for the Colts.

During the week, this blog noted that the Colts hadn't seen any diverse offenses in these playoffs. They kind find matchups and exploit them. Jason David just got lit up on back-to-back plays, first by letting Troy Brown get inside of him for the fourth-down reception on fourth-and-6 and then getting juked by Corey Dillon who scored the touchdown standing up.

Ooop. There goes Asante Samuel with the pick touchdown.

The Patriots appear to be eschewing the chance at a 51-yard field goal and are going to line up and go for it on fourth-and-6. Look for a throw to a tight end...meanwhile, if Indy's smart, they'll lay back and try to keep everybody in front of them.

Are playing well at corner for New England. Samuel's got two downfield passes defensed and Hobbs just made a terrific play on a well-placed ball to Reggie Wayne saving a touchdown.

Now for a field-goal attempt by Vinatieri from 42 yards away...

Good. Barely inside the right upright.

The Patriots have moved Mike Vrabel back to his more comfortable OLB spot and put in Eric Alexander at ILB while Tully Banta-Cain is seeing less time on the field.

Dallas Clark and Ben Utecht are getting it done against the Patriots inside linebackers.

Let's see if we can break it down...Laurence Maroney bungled the handoff from Brady on third-and-inches, he saw the ball bouncing at the 3, tried to scoop it, scooped it forward into a scrum of Colts, none of whom could cover it...it squirted out of the pile rugby style after Pats fullback Heath Evans kicked it out of the pile and Mankins, the second-year left guard, recovered.

The Pats just went on fourth-and-inches and, off a great block by Daniel Graham, Corey Dillon gained 35.

Pats are a knockin' at the Colts' 3.

The Colts middle linebacker Gary Brackett just left the field with an apparent hand or wrist injury. He's being fitted with a wrap on the sidelines now.

Richard Seymour, who left during the last Colts drive with an apparent ankle tweakage, is jogging on the Pats sideline.

On the third-and-4 misfire to Joseph Addai down the right sideline, Addai had slowed down and didn't turn around to see Peyton Manning's pass until it was already halfway to him. Even with that, he still also made a big catch down the sideline.

Kevin Faulk ripped off a key 8-yard run on third-and-7 to extend New England's drive...a three-and-out to start would not have been ideal. The Colts are pressing New England's outside receivers.

Same as the old boss....

The Colts take the field to the Who tune, "Won't Get Fooled Again..."

Very appropriate.

LT Matt Light vs. DE Dwight Freeney
Freeney may not have the numbers that he's amassed in past seasons, but he's as dangerous as ever, especially in a dome on turf against the fundamentally sound but slow-footed Light.

QB Tom Brady vs. FS Bob Sanders
The best way for New England to neutralize the disruptive activities of Sanders is by getting him caught in-between. If he's coming up, throw over him. If he's back, run it right at them. Easier said than done with Sanders, one of the smartest defensive players in the league.

RB Corey Dillon vs. MLB Gary Brackett
The punishing Patriots back needs to announce his presence in a way Jamal Lewis and Larry Johnson couldn't. Hit holes fast and make it past first contact. It's essential for Brackett to have a big game to keep Indy out of second-and 6 or less.

Richard Seymour DE vs. Tarik Glenn LT
The Colts like to run their stretch play to the left behind Glenn so the Pro Bowler Seymour needs to win against Glenn and get upfield to funnel that play back inside. Glenn needs to keep the powerful Seymour from overpowering him and also get good communication on his side as the OLB on that side, Rosevelt Colvin will also be coming hard off the edge.

Ellis Hobbs CB vs. Reggie Wayne WR
This is a big checkmark in Indy's favor. Wayne is so tough and such a good route-runner that Hobbs will have to give him cushion or be prone to double move exploitation. Hobbs is going to need help to stop Wayne.

Asante Samuel CB vs. Marvin Harrison WR
Harrison has had a quiet playoffs so far. Watch for the Colts to try to work this matchup early. With New England likely playing a "no big plays" style, expect generous cushion for Harrison as well.

James Sanders S vs. Dallas Clark TE
This is going to be a key for both teams. Clark is such a good receiver and in such synchronicity with Peyton Manning that the Patriots have to be attuned to him from the start to the end of each play. He is Manning's bailout receiver and, if Sanders gets caught up in trying to read Manning's eyes or help his corners, Clark could be a real danger down the middle.

With the song "In the Air Tonight" playing as the two teams stretch, shots of Colts are being shown on the stadium screen and the fans are going bananas as each one's shown. Bob Sanders and Peyton Manning elicited the loudest roars.

Whether it's Indy or New England to emerge from the AFC Championship, this blog is making a guess that the Bears will open as 6-point underdogs in Miami.

In an unrelated note, Belichick went with the grey, cut-sleeve hoodie.

Adam Vinatieri and Steve Gostkowski just finished their pregame kicks. Both were solid out to 55 yards. Gostkowski's attempt from 55 hit the right upright, fell down and hit the crossbar then fell down NO GOOD!

The RCA Dome crowd erupted on the miss by Gostkowski.

There are still just a few kicking specialists and defensive backs on the field right now.

The climate in Indy is anticipation mixed with desperation with a chigger of cocksuredness. Does that make sense?

Four out of five press box wags (this blog's never used that term before and isn't so sure it will use it again) surveyed agree that officiating is going to be a major factor this evening.

Colts president Bill Polian started lobbying officials to tighten up their calls on downfield contact and Colts coach Tony Dungy said he didn't want a "put the whistles away" mentality to creep in late in the game.

Head referee Bill Carollo is in charge today. He liikes to let the boys play. But the rest of the crew is a collection of officials who were selected to play in the game. Some like to call it an "all star crew of officials." We'll see.

INDIANAPOLIS - This blog has a feeling today is a cut sweatshirt game for Billy Belichick. He could go to the nylon windbreaker, perhaps a blue number, if the league applies some pressure and he relents just to shake things up.

The footing here in the RCA Dome seems pretty sure despite the snow.

We've got about 100 minutes to go before the 2007 AFC Championship which will conclude the AFC portion of the 2006 season.

Mardy Fish did it! He has advanced and will now play fellow American and friend Andy Roddick. Here are a few questions Mardy answered for me about playing at the Australian Open.

Best thing about playing tennis in AUS?
Best thing about playing tennis in Australia is the weather. It's always really hot and makes for great atmospheres with the crowds.

Mentally ... how do you gear up ... how are you playing right now?
Mentally gearing up is the toughest thing to do in Grand Slams. The matches are so long, and if you can stay focused the whole time you're gonna be in good shape.

What would winning a major mean to you?
Winning majors is why we all play the game. That's the ultimate goal. To win a Grand Slam would be something really special.

After winning the first match ... did it boost your confidence moving forward?
Winning matches period builds confidence. Any level you win matches just as long as you win you gain confidence. So it was great to get the first match under my belt, beat someone in the top 5 in the world ... it really kick started my whole tournament.

Any stories you have with some of the guys you hang out with?
Some good stories ... James and Andy and I always go and play poker and stuff every night. We always go to the same restaurant the night before matches. It's a Japanese steakhouse where they cook the food right in front of you. It's great stuff!

It's really cool to be able to watch Mardy do so well right now. I sat with his dad and coach Todd Martin at this year's US Open. He played an extremely hard match before losing in a close one to Novak Djokovic. This is something he has been waiting for. And when someone really does loves what they do, you can't help but be happy for them.

Definitely go check out his own personal website. I'll have more from Mardy very soon!

Just went to pick up this blogs's AFC Championship credentials at the Hyatt downtown. While there, this blog was told the news of Mike Tomlin to the Steelers as head coach may be a bit premature.

We'll try to ferret out more info this evening.

After grabbing our credentials, this blog briefly popped into St. Elmo's Steak House, a renowned Indy insititution. Some of the protagonists from tomorrow's game were there, catching dinner before tomorrow's game with their families. It was still just 6 p.m. so those wondering WHERE THEIR HEADS ARE AT?!?!?! can rest easy.

Just got an e-mail that Rodney Harrison is definitely OUT for tomorrow's game.

This blog will be attending the AFC Championship bender at the Hyatt later. We'll make sure to tell you what the ice sculpture looked like. And we hope to pick up 40-odd pins for the third-grade class or Mrs. Curran and Mrs. Bradley at Walpole's Old Post Road Elementary School.

This blog is all about the keeeeds......

T

If anyone ever says you're staying in a Conrad Hotel by Hilton, ask no questions, just go.

This blog is in one in downtown Indy and the place is ridiculous. We got a 42-inch lcd on the wall with the definition that is high. And we have a little fella lcd in the bathroom so this blog can take put on its makeup and pluck its eyebrows and whatnot and not lose track of its stories on the TV.

What else can this blog tell you to convince you the joint is upper-crusty?

The New York K-nickerbockers are in here. Matter of fact, one Mr. Nate Robinson is a couple doors down. He saw this blog pass and asked if this blog was, in fact the Bump 'n Run creator. "Yes, Nate. Now back to your Knickerbocker business," was the reply.

Hope he doesn't become a nuisance.

One can feel the electricity in the air here. If one takes off several layers of outer protection against the cold.

This blog is off to grab a bite and will check in later.

The Great Tom Matthews, one of our editors at the NBCSports.com nerve center in Stamford, Connecticut, just informed this blog that Minnesota defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin (no relation to Lily) is expected to be named head coach of the Steelers.

Grim news for Russ Grimm, the former Steelers most expected to get the job. Tomlin is 34. We'll try to ferret out more info as the day progresses.

T

But enough about that. As this blog looks out is window

I admit it. I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the University of Florida. However, I'd like to believe if I was a grown politician (IF being the operative word), I might be able to put aside my personal feelings and vote on this.

I get being loyal and all... And let's be honest, I didn't exactly cheer for UF in the National Championship game and they are from my home state! But come on? This guy (Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston) is the ONLY person who couldn't just raise his hand and say "Ok, I'll go along with it." Would it really have been that hard? All I'm saying is he should've just done it for the team, even if this particular one isn't his.

Tomorrow Notre Dame is expected to introduce Corwin Brown , who spent the previous three football seasons as the defensive backs coach of the New York Jets, as their new defensive coordinator. For the purpose of clarity, allow me to state right here that Brown, 36, a Chicago native who played his college ball at Michigan, is no relation to:

--loveable lovelorn loser and unsuccessful place kicker Charlie Brown
--dearly departed Godfather of Soul James Brown --or one-time NFL all-time leading rusher Jim Brown , for that matter...or CBS NFL studio host James Brown
--prepubescent wonder sleuth Encyclopedia Brown
--fellow Windy City native and baddest man in the whole damn town, Leroy Brown
--Aussie actor and Rachel Ward charmer Bryan Brown
--Spice Girl and alleged babymama to Eddie Murphy's next offspring Melanie Brown
--former Seattle Sonic sharpshooter Downtown Freddie Brown , who never had relations (as far as I know) with MTV's Downtown Julie Brown , though if they did, it would be "from way downtown!" (Thanks, Mike)
--disturbed distaff rapper Foxy Brown
--erudite leftist comic A. Whitney Brown
--youthful hip-hopper Bow Wow, a.k.a. Chris Brown
--aging hoop-hopper Larry Brown
--dean of NBA analysts who has called hundreds of the above dude's games, Hubie Brown
-- (whistling to self) Sweet Georgia Brown
--any of the members of Florida-based country music outfit Sawyer Brown
--shoe icon Buster Brown
--blues legend Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
--grilling guru Alton Brown
--former Detroit Tiger pinch-hitter Gates Brown
--fashionista literatae Tina Brown and Helen Gurley Brown
--Irish Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown
--basketballin' birthday cake tosser Kwame Brown
--Band of Renown maestro Les Brown
--thumb-seeking (as opposed to thumb-sucking) former Louisville hoopster Wiley Brown
--double-digit seeking hurler Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown
--eminently buoyant Molly Brown
--former California governor and man who answered Linda Ronstadt's musical question, "When Will I Be Loved?", Jerry Brown
--fraternal football fiefdom lords Mack and Watson Brown
--fictional Beltway TV personality Murphy Brown
--prerogative-protective performer Bobby Brown , not to be confused with former American League president Bobby Brown
--and, last but not least, Oliver L. Brown , the dude who took on the entire Topeka Board of Education

Again, no relation to any of them.

I think. Anyway, Brown takes over for Rick Minter, who was fired after two seasons in his second (and less successful) stint in South Bend. Brown, who played eight seasons in the NFL, was a defensive back for both the New England Patriots and New York Jets when Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis was also with those teams as an offensive coach in the 1990s.

One of the most impressive stats on Brown's resume is that last season the Jet secondary went 33 consecutive quarters (the equivalent to more than half a season) without drawing a defensive pass interference penalty. Then again, many times last season the Notre Dame defensive backs were not close enough to a receiver (Mario Manningham, anyone?) to draw a pass interference call, either.

SCRUBS THE MUSICAL!

Don't know if you've seen my favorite network comedy of this decade, or if you've ever seen the Broadway musical Avenue Q . The latter gave us such classic tunes as "It Sucks To Be Me" and "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist". Anyway, Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence decided to hire the folks who wrote Avenue Q to pen a musical episode of Scrubs (the medical show that's not beleagured by chronic cast-infighting and homophobic slurring). It airs tonight--in just a few hours--and I am psyched.

For me, the only thing left for Scrubs to do after this is an episode parodying every bad medical drama's sweeps-week go-to ploy, the bomber/gunman/samurai-sword wielding psycho in the emergency room gimmick. Theirs is the only hospital on TV yet to experience. And you know, I'm thinking Janitor could take on the evil wretch(es) all on his own.

The Fantasy Fix today is all about the AFC and NFC matchups. Both games are really set up to be great games. Of course I'm sticking with my season long sweetheart pick-the Saints. As for the Colts and the Patriots, I'm taking the Pats. Regardless of the teams, I'm really looking forward to the Super Bowl. I actually head down to Miami the weekend before to check out all the pre-game hoop-la that surrounds the big game. Of course, I'll be posting a ton of pictures, videos and comments the entire week I am down there.

Last night, I went to Madison Square Garden for a really cool fundraiser. It was the Annual Winter Auction for Ice Hockey in Harlem. IHIH? is a non-profit organization created in 1987 that uses hockey as a base to teach life lessons to kids in Harlem. Guys from the New York Rangers were there to sign autographs and support the cause. I spoke with two adorable kids involved with IHIH, Alvin and Sydney. They were very excited about meeting the players and definitely love their hockey. Look for the story to be up on the site soon!

Ever since Bowlnanza ended, I've been Phoenix Sun worshipping. And it turns out that I'm not alone. On espn.com today Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy to all of his fans (you can include me in that group), wrote a glowing piece about how Phoenix is approaching the type of greatness that the Boston Celtics and L.A. Lakers of the '80s reached.

To which I, someone who grew up in Phoenix when the Suns were the only pro sports franchise in town (and in many ways remain so), can only say, "Not so fast, my friend."

I am not about to claim to follow the NBA (or Boston sports, or reality television, The Real World, etc.) as religiously as Simmons does--honestly, when you read him you get the idea that he's handling the TiVo remote and the internet as feverishly as Tank punching the keyboard in The Matrix . But, as much as I love the Suns, and even more to Simmons' point, as much as I love watching these Suns--because it's not just their 27-2 record over the past 29 games, it's their style of play--I am not convinced that they are a truly elite team.

I know what you're saying: More Crazytalk, Walters.

Wait a minute. You know who the top five teams in the Western Conference besides Phoenix are this season? They are Dallas (the Mavericks still have a better record even though Phoenix is 27-2 since Thanksgiving week), San Antonio, the Lakers, Utah and Houston. And do you know what the Suns' record is against those five teams this season?

2-6

Subtract the Rockets, whom Phoenix barely beat last night even though both Yao and McGrady did not suit up, and do you want to know what the Suns' record against the rest of those teams are so far this season?

0-6

That's right. Two losses to Utah and Dallas, and one each to San Antonio and the Kobes. Sure, all but one of those losses came in the first three weeks of the season, when the Suns were still getting reacquainted with Amare Stoudemire. And, sure, you have to lose to somebody in those eight losses.

But if you're a long-time Suns fan, one who is used to seeing them play aesthetically pleasing hoops (remember the 1980 team with Westphal and Sweet D? The '89 Hornacek, KJ and Chambers squad?) and advance all the way to the Western Conference finals, then you're still a little loathe to fall head over heels for this group.

The Suns are 16-1 against the Eastern Conference. They have a .250 winning percentage against the teams they will be seeing in the 2nd round of the playoffs and perhaps the Western Conference finals. I love Steve Nash as much as Nelly Furtado, trust me, but I'm not convinced they'd even be the second-best team in Texas yet.

Quote of the Day

From a random--but likely representative of the whole--friend:

I think I'd have a hard time getting through your blog if I didn't know you already.

Which is why I'm inviting everyone over to my apartment on Sunday afternoon for a blog mixer. BYOB. Starting at kickoff of Saints-Bears. Because the blog wants more readers!

Colt's Dodge

Smart move by Hawaii's Colt Brennan to remain in school for his senior year. Why? Did I mention he attends school in Ha-freakin-waii!?!

Seriously, I saw him play in person at the Hawaii Bowl, and while I was impressed with his stats, I saw the same things others have wondered about:

1. He needs to put on some muscle.
2. I'm not overly worried about mechanics--some guys can just play, e.g. Drew Brees--but Brennan's not that big and his release is sorta sidearm. If you watch any of the NFL playoff games in the past two weeks you saw a lot of passes being batted down. It's even worse for someone with his height and that release.
3. Brennan seemed likeable and fun-loving, but you get the sense that the former high school backup to Matt Leinart may be a little too cas (as in "casual") for the NFL right now. He's having fun and he should: he's in college. But when an NFL GM spends ten minutes with Brady Quinn, for example, he knows he's got a future employee who will show up on time and do all the homework. With Colt Brennan, you get the sense there's still more boy there than man.
(I only say that because people have the same sense about me. At least Colt has an excuse. He's a junior in college. I'm a 40 year-old dude who still giggles at Caddyshack lines)

Imagine this: it's 2002 and you're meeting with a psychic. After getting through top questions like "Will I win the lotto? What kind of house will I have? Will Crossroads be up for an Oscar? Will the Red Sox ever win a Championship? (That was for you Gregg)" Suddenly the psychic looks deep into your eyes and says: "Speaking of Britney Spears, in 2007 she will be REJECTED from a Super Bowl Ad. Not only that, but her ex Kevin Federline will star in one." At that point you'd do what any other normal person would do, grab your stuff and run out. Seriously, that's just erroneous. Right? Wrong. It happens to be completely true.

Former "It Girl" Britney Spears is going to have to sit out this Super Bowl. Apparently, deals are underway for a pretty star studded commercial promoting the NFL Network to air during the game on February 4th. The story goes a little like this: Spears Camp approached. Spears Camp asked to be involved. Spears Camp got denied. To top it off, how's this for a quote? "She's too much of a train wreck." I mean, aren't there nicer ways to say we'd rather not be associated with you?

So with American Idol starting tonight, I feel like it's the perfect time to build up my confidence. Yes, I lost the play-off picks to Gregg. [DISCLAIMER: Its the stupid spread that kills me every time. I'm pretty good at guessing which team will win.] So in my defeat, I must sing. Tonight's American Idol episode will surely show me that there are worse singers out there then me. Example: William Hung. I rest my case.

On the subject of TV, the Golden Globes were last night. How funny was Sacha Baron Cohen's acceptance speech? In case you missed it, check it out. I wouldn't want you to be left out.

Also, for all you Tennis fans, the Australian Open is well underway. Mardy Fish is from my hometown back in Florida and had a killer game against the fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic. From an NBC Sports article: "It was a great opportunity to play someone like him, to show everyone I can play, that I'm back," Fish, 25, said of the big-serving Croat Ljubicic.

He advanced to the second round along with Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal and James Blake.

That's the USA Today and/or New York Post headline tomorrow, no? I liked this movie better when it was called Syriana . Or Crash .

If only Africa had a voice in Hollywood, someone might stand up and say, "Enough with all the bad stuff going down on our continent movies!" Babel, Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, The Last King of Scotland, and yes, the most esteemed of the lot, Primeval. Would it kill somebody to do an African-based comedy? I don't think anyone's attempted one since The Air Up There .

Funny, because arguably the greatest film ever made is set in Africa. Yes, of course I mean The Lion King . Or, okay, Casablanca .

Alright, that's it for tonight's Golden Blogs. Hope I kept your interest as long as Warren Beatty did.

...that Forrest Whitaker was in Dreamgirls .

I don't know about where you live, but where I am they've run two "Quit Smoking" commercials since the "Thank You For Smoking" movie clip. And three "Quit Dane Cook" ads.

--An "Over Rated!" cheer just broke out in my apartment. I believe that was in response to Gray's Anatomy winning a Best Drama GG. I believe I was the one chanting it.

--Helen Mirren wins. The British Invasion continues. Someone hand Peter O'Toole a statue just for snits and giggles.

--Mirren flashing he decolletage. Nothing like a confident sixty-something. Let's all say a prayer of thanks that Bea Arthur is not that confident.

--Courteney Cox and David Arquette are not only dressing more like the other one, but each is defying my "Divorce agrees with you" theory.

--Been watching the ads for "Music & Lyrics", starring Hugh Grant in something of a departure for him: playing a charming, good-looking Brit. He's a chameleon, that man. Still, I'd like to hang out with the characters he plays. Except perhaps for the dude who decided to marry Andie McDowell when Kristin Scott-Thomas was in love with him. What a dope.

--I wonder what it's like for the cast of Scrubs when they trudge in to work tomorrow. Yo, guys, I doubt these thoughts will ever reach your eyes, but as far as I'm concerned no comedy out there can touch you. Except for the two that begin with an "E": Extras and Entourage. But you've been doing it for so long and so well. Chin up, Dr. Cox. After all, you were named outstanding doctor in the county earlier this season.

(n.) When your eyebrows are black and your hair is gray, a la Martin Scorcese. Actually, he has Fuzzy Dyebrows. All he needs is a cigar and a "You jus said the magic word."

--In the most symbolic moment of the night, yummy mummy Reese Witherspoon hands an award to the funniest Brit of the night, Sasha Baron Cohen. And Sasha's in the midst of giving a speech for the ages, talking about "the dark side of America".

--I want Cate Blanchett to win something just so we can calibrate where Aussies rate in the Brit-wit versus nitwit (US) scale. Also, I just like looking at Cate Blanchett. She was on a flight from Phoenix to New York with me two years ago and I think I volunteered to give her my Snack Bites.

--Anyone know who won the UConn-North Carolina game earlier tonight?

--Getting back to this whole Brit wit riff, on "Extras" the other night Ricky Gervais' Andy Millman was making the argument that there are plenty of funny black people. "Look at Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy," he says. And then his friend who made the original "blacks aren't funny" argument says, "Black English?" Which silences Andy. Is Seal funny?

--Dane Cook?!?!? Dane Cook? Ohmigod. I'm moving to Liverpool.

-- This is all very well-deserved, the Warren Beatty tribute, but I hope Tom Hanks does the tribute and asks the same question of who's been with the honoree, and asks for "Men?", and that crazy-eyed dude from Deliverance raises his hand.

--Do they still do "Most Promising Newcomer" at the Golden Globes? Olive from Little Miss Sunshine , anyone?

--My pal Mike just said, "It seemed like 45 years ago when that speech started. And the only reason he told his kids to go to bed--by the way, it' only 7:15 there right now--is because they already fell asleep halfway through that speech."

--You're an actress currently in that ballroom. You have a chance to switch places (and physical appearances) with America Ferrara or any one of the Desperate Housewives. Whom do you choose? And, yes, if you pick Nicolette Sheridan you have to go home with Michael Bolton. That's the deal.

--Why is Tom Hanks still in costume for The Da Vinci Code ?

-- Bonnie and Clyde . Great flick. Bonnie Parker. How come you never meet any gals named Bonnie any more? Or use the term "gals"? The suspense in this Warren Beattly tribute is waiting to see if they'll do a Dick Tracy snippet? They did! They did! I love Al Pacino in that.

Entourage is not going to win and I'm going to be sad.

We're waiting...waiting...

And the Golden Globe goes to....Ugly Betty. Well, I agree with the first syllable.

And, hey, Ugly Betty is not that ugly. And, of course, the exec. producer of the best comedy has a Sedgwickian acceptance speech. Can someone get Hugh Laurie up for an encore?

Jamie Foxx just told Prince, "That outfit is bangin'."

Then he presented Dreamgirls , the movie whose release caused James Brown to keel over and die. Still, I want to see it.

--This is from me: "Sharon Stone, that outfit is bangin'!" Does anyone enjoy being a movie star more than Sharon Stone? Now if she'd only make a movie that we want to see.

--Clint Eastwood is so manly that he gets away with wearing the white bow-tie. Great opening line, though: "You don't know what this does for my confidence."

--Somebody should get Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman to do a movie together while they're still spry and youthful. Clint is 76, by the way, but I think I still noticed Jessica Biel (not divorced, but still smokin') looking at him with a seventh heaven stare.

--Wondering if the gal who plays Ugly Betty and Jack Nicholson will be hanging out at a party after the show's over. Here's another great thing about the GGs. It ends at about 8 p.m. locally. That gives everyone three extra hours of sousing than if they held this at Radio City Music Hall (not that it would stop Danny Devito).

--I love the idea of that new NBC show "You're The One That I Want", which is sort of an open audition for a Grease play on Broadway. Wow, Grease as a play? What will they think of next? NBC shouldn't stop there? I'd like to see a similar show based on Judith Light's performance in "Wit". Okay, if you don't get it, don't worry. I was shooting at a very small target on that one.

--Hugh Grant just explained that Prince couldn't accept his award in person because he was stuck in traffic. Prince is here now, so Grant just instructed, "Prince, stand up and take a bow." Okay, now how classic a TV moment would it have been if Grant, after the Purple Reigner did so, said, "No, Prince, seriously. Stand up and take a bow." That might have caused a little stir, eh?

--Here's what's going through Jack Nicholson's mind as he watches the blonde girl he escorts the winners off the stage. "Yeah, I'll hit that after the show...wait, that's my daughter."

--So I don't think Ugly Betty is in any danger of being canceled. Love America Ferrara's speech. Something ironic about the world's most beautiful people cheering the idea of physically unattractive people having self-worth. "Yeah! Yeah! They can stock my Kraft services table any time!"

According to witty woman Katie McCollow (yuckysaladwithbones.com), "cream is the new purple". Meaning, that seems to be the color of everyone's gowns tonight. Katie spotted Cameron Diaz's off-white gown and remarked, "That's not gonna get him back."

Hush your mouth, Katie. I love Cameron's look, and it seems like she means business with this brunette look. I'm liking it.

Wow, look at Vanessa Williams! Even Tim Allen, her co-presenter, just said, "If looks were a minute, this would be a long day." Divorce, it's what's for breakfast.

Zach Braff nominated for Scrubs . I knew he had no chance of winning, but a boy can dream, can't he? Alec Baldwin sits at the big kids' table, so he wins. But some day people are going to realize what they missed with Scrubs.

Can we take a moment to salute the performance of the kids who played Walker and Texas Ranger in Talladega Nights ? "Shut up, Chip!"..."I'm gonna come at you like a spider monkey!"

--That would explain the sharp wit and the thespian chops.

--I actually liked The Devil Wears Prada . I also actually loved Matthew Perry in The Ron Clark Story . I'm a sucker for films set in Manhattan. My favorite scene in Ron Clark was when Perry says, "Could we DOOO any more arithmetic?"

--The dude who played the aging rocker in Love, Actually just won an award because, judging from the reaction both times his name was mentioned earlier, he's very popular in the room. It's the British Invasion, people. Don't be surprised if Peter Sellers wins something posthumously tonight.

--Helen Mirren!! More Brits! She's Hollywood's designated queen portrayer. In the roles that Nathan Lane doesn't take first.

--Reese Witherspoon spotting No. 19. Hey, it pays to hire a personal trainer and get a good night's rest, people.

...Selma Hayek and Matthew Perry huddling as they came out of a commercial. "Matthew, when your show goes on hiatus, how about we finally devote seven weeks of our lives to 'Fools Rush Out'."

--Willow Bay spotted sitting at a table. Nice. Is she still doing 'Inside Stuff'?

--Eddie Murphy, looking absolutely fantastic. See what I said about divorce? Okay, the heavyweight division is Best Supporting Actor: Ben Affleck, Eddie Murphy, Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt and Mark Wahlberg. Damn. Eddie wins, and I can't complain cuz I haven't seen 'Dreamgirls' yet. But, man, Wahlberg was classic in 'The Departed', didn't you think?

--Eddie cracked a little bit of the old SNL stud charm when he noted how he'd been convinced to work "for free". Don't we all miss Eddie Murphy? Why doesn't Eddie Murphy miss Eddie Murphy, that's what I want to know. He's like the Barry Sanders of comedy.

--Meanwhile, I spotted Prince behind Eddie at the table. You think he's had his people paint Timberlake purple yet for that short joke?

--Shot No. 17 of Reese Witherspoon. And is she even nominated? I hope she and Eddie go for drinks after the show at Barney's Beanery on Sunset. Chances of that happening: slim.

--I don't have a vote, but if I did, I'd have nominated Suitcase Model No. 23 for Best Actress in a Drama in "Deal or No Deal". First, I love how she always hits her cue when Howie says, "Aubrie, open the case." And once she totally fooled me! I thought the case was going to hold $750,000 and and it really only held $25. You rock, Aubrie!.

--Meryl Streep just won another award. And she's tearing up. But then again, she's the best actor alive. So how do we know if it's sincere. I don't care, I like her. If she's completely snowing us, then let me be buried in that avalanche.

--They just cut to Reese again. Honestly, doesn't she look ten years younger (and she ain't even old)? I mean, divorce looks as if it's better for you than botox.

--Justin Timberlake just improv'ed a short joke when Prince did not arrive to collect his "Happy Feet" best song award. Watch your back, Sexyback. And I wonder where Cameron Diaz was while Prince was AWOL.

--Hey, there's Vincent Chase! Where's Turtle? Is he up for Best Actor in "Aquaman"?

--Jeremy Irons just asked, "Why are the jobs that are most fun are the ones that give you the awards?" Reason No. 431 why the British are smarter than we are.

--Tina Fey and David Spade presenting. They can't blow this. And....they don't.

--Evangeline Lily? Is she Carly Simon's bastard brunette daughter? I hope she sings that "clouds in my coffee" tune.

--Kyra Sedgwick just won and began her speech by saying, "I'm so going to be not funny." And, unfortunately, she was right. Don't worry, Kyra. You killed in Singles . We'll all go out for waffles at E.J.'s later this week, 'nkay?

So here we are, you and I, not at the Golden Globes, but watching them on TV. Which is better.

I'll be with you all night, remarking on the best of the awards show that there is because it's the only one that mixes:

1. Film
2. Television
3. And Booze

Seriously, why else do you think Christine Lahti-Da was in the john a few years back when they called her name? Her kidneys were expiring. Jack Nicholson shows up at the Beverly Hilton or wherever they're staging this deal at 11 a.m.

By the way, can anyone at NBC disprove my theory that the entire reason for holding the GGs tonight is to buy time as they decide what in the hell to do with Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip ?

At the moment I'm on E!, watching the arrivals. You're probably wondering who I'm wearing. I'll tell. I'm going with my Banana Republic happy pants and Notre Dame Football T-shirt No. 273.

RED CARPET REDUCTIONS

1. Divorce so agrees with Reese Witherspoon.
2. How many years have Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick been attending awards shows? Didn't he win for playing Chip Diller in 1978? And he's still only 37 years old.
3. Cate Blanchett...definition of translucent.
4. Listen, is it just me or do you also know someone who's a lot better-looking than Justin Timberlake? Great voice, great dancer, cool name. But I just don't get it.

On To The Show

--First Award: I think Macy Gray just won for Best Supporting Actress. Cool.

LaDainian Tomlinson just said the Patriots showed no class after Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding missed a 54-yarder that would have tied the game. New England celebrated on the field and was assessed a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with three seconds left.

LT took exception that the Patriots mocked teammate Shawne Merriman's sack dance.

"They showed no class at all. No class. And maybe it comes from their head coach," said Tomlinson.

Four teams left on the road to the Super Bowl: the Bears, the Colts, the Saints and now the Patriots. That was some game tonight and as much as I was pulling for San Diego to win, Brady and the Patriots get it done when they need to most. Here's a snippet of an IM conversation with Gregg and I shortly after the win:

tiff (8:25:32 PM): O...M...G....
gregg (8:25:39 PM): WOOOOO
tiff (8:25:49 PM): HAHAAAA..
tiff (8:26:01 PM): YOU GOT SOOOOO LUCKY
tiff (8:26:03 PM): SO LUCKY
tiff (8:26:06 PM): YOUR BOY WAS A MESS TODAY
gregg (8:26:25 PM): whatever
gregg (8:26:28 PM): CLUTCH BABY
tiff (8:26:35 PM): yes it was
gregg (8:26:40 PM): they won against the best team on the road
gregg (8:26:46 PM): they find a way!

And that is what matters most, finding a way to win when it counts. No MVP Award. No amazing 14-2 record. Not even your home turf. None of that matters when it comes down to winning the game. Advantages? Yes. But even with the fans yelling (and if you watched even a play of the game you know it was loud) and an extra week to prepare, the Chargers couldn't get it done.

I really hate games that come down to the final seconds and are determined by field goals. (Hah, so does Tony Romo). I've been in the stands at way too many FSU games, cheering till the very end only to hear the words "Wide Left, Wide Right, and S0-Wide-You-Just-Lost." It always hits a sore spot.

And a sore spot this will surely be for the San Diego Chargers. It could've been their year. They played the whole season like this was 'the one'. However, the way the Pats played tonight, I wouldn't be surprised if this season was 'the one' for them. They just always find a way.

Ray Lewis just tipped a sure interception away from Ed Reed who may have been able to do some damage on the return.

Couple that with the Dawan Landry non-pick.

And the McNair pick on the goal line.

The Ravens haven't done that all important and terribly cliched football act of "making plays". They were 0 for 5 in the first half on third down.

They're in it, absolutely. But they are in a smidge of trouble here.

The Ravens have a little something going here and don't want it to end as they're fourth-and-4 at the Indy 41. If the Ravens go for it, Indy's 24 yards away from making it 15-3. If they don't, they play field position and hope Koch can pop it inside the 10.

This blog has some first half stats for you ...

Manning's thrown for 77 yards on 8 of 17 passing..

McNair's 9 of 12 for 60 yards. Those YPA, which in many cases are the best indicators of QB effectiveness, show how hard-hitting this game's been so far.

Look for the Ravens to run some more Jamal Lewis in the second half.

Neither team's gotten its tight end involved much. Dallas Clark is without a catch and has had (by my unofficial) 4 balls thrown to him. Todd Heap's got 2 catches for 5 yards.

The Colts just burned 6 minutes off the clock and capped their drive with a 51-yard field goal moving the ball from their own 1 to the Baltimore 34. Very well done by Indy.

Vinatieri seems to be paying off for the Colts right now. He just made his third field goal of the half, bouncing it across off of the crossbar.

The Colts have the chance to really make Baltimore pay for their sin. They picked up a first down after starting at their 1, aided by a neutral zone infraction on third-and-7, now Manning scrambled to set up a short run by Addai for another first down.

The drive started with 9:15 left in the half, now it's at 6 minutes. Manning is still so panicky when forced to move around in the pocket.

He nearly got picked moments ago by safety Dawan Landry who let a pass intended for Marvin Harrison (who didn't even fight for the ball) bounce off his chest.

Todd Heap came open on the third-and-goal play but just a heartbeat late was the throw from McNair which ended up getting picked on a heady play by safety Antoine Bethea.

The Indy run defense. Lewis has now gained 9 and 18 on separate carries on this drive and the Colts defense is getting overwhelmed.

Terrell Suggs lined up over Reggie Wayne to give him a little chuck before releasing him to Rolle.

On second down, Bart Scott made Manning move in the pocket and he threw it away.

On third down, Adalius Thomas chucked Dallas Clark coming out then released him to Ray Lewis with help over the top from Ed Reed. Manning tried to throw the ball in over Lewis but it sailed over Clark too and Ed Reed came up with the pick.

The turnover battle is now back to even and the Ravens are at the Colts 43.

At 245 pounds, Jamal Lewis hits the hole with the intensity of a three-toed sloth on a full stomach.

The Colts are creeping safety Bob Sanders up to the line to help with first-down run support and Baltimore just hit that by throwing to Michael Clayton on a 15-yard in-cut where Sanders would have been.

The Colts are quick-snapping the Ravens trying to get them flat-footed before the snap. They just tried a bubble screen to Reggie Wayne out on the left that Baltimore sniffed out quickly and swarmed to.

With the Wayne-heavy start, it won't be long before Manning tries to pump that way, move the safeties to the offense's left and then see if he can get Marvin Harrison running some kind of a post route inside McAlister.

Indy is at the Ravens 31 after the Gary Brackett recovery and Harper forced fumble.

We got ourselves a review and it's a big one. Nick Harper just got his head on the ball and flipped Todd Heap. The ball absolutely comes out. The only question is whether Heap's elbow was down before the ball came fully out. It was dislodged but not out on the hit. We're betting on hmmmm....fumble.

Terrell Suggs came up with a stop on third-and-3 inside the Ravens 5 to snuff a drive and force the Colts to settle for a field goal.

Already, this blog wonders what Baltimore is going to do to mitigate the advantage Reggie Wayne seems to have over Rolle. If he gives the 6-yard cushion he's giving, Manning will come back to that every time he needs a third-down conversion.

Great pass by Manning just over the reach of Suggs and into Reggie Wayne for a gain of 19 in front of Rolle. Rolle gives up another first down, a 9-yard gain on third-and-8 and the Colts are now going without a huddle as Indy is down to the Ravens 10.

The guy that "represents the best of Baltimore" according to the PA announcer, Cal Ripken Jr., presented the coin for the flip. And the Ravens won the toss and take the ball.

From the sanctioned seizure by Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis..."Somebody get his tongue...don't let him swallow his TONGUE!!!!"

BALTIMORE - The Ravens marching band is currently performing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

Let's charitably call it a spirited and well-intentioned rendition.

1) Get the Ravens in "chase" position. This is something Indy really feels is vital, something Peyton Manning mentioned to me after games this year in Cincinnati and New England that the Colts were able to get ahead in. The Colts feel that when they get the early lead, teams alter their own offensive decision-making because they fear the Indy offense turning a 7-point lead into a 17 or 21-point lead in a matter of minutes. And the Ravens are not built to chase.

2) Rolle Over. Samari Rolle is a good player but he's the weak link in a Ravens secondary that's loaded. A lot of weeks, Baltimore will be able to cover for that, but this week they are facing two No. 1 receivers in Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. Because of his precise route-running and karma with Peyton Manning, the ball is often on Wayne's hands as he comes out of breaks. And Rolle is slight so, while he might try to play physical with Wayne, he gives up 23 pounds.

3) Gamble on defense. The Ravens are bigger and stronger on defense than the Colts. But the Colts, because of their offensive firepower, should take some gambles against Baltimore, especially in the passing game. Undercut sideline throws with the corners and hope that speedy Bob Sanders can play catchup from his safety spot if they miss them.

BALTIMORE - Ravens left tackle Jonathan Ogden will play today.

The inactives are, for Baltimore: CB Jamaine Winborne, CB David Pittman, CB Derrick Martin, RB PJ Daniels, FB Nick Luchey, OL Mike Kracalik, WR Devard Darling and WR Clarence Moore.

For Indy, WR Ricky Proehl, DB Tim Jennings, DB TJ Rushing, LB Gilbert Gardner, DE Bo Schobel, OG Matt Ulrich, OT Dan Federkeil and WR John Standeford.

BALTIMORE, Md. - Eric DeCosta has been with the Ravens since their inception.

"I've never seen it like it is today," said the team's talented Director of College Scouting. "There's a bar down the street called Mother's. People go to it before games and it's usually packed. I went past it two hours ago and you can't even get close to it today. You can't even see it."

The vibe in Baltimore today is unprecedented. From the Inner Harbor area where the streetlamps glow purple to the blocks around the stadium teeming with purple-hued humanity, the community is rising up as one for the Ravens and against the Colts.

It's a confluence of civic sports pride and bitterness rarely seen. Remember, this is the first time the Ravens have hosted an AFC Divisional Playoff game in their stadium. There's a rush in the city when that happens and, when the opponent comes in wearing the Horseshoe, there's a visceral reaction on the parts of fans of all ages who don't have to work hard to conjure up some solid hate for Indy.

"I got tired of the Colts-hating a long time ago, but this week's brought back a lot of old feelings for people," said Decosta.

Well the Fantasy Fix made its debut tonight at Bradfords Grill and Tavern which is right up the street from our old place, Bobby V's. It worked out well and should make a fine fit for all of our Friday night shows. (Gregg and I are pretty easy going).

Check out our show

Speaking of Gregg, the playoff bet is on between the two of us. Originally, I wanted Gregg to wear a Matthew McConaughey tee shirt and stand in the Stamford Mall passing out fliers recruiting people to create a fan club. It didn't go over as I had hoped. So now the bet is loser (that would be Gregg) must sing winner's (that would be me) alma mater fight song. "You gotta win win win for FSU..." Seriously, who am I kidding? We both know I'm going to have to sing the Hulla-whatchama call it for sure.

Why is this the best weekend of the NFL playoffs? A) Wall-to-wall games; B) Possibilities -- while not endless -- are stacked pretty high.

But more than anything else, this weekend is the last one where it's purely about football.

Next weekend, it'll be the conference championships and we in the media will be working hard to find the 2006 version of the, "Hey, Jerome Bettis is From Detroit!" story to pound relentlessly.

And then we have two weeks leading into the Super Bowl which is just about long enough to make your ears bleed from conjecture and contrived controversy.

Every one of the eight teams left carries with it a compelling story, a reason to root for or against it and -- more important than last week - a decent chance of winning the Super Bowl.

Last week, teams like the Giants, Chiefs and Jets were kinda...meh. I don't care what the Steelers did from the sixth seed last year, none of those teams were going to Miami to do anything other than schmooze.

But, beginning tomorrow, as the field gets whittled by one and then two, you're going to kinda miss the teams that get bounced. They had something that made them compelling all year long. Even if you can't stand Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, the playoffs are going to miss something when their seasons are over.

Same with LT or that brutal Ravens defense, Brian Westbrook or the story out of New Orleans.

Chicago and Seattle, not so much, but you see what I mean.

I'm going to Baltimore in the morning. I can't wait to see that game and I'm a little bummed that I'll be writing and not able to totally focus in on the Saints and Eagles.

Sunday, I'll be able to lock in on the two matchups. I believe the best game of the weekend is the last game: Chargers and Patriots.

And I can't wait.

Talk to you tomorrow from Baltimore around 2:30.

A good friend of mine sent out an email today that might peak your curiosity. Seeing as how he's a guy and most people who spend their time on sports websites are guys (no offense to the ladies out there) this article seemed fitting for today's post.

I must say, the writer really put a lot of time and effort into conducting one of the most in-depth college ranking systems ever done. (Insert sarcasm) All joking aside, its a good read for a slow day at work before you gear up for the weekend.

Note: I guess UF can't win them all.

Sorry. I think my parents are watching The People's Court or something in the other room and I literally just heard someone on the TV say that.

News today out of south Georgia: Ironically named prep offensive lineman Chris Little, who's 6'6", 350 pounds, had a change of heart. At last Saturday's Army All-American Bowl Little donned the baseball cap of the University of Florida State University (we'll be beating that horse for a while, thank you), but primarily because he thought his momma wanted him to stay close to home. When they boarded the plane to return to Georgia ( a plane that I'm not sure I would have felt comfy boarding with someone that huge on it), momma confided that her heart was with Notre Dame.

"I wish you would have told me that before," Little told her.

So, after a little bit of Little anguish, Chris placed the difficult phone calls and reneged on his on-air verbal to Tallahassee. Little instantly becomes the largest player at Notre Dame ("More noodlebake!"), but odds are he'll be asked to shed about 30 to 40 pounds (God, there's a joke I'm dying to make here but it would be so misogynous that I just can't).

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About a month or so ago I went to a movie and think I mentioned here that if they had a theater that showed nothing but movie trailers, I'd pay $10 to watch. Well, turns out they have a channel on the ol' HD that does just that. My dad and I watched about six "films" this morning. I'm intrigued by "Reign Over Me" (Who song, right?) starring Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler. Yes, I just said that I'm intrigued by an Adam Sandler film. I don't think he falls for Drew Barrymore in this one, either.

***********************************

Golden Globes on Monday. The highlight of winter as far as I'm concerned. At the Wake Forest football banquet, do they give out the Golden Grobes?

*************************************

Steve Nash finishes with 21 assists and four points.

LeBron James finishes with 34 points in 39 minutes.

The stars do not disappoint.

Who's more valuable? One on one, LeBron's gonna win. Put four other players on the court, and right now I'll take Nash. Don't get me wrong, though: LeBron's a freak. He just needs to get the rest of his team more involved. Outside of LeBron (34) and Drew Gooden (11 points) the Cavs other three starters totaled 15 points. The lowest combo of points among a trio of Sun starters was 29, and that includes Nash's 4, which he more than made up with the 42 points he created off passes.

Big fun, though. Thanks for reading. And for what it's worth, I'm totally with my man Alan Abrahamson on the Beckham signing. I love soccer, but David Beckham isn't going to make the sport big here. It'll remain a curiosity until the best American athletes are playing soccer as children. More are now than were nearly 30 years ago, when Pele became the first superduperstar ex-pat to play professionally in the US. But it was just a spike, not a revolution.

Pat Burke, the 6'11" Irish native and fan favorite, is in for the Suns. He's already taken two shots (missed both) and committed a turnover. But who doesn't love a 6'11" bald dude with a brogue, right?

FYI: "Burking" is a criminal act in which you suffocate the victim by pressing on his/her chest and clamping his nostrils. It was the m.o. of the killers in James McManus' fantastic book "Positively Fifth Street", and its origin is explained thoroughly in Mary Roach's morbidly entertaining book, "Stiff".

There's no mention of burking so far in ":07 Or Less", but I'm not finished with it yet.

Okay, other than being large, LeBron and the Brontosaurus have very little in common. One is a plodding herbivore that happens to be extinct. The other has already ripped off 11 points in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the 4th quarter. Phoenix won't blow a 31-point fourth quarter lead, but LeBron may very well get his 45 points tonight against the Suns.

He's already at Baskin-Robbins now.

By the way, James has yet to break 40 points in a game this year. Sort of surprising.

Watching him in person, I'll confess that I've never given LeBron enough creidt for being as pure a shooter as he is. Yes, he's fast and physical, a visit to the free throw line waiting to happen, but he's also shooting about 58% from the floor tonight. Just an outstanding shooter.

95-70, Suns. Nash is back in to collect his three assists.

It's a rhetorical question. You don't. Plus, I just wanted a "Sound of Music" reference in the blog.

That said, No. 10 for the Suns is a special, special player. They need to keep him here. Meanwhile, I wonder if Joe Johnson is happier in Atlanta than he was here.

Nash has 20 assists after three quarters. His career-high is 22. My guess is D'Antoni leaves him in long enough to break his own record but not much longer. It's 91-59, after all.

The loudest fan in U.S. Airways Arena is sitting right behind me, and he's reaming the refs for every bad call. Even though it's a 28-point game in the 4th. He keeps telling Cav coach Mike Brown to "stick a fork in it." If only he would.

So far in the fourth, it's LeBron 8, Phoenix 3.

Leandro Barbosa just checked into the game and already has five points.

Meanwhile, Nash has five assists on five buckets.

I love to watch Barbosa run (pardon any near-futute typos...the phenix suns dandcers are perfomring). The P.F. Chang's Rock and Roll Marathon is this Sunday in Phoenix. You get Leandro the right trainer and foru months and I swear he'd run a sub-2:40 marathon. Maybe sub-2:30.

78-47, Suns. Pat Burke fans, you may want to stay up past your bed time.

From Phoenix Stuns at the end of the first half, they've gone to Phoenix Nones. The Suns failed to score for the first 3 1/2 minutes of the 3rd qtr and all that's saved them is that Cleveland is almost colder. The Suns have just five points through 5:01 of the 3rd, but then Cleveland only has 4.

Must be the old-new ball.

Give the Suns credit. As poorly as they've shot and handled the ball this quarter, their defense has been suffocating. Mike Brown just called timeout and I think the only word he spoke in the huddle was "LeBron." Expect to see James's Kobe impersonation the rest of the way. Remember, he had 44 and 46 against the Suns last season. Tonight he has 19 so far.

At the half your two-time reigning NBA MVP has two points. Overrated?

No.

He also has 14 assists...and more importantly his team has a 26-point lead on the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference.

The Suns lead 67-41. The Cavs are an entire quarter's worth of scoring behind them. A 34-15 second quarter is the difference, as Phoenix outscored Cleveland 21-2 in the final five minutes. And I contend it all busted open after Nash deflected James' pass. Sure, it helps to have finishers such as The Matrix and Amare on your side, too. The Suns are a group of guys who know their roles and play for one another.

They ain't deep--the rotation goes to eight at most, not counting The Gorilla--and they ain't big, but they score in bunches. Built for the regular season? Maybe, but they also made it to the Western finals last season.

I saw my old friend Julie "Hi" Fie before the game. She's been the Suns communications director for 15 years and she does a fantastic job. I said, "You're living a charmed life this season" and she replied, "No injuries."

They just passed a stat sheet that says Nash has tied Kevin Johnson's franchise record for assists in a half. He needs 12 in the second half to break the Suns record (also held by KJ) for assists in a game, which was done in a non-OT game in '94 (the year the Suns should have won the title, blowing a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals to Houston--they'd won both games on the road. And in Game 7, they had like an 18-point lead in the 2nd quarter). The opponent in the Finals that year was a very inexperienced Orlando Magic outfit that the Rockets wound up sweeping.

Here's the difference between the Suns and every other NBA team (that doesn't call the Lone Star State home). At about the 5-minute mark of the second quarter, Suns are up 48-39. LeBron has the ball above the 3-point line, just dribbling. He calls off the pick that Zydrunas Ilgauskas, 7'3", wants to set for him. Dribble, dribble, dribble, as Boris Diaw waits for the move that is going to come (as do Bron-bron's four teammates). Finally, James begins to make a move, but Diaw stays in front of him. James is out of control and tries to pass to the wing, but Nash steps into the passing lane and deflects it. Nash gets the ball, starts the break, and feeds The Matrix, who finishes with a resounding dunk.

50-39, Phoenix. That's the kind of play that demoralizes one team and psyches up the other. Now it's 54-39, Suns.

61-39. Cavs are reeling.

63-39, and Mike Brown is in a fetal position in front of me.

65-39, and TNT is going to "A Few Good Men" after halftime.

Tell me you wouldn't love---56-39, Suns, and Brown has just called his second timeout since the Nash steal--playing with Steve Nash. My friend Tom is Nash's height, Canadian, and also plays hoops every day. They even have the same color hair. If they both were on a court and it was a pick-up game, if you didn't already know Nash, I'm not sure you'd pick him over Tom. And Tom can hoop (played college ball in Canada). But that's what makes Nash such a miracle. There's a lot more 6'1" white guys in the world than 6'8" males of any color. Nash is the very, very best.

59-39, Suns. What did I say about demoralizing plays?

First quarter mental synapses:

--Everyonse should get to play with a Steve Nash. The ultimate playground point guard. Unselfish, sure-handed, always makes the right decision, and can shoot when you need him to. Wow, this is all so revelatory. On one play, though, Nash dribbled into the key and got in trouble when the pick-and-roll wasn't there. Anderson Varejao, 6'10", and Larry Hughes were swiping at him and the ball came free. Nash outfought them for it, kept control, and dished it out left to Kurt Thomas on the right baseline. Gymkata hit the 12-yard baseline jumper.
The average player either loses the ball or doesn't see Thomas because he's too concerned with regaining possession. Nahs's manual dexterity is outstanding.

--LeBron opened the scoring with a long trey right in front of me, but his most impressive play was a spin at the foul line that lost Matrix, then one step and a soaring dunk. Must be nice to take one step from beyond the foul line and dunk.

--The Suns reserves are 6-9 from the field. Everyone on this team can shoot.

--Leandro Barbosa is a blur. The Suns got a fast break shortly after he came in and Nash had the ball at midcourt. Before anyone saw it Nash bounce-passed to his left and the Brazilian outran the Cav defender on the wing for it and converted the lay-up. You watch Barbosa an dhe just looks like a greyhound. And he has that Mickey Rivers thing going where he walks like your grandpa bu then when he shifts gears you can't even see him.

--Mike Brown (ample-sized Cav coach) is blocking half the game from my sight. Say what you want about Mike Fratello and Lawrence Frank, but you see a lot more of the game from press row when they're coaching.

--According to :07 Or Less, Kobe wore number 8 in honor of his favorite Italian League player when he was a lad: Current Suns coach Mike D'Antoni.

--Judging from Cav Scot Pollard's 'do (gelled mohawk, chinstrap), he would like to be considered for a villain's role in a "Raising Arizona" sequel.

--During timeouts, the man on the mic here who does a lot of the promos is ex-Sun Cedric Ceballos of the AWOL-on-Lake-Havasu Ceballoses. The NBA is a forgiving league.

--I never got the memo. It's not as if Doug's the lone bottle-blond in the house tonight (In Phoenix? Are you kidding?), but I just hadn't realized he'd gone that way.

--The national anthem tunestress was just called for a two-minute, 24 second violation. She had a great voice, but talk about a diva. When she got through "land of the free", the crowd roared, but she held up her left index finger as to say, "No, you di'nt, I ain't through yet", and went on for at least another 30 ticks.

--Seve Nash is a bundle of nervous energy. He must have been hell on his mom. During the national anthem he fidgets without the soles of his shoes ever leaving the floor. It's so evident that he just cannot stand still.

--The Suns do this crazy monkey circle after the team is announced. I love it. It's also on the cover of Jack McCallum's new book, ":07 or Less", which is a chronicle of the 2005-06 season. If SI held a Most Affable Contest award every year, then my old friend Jack would have retired the trophy years ago. They could just rename it the McCallum Award.
Anyway, I'm reading it right now--I mean, at the game-- to cram for this contest. I've been a Suns fan almost as long as Al McCoy has been saying, "It's a wham! Bam! Slam!", but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything new. Jack's book, by the way, may be the first in the history of western letters that begins with a colon (on the title) and ends with a profanity.
The weirdest part is how I came across it: I was looking for a sexual dysfunction self-help book, saw the title, and said, "That's for me." Added bonus that it's about my favorite NBA team. And, the crazy part is, it's helped with that other problem, too. Don't ask me how.

Okay, now I'm gonna watch me some hoop.

Of all the pre-game notes I've read in the last half hour--who am I kidding, last nine minutes--here's the strangest: The Suns, 26-8 on the year, are 0-3 on TNT this season. Then again, TNT televises the Suns when they are facing marquee opponents.

Other notes worth, well, noting:

1. LeBron James had the highest scoring average of any Suns opponent last season. The Chosen One (TCO) had 44 and 46 points versus the Suns in two game, a 45.0 average.

2. The Suns are 14-1 against the Eastern Conference this season, including a wild 3OT win against the New Jersey Nets. The lone defeat was a 144-139 home loss to Washington on December 22nd, which snapped Phoenix's 15-game win streak. It might've been a 16-game streak, but Mother Nature interfered by dumping a blizzard on Denver two days earlier, forcing the suspension of that evening's game with the Nuggets. Everyone on the Nuggets except Earl Boykins had just been suspended for the melee at Madison Square Garden, so it's likely the Suns would have gotten to 16 and broken a franchise record.

3. Three of the Suns' eight losses this year have come in overtime.

4. The Cavaliers have not won in Phoenix since 1999 (and even as I type that I know that I am jinxing the Suns tonight).

5. The last two times I've seen a team wearing orange play in the Valley of the Sun, they've won. So I'm going with the Suns based on that statistic.

6. Far as I know, Phoenix is the only NBA franchise that proudly displays its home airports baggage handling abbreviation (PHX) on the front of its jerseys. There's no excuse for a baggage handler who's also an avid NBA fan to lose you Phoenix-bound luggage.

7. Two of the NBA's six most-popular jerseys will be on the court tonight: LeBron's 23 and Nash's 13. Only Kobe, Dwyane, Bron-Bron and the as-yet unleashed Denver Nugget backcourt have more popular jerseys, in terms of sales, than Nash.

8. A certain national publication will be laying off edit staff next week, but one of those getting the hook will likely not be Jenn Sterger. Discuss.

9. Correction: And you could win a bar bet with this one, most likely. Steve Nash was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, not Canada. And while Kobe grew up in Italy, he was born in Philadelphia. But how many people know that the league's two-time reigning MVP was born in Africa, and that it's likely that this season's (Nowitzki?) will have have been born in Germany? If Dirk wins, that would make five of the previous six born outside the fifty states (Tim Duncan, Virgin Islands).

10. There's a woman seated courtside across from us who looks a lot like Joan Allen. It's probably not her, but I think I'm going to tell her how much I loved her work in "The Upside of Anger". Note to self: Pitch book to Maine Dept. of Tourism entitled "The Upside of Bangor".

Technically, I'm working tonight. Technically.

But when my editor, Barry, wondered if I'd be willing to attend the Cavaliers-Suns game tonight during that festive, restive period known as Bowlnanza Laughtermath, I jumped at the chance. Not that high--I have serious WMD (White Man's....), but I leapt nonetheless. Or leaped. Whatever.

So that's where I find myself at this minute: courtside at the U.S. Airways Center, about to watch two of the world's best players--arguably, the world's two best hoopsters born in North America, since Dirk was born in Germany and Kobe, I'm fairly certain, in Italy-- hoop it up just a few feet away. There's LeBron, the Chosen One, King James, the very definition of the 21st-century athlete, who was ordained for this role back when he was a high school junior (via an SI cover story by my old friend at the mag, Grant Wahl). And then there's Steve Nash, the overachiever extraordinaire, the Canadian kid who toiled in obscurity at the University of Santa Clara in the Bay Area, who was discovered and given a small feature in SI by my oldest and closest friend at the magazine, Tim Crothers (it was Tim who also brought to the attention of the editors of the mag a pre-pubescent golfing wunderkind named Eldrick Woods).

A note about Nash's alma mater, Santa Clara: A full ten percent of my high school graduating class chose it as their school. Perhaps because both are Jesuit schools, both have Broncos as their mascot, and both have Spanish mission architecture. It's as if Santa Clara is Brophy's (my high school's) The Simpsons writing staff office to Harvard's Lampoon. Anyway....

Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life" is playing as I type this and I realize that mine is more than semi-charmed. Also, I'm not about to compare Third Eye Blind to Nirvana, or even Pearl Jam, but I'll argue that they can go five songs deep with most any band from the Nineties. My top five:

How's It Gonna Be?
Never Let You Go
Jumper
Graduate
Semi-Charmed Life

Look at me, being all listy and pop music-y today. As if my opinion matters any more than--wait, I think i see my friend Steve Rushin sitting across the court. It's...no, it's only Danny Ferry.

Be back soon. And by the way, if you read the comments, I wholeheartedly agree with what Fred Shaheen wrote in the previous blog about the present ND coaching staff needing to watch every last one of Lou Holtz's games at South Bend. I'm fairly certain that the worst loss Holtz's Irish absorbed in eleven seasons was a 24-0 defeat at Miami in 1987, his second season. Losing that badly to Miami at the Orange Bowl in '87 is no great shame. And they never lost--without checking, but if memory serves me correctly--by more than 19 points again under Lou.

Well at least David and Victoria Beckham.

Latest news claims the superstar soccer player will come to the U.S. after his contract with Real Madrid expires in June. Looks like Hollywood will have to make room for two more celebs. I am willing to bet the American female audience will grow drastically once Becks starts playing.

It happens every January. As soon as the final college football bowl game is played, I start looking to see what will be the best intersectional games of the following season. Intersectional games--Ohio State at Texas, for example--are each year the most memorable games of the season.

Sure, Auburn-Alabama and Michigan-Ohio State are terrific, and steeped in tradition, but it's that unforeseen blind date (this year, for example, Florida State at Alabama) that gets my juices going. In his post BCS Game press conference, Florida's Urban Meyer said that he'd love to play the Middle Tennessee's every week, that he thinks those 60-0 games are fun. That disappoints me. I know, I know, the Gators play in the rough-and-tumble SEC and those games are difficult enough. Plus, the Gators do play Florida State out of conference each season, so theirs is as tough a schedule as anyone's. Still, it would be nice to see those SEC schools board a plane other than for bowl games once in awhile (Tennessee, you're exempt from this criticism; you're the manliest of the SEC brethren).

Anyway, what does this have to do with the University of Washington? Well, I'll have a separate column soon about the most intriguing intersectional games of '07, but in doing the research I noticed that the Washington Huskies and head coach Ty Willingham have a first-half of the season KO punch awaiting them next fall. Check out this schedule:

Sept. 1......@ Syracuse
Sept. 8......Boise State
Sept. 15....Ohio State
Sept. 22....@UCLA
Sept. 29....USC
Oct. 6........California

Uh-oh. If the Huskies are 2-4 after six games next season, I'll be impressed. Granted, the Broncos lose a lot of seniors off this year's Fiesta Bowl champs, and Ohio State will be breaking in Troy Smith's successor. And Southern Cal and Cal have each lost their top offensive playmakers, Dwayne Jarrett and Marshawn Lynch, respectively. However, the Broncos still have Ian Johnson and the Buckeyes' Antonio Pittman and Chris Wells behind an O-line that returns quite a few starters. USC can always find another wideout and Cal has Justin Forsett to step in for Lynch.

How does U-Dub start any better than 1-5? And where does that leave Willingham? This is definitely not the season he needs to have an itinerary like that. Jim Mora may just get his wish a lot sooner than he thought.

By the way, there's only one place I found that has all the 2007 schedules on one site, and I cannot vouch for its accuracy. However, I'm a big fan of the site for pure college football info, anyway, so here's the link if you want to waste a few minutes yourself:

http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/future_schedules/

Gregg and I just finished taping the Fantasy Fix for Thursday. While we were waiting to start the show, he tried to teach me a song he sang at the Tulane Football Games. Between you and me, I'm not sure whats worse, my singing or the song? But hey, I'm a good sport so I'll learn how to sing The Hullabaloo Cheer.

Day One of the Bowlnanza Laughtermath. I am wiped out. Demoralized. More tired than Lili Von Shtupp. If my underwear were a football position, we'd be down to the walk-ons. And if it were a football position, I'm not sure exactly what position it would be, but it would be offensive.
And yet, I have an understanding that not everything in life will go the way you want it to. I have no regrets, though. I came out and fought. If this is the worst thing that can happen in life, I'm cool.
A few items:

1. In the scavenger hunt that is the on-field post-game celebration, it's even more difficult for those of us sportswriters who are attending their 11th football game in the past three weeks to identify players once they take off their jerseys. I came across one (it turned out to be Dallas Baker, the wideout from UF) who was only wearing his orange body-shirt. On it he'd scrawled a saying with a Sharpie, and as I stood to the side of him, I didn't see it all, though I thought I had. So what followed was this exchange with my friend Austin Murphy:

Me: "Did you see what he had written on his shirt? Pretty clever."
Austin: "'All Things Are Possible Through Christ'."
Me: "Oh. I thought he'd written 'All Things Are Possible Through Chris'."

2. I was at Saturday's All-American Bowl. In case you didn't watch, on the first play from scrimmage of the game the West ran a fumblerooski. Suddenly everyone thinks they're Chris Petersen.

3. Talking to my close friend Mark Beech, who like me was staying at the Camelback Inn, on Sunday at about noon. "So I'm going to go for a run and then we'll go out for lunch right after that."
Beech: "Whenever you say 'we'll go out right after that' back in New York I know to add two hours on to the time it'll take you."
Me: "That's because at the time I get home from my run back there the Gilmore Girls is just coming on."

If you get a chance, go to Chelsea Piers and look out from the deck on Pier 60 when the sun is setting. Its absolutely beautiful. That is where I was tonight for the 10th Annual Muscle Team Gala... its an event that benefits the Muscular Dystrophy Association and it has an amazing impact on young children challenged by the disease. I just got back (its freezing outside by the way) and was really touched by the enormous support shown tonight.

A slew of athletes are involved with this cause and NYC was well represented by a ton of Giants and Jets players. I spoke with Jay Feely, Victor Hobson, Erik Coleman, Frank Walker, Justin Tuck, Sam Madison, and so many more. A big highlight for me was the chance to meet and speak with the amazing Nadia Comaneci. Let me just tell you, she looks amazing! She just had a baby boy seven months ago and still she looks like she is ready to jump up on the balance beam.

However, the real stars of the night were the little 'buddies' who were just glowing. I think the man who brought the most smiles was the great Mick Foley The kids love him! You could really tell that these little kids were touched not just because athletes filled the room but because there were so many people there who really cared and wanted to make a difference.

By Tiffany Simons

Dear Ohio State:

All you had to do was win. You had an entire country rooting for you to win. You had the number one ranking for the entire season. You, team, opened last nights Championship Game with a touchdown on the very first opening play- THE KICKOFF. Everyone cheered, fans in bars across the country smiled and thought "Here we go, the Gators don't stand a chance." Oh the irony.

There was an ANTI-GATOR party at a bar here in NYC. They called it "Bitter Bowl 2007." At the beginning of the night the bartender said, "As soon as the Gators screw up, free shots for everyone." We got one shot. One. Why you ask? Cause the Gators N-E-V-E-R messed up after the first five seconds of the game. The chanting, clapping and cheers were silenced as UF ran all over you. So thanks, team, for a very sober evening filled with:
"Are you kidding me?
Throw the ball!
Catch the ball!
Gettttt himmmmmmmm!
You're going for it on 4th and 1? What!? The?! Hell?! Are?! You?! DOING!?"

The experts were wrong. The stats were wrong. The predictions were all wrong wrong wrong. The only people who were right are the ones running around in orange and blue chanting "Double National Champions" and doing that awful thing called the chomp.

See it's not so much that the Gators won. It's that they flat out embarrassed the Buckeyes. EMBARRASSED. And no one saw it coming. At least not that bad.

And so thanks to you OSU the Gators are the Champions. The better team. The deserving Number One. Trust me, these fans won't let any of us forget it. And to think...all you had to do was win.

It's too soon. Cannot process. No bowl to trek toward, no laminated credential to drape around my neck. At some points during bowlnanza that credential felt as valuable as Jimmy Clausen's bling and at others as dooming as Saddam's noose.

But we survived, right? I'll be doing a Laughtermath later this week. For now, let me paint the scene for you. It's 12:24 a.m. local time in the UofP Stadium press box. A lot of the national guys--Austin Murphy, Ivan Maisel, Pat Forde, Stewart Mandel, in short, the guys whose deadlines are, like mine, not as urgent as newspaper guys--remain.

On the field below us, a team of four men are using leaf blowers to corral the confetti into one pile onto the field. It is a ridiculous task, that, but no more ridiculous than mine. We are all, those of us who cover sports, just blowing confetti around.

Looking at them working, I wonder what they're thinking. Me, I'm thinking that picking up all that confetti is a lot more work than the momentary release of it was worth. Why did we need it? The score was 41-14. Wasn't that enough of a punctuation mark to the game?

Monster flags, flyovers, confetti blizzards. I guess people like their pomp. For me, the game (and a well-cooked meat product) has always been enough.

Finally, as my esteemed teammate here at the nbcsports.com, Alan Abrahamson, noted, the Ohio State marching band played the theme from "Titanic" at halftime. Forget the prescience, and the irony. What marching band plays such a downer of a song at halftime of a football game? What, was the sheet music to "Lightning Crashes" unavailable?

Okay, I'm outta here for the night. Congratulations, Florida. I think you've just redefined the word "emphatic".

My buddy Billy always has interesting takes on things, so I asked him to volunteer some thoughts at halftime. Here's what he wrote, in part:

Has anyone ever gone from a possible top twenty draft pick to an undrafted free agent in a quicker span than Troy Smith? Eric Crouch would have had a better first half. After a well-deserved Heisman season, tonight he looks 5 ' 7 and slow with a scatter arm.

A slow developing running play on 4th and a long 1 from your own 30???? Urban Meyer would have had 40 better plays than that one (including punting).

And somewhere the Notre Dame defense is chuckling at the Ohio State defenders. These boys have given up SEVENTY THREE points in the last 6 quarters. (Sure those quarters were spread out over nine years, but still).

And Billy weighed in on the Van Halen induction, as well, coming through like the champ he is:

How great would it be if the Van Halen III singer guy from Extreme showed up at the ceremony acting all "it's been a long, hard road, but dammit, I made it!"

See, that's why I love Billy.

From my editor, Barry: "There might not be a tonic even if the Buckeyes had Ginn."

Ted Ginn, Jr., by the way, has the shoulder pads off and the crutches on. He's the future wealthiest cheerleader on the Buckeye sideline.

Lest we forget, let's give credit to Shelley Meyer for having such an impact on recent college football history. Shelley is Urban Meyer's lovely wife. A little more than two years ago when Notre Dame and Florida were courting Meyer aggressively, Shelley cast a vote for the Gators and Gainesville. The Meyers had spent five seasons in South Bend as Urban toiled under then head coach Bob Davie (who's in the press box this evening), and that was enough for Shelley to realize that South Bend winters were not for her.

Admittedly, Gainesville repeatedly makes those "25 Best Most Liveable Towns" lists. And let's not downplay the fact that Urban knew he'd get better athletes in Gainesville, what with the Sunshine State locale and the lower admissions requirements. But I think Shelley was a huge influence, too.

First of all, yes, I'm shocked. I didn't think Florida would be in the lead, much less be this dominant. I was wrong.

That said, chin up Buckeye fans. I've been to two college football games in the Valley of the Sun in the past ten days. In the first, the team that trailed by 31 in the 3rd quarter won. In the latter, the team that was down 18 in the third quarter scored the next 25 points (and then lost).

So it ain't over. However, I imagine Troy Smith can already hear the questions that the NFL scouts are asking about his game. He's been sacked thrice, intercepted once, and lost a fumble in the first half while completing just two passes for 24 yards. And he has minus-6 yards rushing.

Could it be that the top three Heisman finalists teams will all lose their bowl games? Brady Quinn was completely outplayed by his counterpart, JaMarcus Russell, in the Sugar Bowl. Darren McFadden was outgained by his own teammate, Felix Jones, by 61 yards in the Citrus Bowl. And Troy Smith is miles behind Chris Leak/Tim Tebow thus far in the BCS We-Need-A-Real-Name-For-Our-Game Bowl.

All that and Ohio State has to kick off to start the third quarter.

All credit to Florida. The Gators played a near-perfect first 30 minutes. Kicker Chris Hetland, who kicked four field goals all season, had half that many in the first half.

WINDOW IN THE SKIES

So I'm a little bummed that the roof was closed following the flyover. I asked a Fiesta Bowl official why they do this, and the answer was, "Fan comfort". The logic is that fans arrive hours before kickoff and tailgate when it's still hot and sunny outside. And that by the time we kickoff, it's dark and cold. While it does cool down dramatically at night in the desert, I am not down with that rationale. Open the roof and let us breathe, if not literally than figuratively. If the fans in Chicago and Green Bay can bear the weather, I think the fans here can cowboy up and take a 45-degree night.

I never did get an answer as to what the thermostat inside UoP Stadium is kept, but I'm pretty sure that they only have air-conditioning, anyway. They don't turn that on.

I'm not going to go so far as to say this is why the terrorists hate us. Just that this is why I hate us. Sometimes.

Huge play: Ohio State, desperate to make something happen before halftime, tries a pass with 1:42 on clock with first down from their own 20. Instead, Troy Smith, dancing in the pocket, has the ball karate chopped out of his hand and fumbles. Derrick Harvey recovers and returns it nine yards to the five.

Then Urban Meyer goes to his tried-and-true short yardage gainer: true freshman QB Tim Tebow. But on third down, after a Gator timeout, Tebow takes the shotgun, feints in as to do another run up the middle, and then rolls left and tosses left-handed to Andrew Caldwell for a TD: 34-14, Florida.

Wow!

It doesn't matter much now, but on the UF series before, on 3rd down, the Gators called timeout. The odd thing is that, as my man Bill Moore from Minority Publishing noticed, Ohio State was in a blown coverage. UF had two men slotted wide left and the Buckeyes had only Malcolm Jenkins out there on the island. The closest safety was at midfield even with UF's center. Leak never saw it or he wouldn't have called timeout. Perhaps all he saw was Ohio State overloaded where he was looking to go, and didn't realize there was a weakness somewhere else. I could be wrong.

Van Halen, the only band to have a music channel named after its initials, was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier today along with REM, Grandmaster Flash, REM, Tony Gwynn, Patti Smith and the Ronettes.

Seeing VH (with David Lee Roth piloting the ship) was one of the highlights of my senior year of high school. Diamond Dave kept swinging from a big bottle of tea-colored liquid that you were supposed to assume was Jack Daniels. And then after one tune Dave just looked at an audience member as if to respond to their question and said, "Is this really Jack?!? It isn't bleeping iced tea!".

Diamond Dave and Freddie Mercury. Spandex gods, they were. They don't make lead singers like that any more...although the dude from The Darkness tried his best.

Top Five Van Halen Tunes (feel free to argue):

1. Running With The Devil
2. Ain't Talking 'bout Love
3. Unchained
4. Eddie Van Halen guitar intro to Oh, Pretty Woman
5. Panama
6. Dreams
7. Dance The Night Away
8. Everybody Wants Some
9. When It's Love
10. You Really Got Me

--and the worst: "Dancing In the Street"

--last word and then we'll return to BCS'in'. Is REM the Brett Favre of rock and roll? Solid first-ballot HOF'er whom you just wish hadn't lingered around so much and tarnished their legacy? If REM would have just called it quits after "Automatic for the People", Rolling Stone would be doing cover stories as to whatever happened to them. Bill Berry, you're a wise man.

The big story (yes, I'm Joe Piscopo) is that Ted Ginn, Jr., just walked to the locker room. We noticed on Florida's most recent kickoff that Ginn's left foot was taped. He lined up deep, then moments before the kick switched with Gonzalez. Gonzalez fielded the kickoff.

Not sure yet how Ginn was hurt. Certainly looked fine running the opening kick back. Someone in the press box wonders if Ginn wasn't hurt in the sideline celebration after his touchdown.

Thus far the Gators OWN Ohio State and I'll admit, I didn't see it coming. Random observations:

1. The four and five wideout sets is forcing Ohio State to play nickel packages and not allowing their front seven to dominate.
2. Leak has been dead-on. Always an accurate passer, he's 8 of 8 so far. He's pitching a perfect game.
3. Unlike the Gators, Ohio State doesn't seem to have any rhythm on offense. Troy Smith is discovering that he cannot outrun Gator linemen and they seem to be just throwing anything up against the wall that will stick. It's as if they don't know whether they want to play smashmouth or get Smith out of the pocket to run. Neither is working.

Whereas Florida seems to know exactly what it wants to do--exploit their speed and play a wide-open sideline to sideline game-- and is doing it. Three different Gators have taken a snap at quarterback thus far. The Buckeye defense looks bewildered.

Leak just threw his first incomplete pass after starting 9 for 9 for 99 yards. Just as impressively, it was a smart incomplete: he avoided a sack.

There are a lot of us in the press box (myself included) looking fairly stupid right now. And that's not just because I went with the lime haltertop.

--Update: Florida just scored to take a 21-7 lead. All of a sudden, from behind us, we heard someone yell, "Keep scoring!" As you may know, there's no cheering in the press box. So I turned around to see who the culprit was. Emmitt Smith.

--First Quarter Stats to Share With Your Pals:

Florida 149 yards of offense, Ohio State 11.

Chris Leak 99 yards passing, Troy Smith 11

Florida 50 yards rushing, Ohio State 0.

Nice counterpunch by Florida. After Ted Ginn, Jr., runs the kickoff back 93 yards for a TD, the Gators go on a sweet little seven-play drive to tie the score. Leak was 5-5 passing on the drive.

About Ginn's return. Sixteen seconds elapsed off the clock on the play, but the clock starts from the moment the Gator kicker's foot touches the ball. So if you give it even three seconds of hangtime, Ginn covered 93 yards in 13 seconds, and that's while avoiding defenders. Whrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Florida just kicked off again, and this time they booted it to the corner, away from Ginn. Smart.

Excellent first defensive series for the Gators. Batted down a Troy Smith pass on first down and sacked Smith for an 8-yard loss on third down.

If I were a sushi bar owner in Gainesville (or even here in Phoenix this past week), I'd have created a Gator-inspired treat called a "Death Roll". It would have salmon for the orange, but I'm not sure what you'd use for the blue part. Chunks of coral? Actually, that's a good idea because then if it happened to disagree with your tummy, you can tell people, "I just blue chunks."

I have a deja view from the press box. Same stadium, one week later. The fans on the near side are wearing blue and orange. The fans on the far side are wearing red and white. It's Boise State-Oklahoma all over again. Except that I doubt we'll get as good a game.

The Buckeyes are making their fourth visit to Phoenix at bowl season in the past five seasons. And they've won all three previous games. On the other hand, they're 0-7 against the SEC. I still like Ohio State. Don't see a Boise State-like upset tonight.

At about the forty minutes before kickoff the heavens availed themselves to us here at University of Glendale Stadium. The roof opened, a previously imperceptible cleavage above the fifty yard-line splitting in two. From my experience watching sci-fi movies as a lad, I fully expected us to fire a laser beam at the Super Bowl once the roof was fully open.

Needless to say, this development pleases me greatly. The pre-game flyover will be far more viewer-friendly. You may not recall, and I don't recall the exact year, but some time within the last decade there were mysterious lights that appeared over Phoenix one night. Of course the UFO card was played, and technically, because these flying objects were not identified, they were exactly that. But I can assure you, from a source, that they were Air Force jets on a classified training exercise.

Anyway, I was hoping they'd reenact that mission as the flyover this evening. That would be cool.

No real celebrities on the sidelines pre-game, unless you consider the "Body By Jake" dude a celeb. Michael Strahan is here, as are Ohio State alums Ricky Dudley and Jim Jackson.

It's difficult for the size of any football players to surprise me any more, but how about the left side of Ohio State's offensive line? Left tackle Alex Boone is 6'8", 325 pounds and left guard Steve Rehring is 6'8", 329 pounds. And both are sophomores. That's just not fair.

Why is the University of Glendale Stadium Snoop Dogg's favorite? Because it's the only one where they roll the grass.

My favorite player in this game: Anthony Gonzalez, Ohio State.

On Florida, it's safety Reggie Nelson.

Kickoff...and already it's 7-0 Ohio State.

A confession: I did not wake up this morning with that "I Can't Believe It's Christmas Morning" tingle. It's January 8th and I'm just hoping that we settle up our tab with the college football season before pitchers and catchers report. I'm happy to be seeing this game, believe me, but it is surreal: the game is taking place 50 days after Ohio State's last game and yet the temperature outside is redolent of 50 days before Ohio State's first game. It's 80 degrees here in the Valley of the Sun.

But the day did not start out that warm. At 8 this morning 97% of this blog's posters convened outside my hotel room for an assault on Camelback Mountain. I was joined by high school buddy Eric Williams (EW) and the Grand Poobah of Wit, Greg Auman (GA), the latter of whom wondered, in typical GA fashion, whether anyone refers to it as Dromedary Mountain.

The climb went well but as we were on the final stage of the ascent we were passed by a fit man in a Chicago Cubs baseball cap. Eric, a seasoned hiker, was a little surprised that someone would overtake us. It was only when we reached the summit that I realized who the Viestursian climber in our presence was: ESPN's own Chris Fowler.

We chatted Fowler up, and inveigled him to appear in our video. Turns out much of the GameDay crew joined Fowler on the climb, albeit at a slower pace. Desmond Howard, your 1990 Heisman Trophy winner and 1997 Super Bowl MVP, also made the climb but did not look very comfortable doing so. Then again, there were a lot of craggy ledges and equally craggy Buckeye fans on the trail. Herbstreit slept in and as for Corso, well Greg wondered if it had been a good idea to attempt the climb wearing a giant Buckeye headgear piece.

Had lunch with my parents, and then I drove to the game with Austin Murphy and Mark Beech. It's nearly three hours before kickoff and the press box is already one-third filled. It resembles an "Around the Horn" rogue's gallery. Bill Platschke and Bob Ryan are seated right in front of me. No sign of Woody Paige...or Max Kellerman.

I passed up the opportunity to attend the Dionysian party thrown last night by the BCS Championship folks at the Phoenician hotel. Judging from what I've heard you had, if not sell, then at least rent your soul to the devil in order to go. The theme was "College Football Heaven", and from the way friends have described it to me, it sounded just like that (champagne fountains of Dom Perignon, for example). Then one friend told me that the musical entertainment was provided by Paul Williams.

"You mean the stud wide receiver from Fresno State last year?" I asked. "That IS college football heaven."

"No, no," she said. "The short, blond dude who often appeared as the unlikely romantic interest on The Love Boat ."

"Oh. Everyone has their own image of heaven, I guess."

As frustrated as I was watching Tony Romo screw any chance the Cowboys had of advancing, I don't blame him. Poor thing looked so sad after it happened, you can't really hate the guy.

I spent all day watching football Sunday. Let me tell you, when you live in NYC and you go out to a bar NOT rooting for the Jets or the Giants, it's a gamble. But we made some new friends and the Pats along with the Eagles won. That means Gregg and I did pretty good picking out the games this past weekend... I think I'm finally catching on!

Been resting and relaxing most of today. Bowlnanza Sabbath. Did a walk-thru earlier, as the football teams do. Went through the probable verbs and gerunds I'll be using, and I also scripted my first 15 sentences. Then again, if Florida comes out in a defense I wasn't expecting, I may have to alter that some.

But mostly, I just went for a long run between Mummy and Camelback mountains here in the aptly named haven of Paradise Valley. Then I hung out with two of my favorite peeps, SI's Austin Murphy and Mark Beech. I read a piece in the Arizona Republic last night describing such heterosexual man-dates as "bro-outs". I like that term. Add it to the blossary.

Anyhoo, a few items from the day:

1. We're sitting in the best mom-and-pop-no-glitz Mexican restaurant in Scottsdale, Frank & Lupe's, having lunch. Suddenly this beautiful woman in her 20s walks in with a guy who looked about twice her age. It looked like a date. Austin says, "Yeah, right, she's with him." And it occurred to me that "Yeah, right, she's with him" should be Scottsdale's unofficial town motto. In fact, I'm deeming it so.
And if you've ever spent much time here, you know why I say that.

2. After lunch Beech, Murph and I continue our "bro-out" at Scottsdale Fashion Square. We walk into a Lucky Brand store and about ten second later Beech asks, "Am I in the guys' section or the girls' section?" That's the first sign that you're not as hip as you think you used to be. For the record, I had no idea, either, so I just purchased the lime halter top and got the hell out of there.

3. I may get docked a paycheck for wondering this, but I see that on our home page we've got video for "Poker After Dark: The Director's Cut." Here's my question: Shouldn't the television show be the director's cut? Isn't that what directors do?

4. One of the posters was infuriated, or at least upset, about nbcsports.com running a poll as to whether Jimmy Clausen will be a better Notre Dame quarterback than Brady Quinn (geez, the body isn't even cold yet). I can see where he's coming from, though I don't put too much weight into such polls or into prognosticating, either. I will say this, though. Standing on the sidelines at the All-American Bowl, at least for that one game, I thought that Michigan-bound Ryan Mallett looked like a better quarterback than Clausen. I could be wrong. But I don't think so.

Asante Samuel just sniffed out a throw by Pennington and came off his man to make a pick, return it 37 yards and seal the win for New England. Samuel had a 10-pick season and now has 11. He's a free agent at the end of this season and is putting up dollar signs as we speak. Or blog.

Costly defensive play by the Jets. It looked like the defense was audibling to a different coverage just prior to the snap as Kerry Rhodes and Erik Coleman were switching to some kind of diamond thingy and Eric Smith wasn't on the same page to stick with Kevin Faulk out of the backfield.

TD Pats makes it 30-16...

Through the air, New England is getting the job done on this drive and they're bleeding the time off the clock with the likely end result being -- at least -- a field goal which will make this a two-score game.

There's no wind in the stadium today. It will be interesting to see what happens when/if the Pats young kicker Stephen Gostkowski comes out for a big-pressure field goal. He's been very, very steady so far.

The Patriots can be a difficult team to track down when they have a lead for two reasons -- diverse rushing attack and offense and Tom Brady.

Look for them to try to grind the clock down to -- best case -- around 5 minutes on this drive. They will be under strict orders to take care of the football, a Brady strength.

You knew there would come a play....and it came. Rosevelt Colvin just got his mitts on a Chad Pennington screen that was launched backwards. The ball hit the ground and the only guy who seemed to realize it was a lateral was the guy closest to the bal, Vince Wilfork. It appeared Belichick was urging him down the field at which point Wilfork turned on his "jets" and went 31 yards to take the ball to the Jets 15.

Mon ami Vic Carucci of NFL.com just made a very good point. The Jets are a bad play away from having this game get away from them. They aren't built to come from behind. If they blunder and the Pats go up 14, well, there will be issues.

This, of course, is where Mangini's coaching and the team's discipline factor in. Generally -- I SAID GENERALLY -- they will not beat themselves.

The Patriots have outgained the Jets on offense 223 to 161 overall, 101 to 19 on the ground.

Save for the 77-yard TD to Cotchery, the Pats D has had the Jets in lockdown.

But that's what makes them so dangeous. They can strike unexpectedly and have the ability to make enough plays to stay close.

As this blog types that, Pennington just hit Coles in the middle of four Pats defenders for 13 yards. Coles was shaken up on the play but is now walking off the field under his own power.

Here's where they're smart.

The Patriots just cobbled together a real good drive going 80 yards in 15 plays over 6:54 to move ahead 17-10 just before the half.

On the drive, New England had seven different players touch the ball -- Laurence Maroney, Kevin Faulk, Daniel Graham, Ben Watson, Reche Caldwell, Heath Evans and Jabar Gaffney.

They also upped the tempo to take the Jets off their presnap shenanigans.

Then the Pats squibbed the ensuing kickoff, giving the Jets the ball with 10 seconds left in the half. The Pats know Jets special teams coach Mike Westhof is shrewd so they took the ball out of the hands of his explosive returner Justin Miller.

They did so knowing the Jets had no timeouts and that if they covered downfield heavy and gave up an underneath pass they could kill the half, which is what happened.

Has bred a tendency on both sides to anticipate what the other will be doing and it's worked very well. The Pats, for instance, just fast-snapped the Jets three times in a row, making it impossible for New York to slide in and out of presnap looks to confuse New England on what it was running into.

On the latter two plays, Kevin Faulk carried for 7 and 9 yards up the gut. New England then complemented that with an outside throw to Jabar Gaffney who got it down to the Jets 11.

The Pats just knotted things as Stephen Gostkowski got the first playoff field goal of his career.

Meanwhile, my boss just asked what the stuff was that kept kicking up....

That's a combo of sand and pelletized rubber particles that are laid down with the FieldTurf surface to A) help the blades stand up and B) Provide a base for cushioning and drainage.

Something like 50 tons of sand was spread on the field when the turf was installed.

Arm just threw a rope to Jerricho Cothchery that was hit bisected his 8 and 9 and allowed Cotchery to do the rest whcih was go 59 yards for the touchdown and the lead.

Believe this blog, Pennington will be a hazard all day.

On the replay, it just looks like Cotchery sat down in the Cover 2 soft spot and Artrell Hawkins at safety just didn't keep contain.

The Patriots preach that 15 yard plays are preferable to 50 yarders so DO NOT GIVE UP THE TACKLE OPPORTUNITY.

Hawkins kinda did.

The Patriots are somewhat fortunate that they only gave up three points on the Dillon fumble but this is the kind of thing that kills in these playoff games. The Pats defense is playing very well and a somewhat unforced error has now leveled things a little bit.

Corey Dillon just banged in from 11 yards out running off right tackle, capping a 10-play, 65-yard drive. Dillon looked hemmed in and came out the other side.

Three times on this opening drive now, Brady and Jabar Gaffney have targeted Andre Dyson. Now Justin Miller is in for Dyson covering Gaffney.

New England opens in a one-back, three receiver set and is going no-huddle...hmmmmm

It appears Andre Dyson, who spent the week listed as questionable with a sprained knee, is an early target. On two of Brady's first four throws, he hit Jabar Gaffney in front of a large Dyson cushion.

FOXBOROUGH - Pats win the toss and they'll take it first. There was a moment of silence for slain Broncos corner Darrent Williams.

At the coin toss, referee Bill Vinovich said, "Congratulations on getting here."

Nice touch, Bill.

The players of the game for Seattle. Tatupu made the stop at the 1 on Witten to bring up fourth down. Babineaux caught the foot of Romo on the scramble...

And it's over...the Hail Mary went unanswered....whew.

I feel worse for the Tuna than I do Romo.

Bill Parcells said this week that Tony Romo was having ballhandling issues due to overconfidence. Now this blog isn't alleging that overconfidence led to the fumbled snap/botched field goal/season-ender but perhaps lack of attention to detail would be a better allegation.

Fumbled snap...Romo runs...he may have picked up the first down....

Let's see

Nope..

Well-designed pass play by Dallas gets them the first down with the fullback clearing a linebacker to the flat, Fasano going to the back corner of the end zone and Witten sitting down in front of the goal line.

Now we find out if it's a first down or not via review.

Roy Williams just got caught down the middle out of position on the touchdown pass to Jerramy Stevens. It's a Cowboys tradition in 2006.

Tatupu's foot was on the sideline

It looks like Lofa Tatupu made the save in the end zone and flipped it back in to facilitate the game-tying score.

Wow. We'll see if Julian Peterson got a hand on it while he was out of bounds. That seems like the only fly in the ointment for Seattle.

That's one of the most bizarre touchdowns I've ever seen. Whoever saved it wins play of the year.

This game's a long way from done but if anyone's going to get them going in the right direction it has to be Shaun Alexander on the ground and his offensive line.

Nice job of playcalling by Tony Sparano on that last Dallas possession, opting to pound the ball and keep it off the hands of an uneven Tony Romo.

Hey, is T.O. playing?

The second-and-13 draw...I could do without that.

Patrick Crayton just scored a terrific touchdown in which he made a nice underneath catch and drove for the end zone to make it 10-6 Dallas.

His teammate, Terrell Owens, had an inexplicable drop that bounced off his hip. He's got one catch for 14 yards so far.

Crayton makes $425,000 this year.
Owens makes $5 million this year.

Mack Strong = Fullback, Seahawks
Quentin Jammer = Cornerback, Chargeroos
James Jett = Receiver, Raiders
Doug Plank = Safety, Bears

Slap some on me, will ya?

Matt Hasselbeck is a hazard. This blog would like to remind folks. He just hit Bobby Carpenter in the toolbelt with a pass intended for Deion Branch.

We have a royal flush of toilet-worthy performances by the four competing quarterbacks in the Wild Card games.

In the business they call it "peeing down your leg."

In 2001, when the New England Patriots were doing wondrous things with a roster that didn't seem capable of wondrous things, Bill Belichick was asked how it was possible.

"The strength of the wolf is in the pack," he explained.

The Indianapolis Colts defense just bore out that same tendency, swarming Larry Johnson, swirling through the backfield and overwhelming Trent Green, harassing, harassing, harassing. Again, really nice job.

If this blog was in Indy, it'd be making a beeline to Larry Johnson's locker where the currently seething LJ will likely explain in diplomatic terms that everyone did their best and, hey, if it didn't work out it's nobody's fault.

Nice moment between Herm Edwards and Tony Dungy. As they met at midfield, Edwards said to Dungy, "You win this thing, you hear me? You win this thing."

He was referring to the Super Bowl. Hope Lovie Smith, who was in the crowd and is also a pal of Edwards and Dungy, doesn't catch wind of THAT.

Kidding.

Trent Green just put the cherry on top of his poop sundae with a strip-sack fumble.

Nice job by the Colts defense. Seriously. Wall-to-wall a terrific job and Ron Meeks, the Colts DC who's been getting grilled a ton by media boobs (who, me?) has to feel somewhat vindicated.

For now.

With 4:14 left in the third, Trent Green is 2 for 8 passing for 2 yards. 2 yards. 2 yards.

Tony Gonzalez had one catch for 4 yards. Larry Johnson has one catch for -2.

So you have Trent Green throwing for 2 yards.

2 yards.

2 yards.

Marvin Harrison is a terrific regular-season receiver. In the playoffs, he's just a guy. Coming into this game he'd made 45 catches for 642 yards and 2 touchdowns in 10 playoff games.

He's guilty of allowing two passes to get picked off by Ty Law today.

Meanwhile, Mr. You Play....To Win...The Game....Hello?! has an offense without a first down and he's acting like the suggestion of replacing an obviously messed-up Trent Green is idiotic.

Terrific.

Let's see what the Chiefs are going to do at the start of the second half with their quarterback.

Never mind, sideline guy Bob Neumeier just said that Herman Edwards put his fingers in his ears and said.."Naaaah, naaaah, naaah...IIIIII can'tttt heeeearrrrr youuuuuu....naaah" when he asked if Edwards would pull Trent Green.

Wait, Law just came up with the pick.

And he's so freakin' smart....he stayed down covering the ball likely because he didn't have it secured and didn't move off the ball so that it could be overturned with video evidence.

Let's see what happens here.

The Colts hand off to Joseph Addai with the clock running and 14 seconds left in the half. The clock reached 2 seconds before Addai was touched down, Indy called timeout and Adam Vinatieri kicked his third field goal. Stupid call by Indy and -- if the Chiefs had played off of Addai and just surrounded him but not touched him, they could have run the clock out on the half.

Hard to say if you could coach a defensive player to make that kind of decision but still....

I saw KC staying close but not this way. As Collinsworth keeps pointing out, they look nervous.

The Chiefs don't have a single first down. They just butchered their second post-interception drive.

Truth is, Manning's not going to be off for much longer. KC probably has blown its chance. This half-ending drive is huge for both sides.

After the Chiefs first two drives, Cris Collinsworth said the Chiefs seemed nervous. There's zero doubt that nervousness is impacting their perfomance right now.

Ty Law once said to me, "Peyton Manning's gonna put me in the Hall of Fame."

Well, that plus a whole lot more if you ask this blog, who thinks Law is the best corner of the past decade. Law's pick just put KC in business and the Chiefs gagged.

First, Trent Green didn't get the hell out from under center quickly enough, got his foot stepped on by Brian Waters and fell to waylay a third-and-goal play, then Lawrence Tynes booted it off the upright.

So for all those who say playoff experience doesn't mean much, consider that the only Chief who's shown up positively so far is Law who's played in more than a dozen playoff games.

Cris Collinsworth just said he believes the Cheifs are looking nervous after their first two three-and-out offensive drives and he's right.

They seem to be going a little too quickly in the passing game and seem just a smidge tentative on the ground. The Chiefs corners are up and pressing the wide receivers which is a clear effort to upset timing.

I love the Ty Law on Marvin Harrison matchup. Maybe that's because I'm a big Ty Law fan but I think Law's mental toughness in the playoffs is a big advantage.

Ooop, there goes Harrison past a Law bump for 42.

This blog is in business.

We've got the clickers lined up, two bowls of cheez-its (small ones) recently polished off and Mrs. Bump 'n Run working on some quesadillas for the family.

(Genius purchase of a quesadilla maker for Christmas by this blog).

This blog hopes the Chiefs don't go the route the Bengals did and be so insistent on running the ball that they try and jam it in when nine guys are standing at the point of attack.

They did so on the first drive and went three-and-out.

This blog sticks by its 35-31 prediction, Colts advancing.

We'll hit you back as needed.

So I'm here at the All-American Bowl where USC-bound linebacker Chris Gallipo (Anaheim, Calif.) was just named game MVP. Gallipo is the first defensive player to be named MVP of this game since it began in 2000. He's also one more reason that Pete Carroll is smiling today. Although, when isn't Pete Carroll smiling?*

( Sunday update: Unfortunately, that is no longer a rhetorical question. As you most likely know by now, Trojan kicker Mario Danelo, the son of former New York Giant Joe Danelo, was found dead at the bottom of a cliff in San Pedro yesterday. No details on the case yet to link it to a suicide or a criminal act. Very sad. Danelo was a walk-on who earned a scholarship and had an outstanding career. He connected on 26 of 28 career field goals and in 2005 set NCAA records with 83 PATs and 86 attempts. It's a sad and sobering day. )

Here's a link to the Danelo story on the AP wire:

http://www.nbcsports.com/cfb/799479/detail.html

The Trojan signees (as of February 7th) have distinguished themselves here today. Besides Gallipo, two Arizona natives, defensive end Everson Griffin from Agua Fria and offensive lineman Kris O'Dowd of Tucson Salpointe H.S. have looked dominant. And arguably Troy's top recruit, LB/RB Marc Tyler, a hight school teammate of Jimmy Clausen's, was hurt and did not play today.

About one-third of the stands are filled with servicemen and women. Nice field trip for them. A long time ago during my brief stint in the Air Force, I was stationed here at the Lackland AFB "Funky Cold" Medina annex. I only remember us once taking a Saturday field trip and that was to a chemical weapons demonstration. They led us inside a trailer where we were allowed to experience the sinus-clearing potency of tear gas at close range. That's when I decided never to become a soccer hooligan.

Gree