A few standout moments from what the NFL Network and ESPN News showed us from media day at Ford Field:

* NFL Network did a quick stand-up with Seahawks backup offensive lineman Floyd Womack. Why? Apparently because his nickname is Pork Chop. Understandably so, since he's 6-4, 330, easily the biggest lineman on the roster. Every question asked for the three-minute segment involved food. How'd you get the nickname? (His mother gave it to him. Hope the Seahawks gave him a therapy bonus in his last contract.) Is that your favorite food? (Nope, he's pretty diverse in his tastes.) What about lobster, crab, a nice Chilean sea bass, do you like those? (Nope, he's a meat guy, even though he plays in a pretty good seafood city.) Riveting stuff, especially for someone who might not even play Sunday.

* Bill Cowher was asked about the difference between American football and what the rest of the world calls football, by a Brazilian reporter. Give big-time pro athletes credit: at events like this, the international media shows up in big numbers and ask questions players and coaches never hear, and they handle them with real grace and professionalism. During Michael Jordan's peak, every year at the NBA All-Star Game and Finals he would be asked if he's ever dreamed of playing in Serbia, if he hopes the NBA expands to Paris, if he'd like to say hello to all his fans in Osaka - and he'd happily cooperate. We American dopes would then ask him if he's sick of putting up with Dennis Rodman yet, or if he really spent all night playing blackjack in Atlantic City before a playoff game, and the smile would fall away and he'd get testy right back at us. This, of course, after we'd groan and roll our eyes at the fawning foreigners, like the bad hosts we are. Anyway, Cowher talked about how good it was that the football players here wore helmets, mainly because it disguised their identity, kept players from getting too caught up in individuality, and fosters a focus on the team. Then the reporter made a joke about soccer players not needing helmets, and Cowher responded that with the way they play football here, everyone's glad to have helmets. He did it all good-naturedly, with a smile. They really can all be classy when the moment fits.

* Then there was Ben Roethlisberger, who was asked about the dual-disrespect angle both teams have been shoving down everyone's throats. No, he said, that's "you guys in the media'' perpetuating that. Suuuuure it is. Thanks, Ben. Where's Freddie Mitchell when you need him?

* At one point, I swear I saw Gilbert Gottfried at a podium. Was I hallucinating? I am still feeling a little ill. It wasn't until yesterday that I realized that I wasn't having feverish visions of a sequel to "Big Momma's House.'' Turns out there really is one. And yes, it turns out that Gottfried is working the game for ESPN's Cold Pizza. That figures. Of course, he's continuing the tradition of "zany'' interviewers sent out by the various shows and networks, who are legitimately annoying and eye-roll-inducing. You know Arsenio Hall is going to pop up somewhere soon.

Jamison, Ken and Peter are sure to give a much broader perspective on the scene in tomorrow's paper, so take the above glimpses for what they are. Meanwhile, I've got the sickness again. I'm gonna end up watching Kobe tonight. I tried to resist, but he's playing the Knicks, and they're begging to have at least 60 dropped on them. Check out the back pages from the tabs today: the Post, Daily News and Newsday.

Posted by David Steele at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Super Bowl Media Day in Detroit is starting even as I write this. We know this because it is being televised live on not one, but two networks (ESPN News and NFL Network, contact your cable operator). Our crew at the game has this well in hand, of course, but the consensus is that they and everyone else have their work cut out for them. The Steelers and Seahawks have pounded the Dangerfield theme (We Don't Get No Respect) into the ground - they should all just wear red ties to tug on and carry handkerchiefs to wipe the sweat, just to complete the image. But the problem isn't that we don't respect them. It's that we don't care about them. And guess what - we don't have to. They're not entitled to it just by having made it to the Super Bowl. It's not the inalienable right of every Super Bowl team to be treated like the old 49ers or Cowboys or Raiders or the other more-embraced or more-hated (and unquestionably more colorful) teams in the game's history.

Still, that makes for some thin material on this day. The number of angles on Jerome Bettis's return home are shrinking by the hour. But a TV reporter friend and I came up with an idea last night that could save this media day and future ones: go find Freddie Mitchell, the scourge of last year's day in Jacksonville, and bring him back. Just sit him in the stands, or set up a booth to the side. Have him talk about whatever comes to mind - the two teams, himself, the State of the Union address, Brokeback Mountain's Oscar nominations, more of himself, anything and everything. See how much of a crowd he draws. See how many of the stars of this game he outdraws. See if he says anything that ticks them off, since he's not only not playing in the game, he's not playing in the league.

It doesn't have to be FredEx. Or, even better, he can be one of many ringers. T.O. Shannon Sharpe. Keyshawn Johnson. Deion Sanders. Thomas "Hollywood'' Henderson. A couple of the Patriots, just to talk about not getting the three-peat. Brett Favre, since he's now publicly mulling retirement. Brian Billick, as long as it doesn't violate the mandates laid down by Steve Bisciotti. Scatter them throughout the two sessions today and see what happens.

Make it a Throwback Media Day. Or Classic Media Day (I've already suggested the whole Classic Press Conference idea; this would be an extension of it).

It's got to be better than what the Steelers and Seahawks are going to give us. Probably. They might surprise us. But probably not.

Posted by David Steele at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

A funny thing happened on the way to gluing myself to the TV every time Kobe Bryant took the court in an NBA game. I unglued myself, and it didn't even hurt.

Yes, that was my theory, espoused in blog, podcast and print (in that order, starting a week ago this morning), that after he scored 81 points in a game, no one would be able to resist watching him, just in case. No one, whether one loved or hated him, and there really isn't any in-between. Kobe is to individual athletes what the Cowboys, Yankees and Notre Dame are to team sports.

Genius theory, right? Early Sunday evening, after the second of three nationally-televised NBA games ended, I did some channel-flipping, on my way to ESPN for the Lakers-Pistons game, and came upon the Buick Invitational, which I had been checking in on from time to time. The playoff was just starting, with three players - including Tiger. I'm like most people with golf, particularly non-major golf: if Tiger ain't around the last day, I'm tuned in somewhere else. But if he is, I'm getting up early (the British Open, the year he won the Tiger Slam) and staying up fairly late (including some of those dumb exhibition Battle of the Bridges on the lighted courses, which sucked me in against my will). So, I stayed on the playoff, although I didn't see the end because a phone call distracted me.

And it wasn't until it was over (and 60 Minutes had started) that I realized I'd completely forgotten about the most-talked-about, most-debated, most-beloved-and-reviled athlete today. I picked up the Lakers game halfway through the second quarter. By the third quarter, the Pistons were blowing them out. By the fourth, Kobe was in the 30, heaving it at every opportunity, piling up points, and the Pistons were coasting. Please disperse, nothing else to see here, folks.

The moral: Tiger's lure is amazingly strong, considering he makes me watch a sport I otherwise don't care to watch. In Kobe's sport, there are lots of options (LeBron, for instance, who went off yesterday on an excellent Suns team that you almost forget didn't even make the Finals last year and don't have their most dangerous player). Plus, I hung through that excruciating game Friday night against the Warriors, the first post-81 game, in which at times, Kobe appeared to be refusing to shoot. He had five points going into the fourth quarter, then put on his cape and scored 25 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. It's like he can't help being a big pain.

Anyway, I may be kicking the Kobe habit already. Of course, if he goes to Madison Square Garden tomorrow and drops 60 on the Knicks, I'll get that itch again.

Posted by David Steele at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Ever been sick, gone back to your normal routine and had people warn you, "Don't rush back, you might have a relapse!''? Ever ignored them, eager to get back into the swing of things, then wish you'd listened to those people? Ever had that happen on a day you intended to blog about what you wrote in that morning's paper, early in the day?

Anyway ... in case you were curious about the panel discussion I referred to in this morning's column about minority hiring in the NFL, here's the streaming video of the panel, from Tuesday morning. Very diverse panel - there was Kellen Winslow from the Fritz Pollard Alliance; fellow Hall of Famer Mike Haynes, an NFL vice president for player development; Cyrus Mehri, the civil rights lawyer and counsel for the alliance; Brig Owens, former NFL safety and player rep; and the Washington Post's Len Shapiro, one of the first journalists to write extensively on the topic in the 1970s. The video is about an hour 18 minutes long, but it's worth watching.

Meanwhile, right after filing that column Wednesday night, I checked out colleague Rick Maese's blog, and by crazy coincidence, he was breaking down the latest stats on who makes decisions about hiring on the college level - and, thus, why the hiring record in college is exponentially worse than the lame record for the NFL. So depending on where you stand on this issue, this has either been a good week for the status quo, or a bad one. I vote for "bad,'' but that's just me.

Having said that, though, what did Gary Kubiak do to someone to keep him waiting as long as he did to get a head coaching job, as he did today with the Texans? Kubiak was the Broncos offensive coordinator for 11 years, through two Super Bowl wins. His name has come up in head-coaching circles for years, and at one time, justifiably, he was deemed not ready yet. But wouldn't he have been ready at some point before now, like maybe after one of those two championships? Wouldn't he have deserved a shot before Marty Mornhinweg did? Or before Norv Turner and Dick Jauron got second chances (not to mention the guy Kubiak replaced, Dom Capers)?

It might not be so much that NFL decision-makers are prejudiced; they might just be stupid. Of course, you pretty much can't have one without the other.

Posted by David Steele at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

It was very considerate of Maryland to get its game last night at Georgia Tech under control early enough that I didn't have to miss the beginning of "Lost''. Technically, the game wasn't over, but it wasn't close enough to worry about, and every time I ran to the other room during commercials, someone on Maryland was shooting free throws.

Not only was it considerate, it was surprising. Should they have won on the road against a pretty good opponent (better than its record, for certain), without its starting guard, leading scorer, best defender, best free-throw shooter and co-captain, so handily? They really weren't in trouble past the eight-minute mark or so. Not only that, they didn't seem to miss having a true point guard as much as they usually do, not that Chris McCray was one. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I saw a little Princeton offense in them. Where did that come from, and why did they save it up for last night? Did they watch the Georgetown-Duke films or something? They were moving all over the floor, finding seams, attacking the basket from all angles, creating good shots inside and outside - and hitting them. And they weren't handing the ball to Georgia Tech on a silver platter, the way they do too often.

At one point, Mike Patrick, on the play by play, blurted out about Nik Caner-Medley, "He's the point-forward!'' He sure looked like one. Best game he's played since coming here, and not just because of his career high in scoring? It's up there. Maybe he took those things Gary Williams said Tuesday about making the most out of your last season to heart.

Then, it turned out that McCray wasn't the only guy who could drain free throws at the end to ice games.

It was all crazy. Not as crazy as the dreams Charlie the Smack Addict was having on "Lost'', but crazy enough.

Wait a minute, that reminds me of something. Crazy ... hmmm ... oh yeah, Ron Artest went through with the trade to the Kings after all. On that topic, a reader was wondering if Artest was getting paid while he wasn't playing. Yup, because the Pacers had him on the inactive list for every game, but hadn't suspended him. Reportedly, the final push to get him to go along with the trade was the threat of suspending him without pay, T.O.-style, except for the rest of the season. So yes, go with "crazy like a fox''. But still crazy.

Good luck, Sacramento. Sure hope you know what you've gotten yourself into.

(By the way, in case you have a jones for "Lost'' and/or "24'' or some other appointment-type show, check out the website Television Without Pity. You'll thank me later.)

Posted by David Steele at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Just came back from a meeting at the Sun with the editors and the writers heading to Detroit next week, to plan our Super Bowl coverage. I'm proud to say that at no point in the meeting did anyone suggest that something be written specifically about the city of Seattle. Not that anyone has anything against Seattle, but it would have been a trap too easy to fall into, as this article in the newspaper Seattle Weekly points out. What the paper noticed is that when writing about the Seahawks' run to the Super Bowl, sportswriters across the country made reference to the four most obvious cliches about Seattle, almost without exception - rain, coffee, Microsoft and grunge. Rain was the dominant theme in virtually every example the paper cited. Lumped all together like that, it was embarrassing to us in the profession.

It also should make readers fearful of what will be printed and broadcast about Detroit throughout the upcoming week. In light of the beating Jacksonville took last year during its turn hosting the Super Bowl, poor Detroit has no chance. It's a shame how lazy we can get sometimes, how gullible we are for a cheap laugh.

Now, for the rest of this afternoon, as I put together a column for tomorrow's paper about an unfortunate trend developing in the NFL (sorry, you'll have to wait until then), I'm also monitoring Ron Artest vs. the Indiana Pacers. They met earlier today in Indy, with the Pacers searching for a diplomatic way to ask Artest, "Man, what is your problem?'' Artest, of course, refused to accept a trade to Sacramento yesterday, after having demanded a trade nearly two months ago for no logical reason. This confirmed that Artest is no less crazy than he's ever been, even after a year's suspension and time to contemplate his future, and fueled continued speculation that the NBA is overrun with guys as crazy as he is.

In reality, Artest is in a class by himself, with only Terrell Owens as competition. Then again, T.O. isn't particularly crazy, just selfish to an extreme. Artest, well ... anything else said about him might upset the mental-health community, if it isn't upset already by the frequent use of the word "crazy.'' It's hard to find a better description, though.

Posted by David Steele at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

What sticks in my head from this morning's Gary Williams press gathering at Comcast Center - which normally would be a routine preview of the next game but turned into a review of the Maryland academic support system - was that Williams said, more than once, that in all his 28 years of coaching at this level, he had never lost a player in midseason to grades until now.

On one hand, that's one hell of a record. Plenty of schools sweat out every single semester to see if all the players will be eligible, and lots of them lose somebody on a regular basis. Others avoid such pitfalls by simply running junior-college players through their program, keep them above water just long enough to play, then abandon them about five seconds after the clock expires on their last game. Yet at four schools, American, BC, Ohio State and Maryland - in major conferences all - spanning nearly three decades, Williams has kept his teams intact on the court and in the classroom. Nice work.

On the other hand, though, what happened that put that streak to an end? Williams is sure that Chris McCray is a "one-time situation.'' The record shows that it is. But that implies that for some reason, McCray was the toughest academic case he's ever had, that of the hundreds of players he has coached, McCray is on an island in terms of failing to hold up his end of the academic bargain. That's hard to buy. There had to have been dozens of challenges along the way, and all of them managed to get resolved to someone's satisfaction, whether it's the player's, the school's or the coach's. What went wrong this time?

As much as the weight of this rightly falls on McCray, especially with his being a senior and a co-captain, and as much as Williams grimly took on his own shoulders today, something's amiss in the Maryland support system. It has to be. The eligibility waters at Maryland have never been tougher to navigate than they are now, and that comes from someone who had to live through the horror not only of Len Bias's death 20 years ago (!), but of the revelations about the lapses all over the athletic department that came from it. Maryland ought to be proud of how it's set high standards for itself, and for the conduct and performance of its athletes. Just in the past few months, Ralph Friedgen laid down the law to the football team after the Halloween weekend bar incidents, and Debbie Yow took a stand for better academics with the language of Williams' contract extension. This has all gone on as it's become harder to keep basketball players on the right path than ever, because of ever-shifting NCAA policies on eligibility and graduation rates and the lure of pro ball, among other factors. Ask John Gilchrist about that, if you can find him.

Still, it's been nice lately to be able to mention the name of your alma mater with your head high and your voice clear. For a good decade or more, it wasn't that way.

So it's not asking too much of this school at this time to continue a perfect run of athletes performing in the classroom to the standards that are set. Williams said he doesn't think it's a trend, not after 28 clean years, but he also said he "certainly will continue to look at to see ways we can improve what we do.'' You could tell he wasn't just saying it to portray false public concern. Some coaches don't see a need for that until they're down to five scholarship players, three walk-ons and a team manager. One academic casualty at Maryland appears to be enough to have put the institution's feet to the fire. That's good.

Williams did make a valid point about the core group that won the 2002 national title - Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter, Byron Mouton, Steve Blake, Drew Nicholas, Tahj Holden, Ryan Randle, all seniors and juniors, all as close to being as exemplary students and people are a group could be. No question that they all didn't coast through school, and that a few surely teetered on the brink once or twice. But overall, they performed on the court, kept themselves on the court and kept out of trouble. They're part of the standard the current players (and ex-players) had to live up to, and still do. Obviously, it's not impossible.

It sounds as if, to an extent, Maryland and Williams deserve the benefit of the doubt. But if they don't want all the accomplishments of the last 17 years to get thrown into reverse, they'd better hop on it.

Posted by David Steele at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Gary Williams meets the press later this morning, and he's got some 'splaining to do. Can't imagine this is what he wanted to be dealing with at the start of the second semester, the day before a fairly important ACC road game at Georgia Tech. But he's got to clarify what exactly happened with his co-captain and leading scorer, Chris McCray (to the extent he's allowed to by federal privacy laws, of course), why the big post-championship recruiting class has fallen to pieces, and in a larger sense, what's going on with the program.

Generally speaking, if a college program can hold up its end academically, the occasional bad season can be excused. If the team is winning on the field but not in the classroom, that presents another set of problems and isn't particularly excusable. But if it's falling off on both ends, then someone needs to tell us why.

Does Williams have enough stashed away in the favor bank to pass these last couple of years off as an inevitable first slip-up in a stellar 17-year run? Is the championship honeymoon over? The guess from here is yes and no, respectively. But everyone will be listening to what he has to say today, and what his team does tomorrow and the rest of the season.

Meanwhile ... more Kobe! The march of 21st-century technology saves the day: the 81-point game will soon be available to download and watch on Google Video, which, I'm ashamed, to say I'd never heard of until this morning. Plus, NBA-TV is going to show the game three times in the upcoming week, starting today at 3 ET. I'm popping in a tape right now. (Speaking of being ashamed, a reader took note of my greatest-20th-century-inventions list yesterday and said that I obviously don't have TiVo, or else it would be on the list. Guilty as charged. I also don't have HD, which really infuriates me because I'd like to watch the game and see, in the sharpest definition, Kobe ignoring open teammates.)

Posted by David Steele at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

As a way to re-introduce myself after two blog-less and column-less weeks laid up with (apparently) pneumonia, I had this clever plan to pay homage to antibiotics as the greatest invention of the 20th century. That plan was blown to bits at about 11:45 last night, at about the time ESPN News interrupted its coverage of the thunderously boring post-conference championship game press conferences to run an update on the Lakers-Raptors game in L.A.

"Kobe Bryant has 64 points with just under six minutes left!''

I scrambled for the remote, turned on the game and watched the final 5 1/2 minutes - and Kobe's final 17 points. And I immediately revised my list of greatest 20th-century inventions:

5. Cell Phone

4. Cable

3. ATMs

2. Antibiotics

1. NBA League Pass

Am I ever glad I threw away 169 bucks on that. I don't indulge myself that much, as anyone who has seen my car can attest. But I need my League Pass, especially when CBS reminds me every five minutes during its NFL playoff games that it's the most-watched network in America, then rattles off names of shows that I not only never watch (Two and a Half Men), but never even heard of (Criminal Minds, or something like that).

But I digress. Kobe scored 81 points last night.

Let's roll that around the tongue for a minute or so.

EIGHTY.

ONE.

POINTS.

(In case you're struggling with the late finish of the game and the brief wire versions of it, let me repeat: 81 points.)

If the NFL didn't have a death grip on America's soul (deservedly so, but that's beside the point), this would be the biggest story of the year and would lead not only every sports newscast, update and newspaper, it probably would lead every regular newscast as well. I can't even think of a modern-day single-game performance this can even compare to. Six home runs? Not in the Needle Era. Twenty-seven strikeouts? Can't see that. Three hundred yards rushing? Eight goals in an NHL game? Maybe if someone ran a 9-flat 100 meters, but even that would be questioned (and a specimen cup produced) as soon as the runner crossed the finish line.

Kobe was 19 points away from the single most unbreakable record in sports. I am convinced that someone will hit in 57 straight games before anyone scores 100 points in an NBA game. At least I was until last night. He did something that hadn't been done in 44 years. Only two players had topped 70 since Kennedy was in the White House. Barely two years ago, sports fans were in full revolt over entire NBA teams that couldn't top 81 in a game.

This has really thrown my universe off balance.

Now, longtime readers of mine know how I feel about Kobe. I despise him as much as anyone outside of the state of Colorado and the city of Miami. Nothing has happened to alter my contention from back in November that he's the most selfish athlete of all time. (This paper's wonderful archiving system makes it way too hard to link to that column, so this one from my San Francisco days will give you an idea of how crazy he can make an otherwise sane man.) I can't even get behind the reconciliation with Shaq, because I haven't heard about Kobe apologizing for trying to serve Shaq up to the Colorado police during its investigation of his own alleged sexual assault. Maybe he did apologize, but last I heard, he was smirking his way through an explanation of how he couldn't find Shaq's number, or kept getting his machine or something.

Also, Kobe decided to explain the cease of the feud by invoking Martin Luther King's birthday. It's times like this that Dr. King's teachings on nonviolence really come in handy.

Kobe's a genius, but he uses his genius for evil instead of good, kind of like Nixon. So it's hard to actually embrace him. Besides, he consciously traded championships with one of the all-time big men for glory on his own that may or may not lead to championships. He's pulling a reverse Jordan.

Yet now, after last night, you even have to re-think the whole championship thing. If a player can score 81 points in a game, in an age where it has been accepted as gospel that no one could do anything comparable to what Wilt was able to do, then is it so inconceivable that that player can carry a team, any team, even one that starts Kwame Brown, to a championship?

Now, you've got to keep watching to find out. And it really doesn't matter what else is going on; you've got to be tuned in to Kobe at least a little bit. I'll tell you what: I'm scheduled to be at the actual Super Bowl in a couple of weeks, but if Kobe was playing at the same time (he's not), it would be hard to devote my full attention to the Steelers and Seahawks.

See, they hold an AFC and NFC championship game every year. You can't avoid it. Even if yesterday's games had been more competitive, it's hard to envision seeing something that's never been seen before, or something that was inconceivable beforehand. And no matter what had happened, it would have been tough to surpass the inherent hype of games like that.

But in a real sense, this Kobe game came out of nowhere. It took place pretty much in the middle of nowhere, too. There was no logical reason for anyone, even Lakers fans, to carve time out of their Sunday night to watch them play the Toronto Raptors. As for the rest of the country, if you had some freakish desire to watch the game, even if only to see how many shots Kobe could crank up against a bad opponent, you had to find a person or place with League Pass to see it.

Right now, the game is living in anonymity, available only in short, out-of-context bursts of highlights on ESPN. It's not as invisible as Wilt's 100-point game, which was not televised back in 1962, does not exist on tape in any form, was played in Hershey, Pa., and was the very definition of the meaningless late-season game. But unless ESPN Classic or one of the Fox Sports affiliates wises up and does what it was invented to do, no one will see the entirety of this game. That's what I'm missing right now - all I saw was the climax.

I can say this much, though: the next time they play is Friday at home against Golden State, then Sunday at Detroit, then Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. You'd be wise to get caught up and do what lots of other fans had started to do even before last night - ask around if the Lakers played last night, and how many did Kobe score? He's been on that kind of a roll, particularly since the infamous Dallas game last month when he scored 62 in three quarters, outscored the Mavericks by himself, and then took himself out of the game. He came off as the complete phony he usually is, but he also put the bug in people's heads. How far might he go, you had to wonder. How many can he put up if he really put his mind to it? What are the chances you'll miss it if he has one of those nights?

The chances are very strong now, after last night. We've gone through some kind of wormhole and entered another galaxy, one in which Kobe might score 100 points in a game. Nothing looks the same this morning.

Having said all of that, antibiotics are still a very good thing.

Posted by David Steele at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

That was just downright sad what happened to the Bengals this afternoon in Cincinnati against the Steelers, and not even a hard-hearted Ravens lover, looking at next year's AFC North race, can deny it. How different would that game have been if Carson Palmer had played more than those two plays, thrown more than that one 66-yard beauty to rock the Steelers back on their heels practically before their hamstrings had warmed up?

But no, two blown knee ligaments on one of those football collisions that just happen sometimes. The Bengals are trying to say that Palmer could be back as early as training camp, but no matter how fast players return from torn knee ligaments these days, they're never back to pre-injury strength in just six months. Now, they have to think hard about how to keep Jon Kitna, who is a free agent and was going to get starter's money from someone (someone like, oh, I don't know, the Ravens? Actually, probably not, but it's something to ponder). But the Bengals can't count on going into next season without Kitna and without knowing if Palmer is 100 percent.

As for the game, well, fumbling without being touched tends to be a real momentum-breaker. Maybe we owe Kyle Boller a few more apologies. And maybe we owe Palmer a few more MVP votes, the way we owe Vince Young a few more Heisman votes.

The Steelers looked great in the second half against a backup quarterback. Maybe the Bengals are good enough with Palmer to overcome their own defensive deficiencies and win that game. But now we'll never know. Marvin Lewis deserved better than that to finish his season, after all he'd done to get this team to where it is.

Terrible weekend for quarterbacks making their first playoff starts: Chris Simms, Byron Leftwich, Eli Manning and Palmer. Three of them lost at home, too (including Palmer, who wasn't exactly responsible). Of their opposing quarterbacks, two have been to conference championships (Brunell and Roethlisberger), one to a Super Bowl (Delhomme) and one, well, one is Tom Brady. So it probably turned out the way it was supposed to.

Posted by David Steele at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

The Ravens shouldn't have been so prominent in this game, but when it comes to lock-down defense and offensive ineptitude, what better team is there to invoke? The Redskins won tonight's playoff game in Tampa, 17-10, even though they gained the fewest yards by a winning team, 120 - breaking the mark set by the Ravens in their last playoff win in 2001. It was the ninth-fewest yards ever in a playoff game, and seven of the eight totals ahead of them were achieved in games prior to 1976.

Then, after the game, all the Redskins defenders were talking about their motto, which came in handy because they began the game without Shawn Springs, lost Renaldo Wynn to a broken arm and saw Sean Romanowski - er, Sean Taylor, get kicked out for spitting on Michael Pittman. Their motto: Next Man Up. Just like the book of the same name, about the Ravens, by a writer who shall remain nameless until he cuts me a check for publicizing his book.

Of course, getting kicked out for a knuckleheaded act has a very Ravenesque feel about it.

Then there's the Redskins' starting center, whose departure via free agency last year might have been as responsible for the wreckage of this season as anything else: Casey Rabach.

Meanwhile, after three quarters, it's Patriots 21, Jaguars 3. I would say I respect the Patriots, but after Tom Brady said what he said, I'm not respecting them until they win another Super Bowl. So there.

Oh wait - now it's 28-3. OK, I respect you.

Posted by David Steele at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Redskins lead Tampa Bay 17-3 at halftime, and what I'd written earlier about the Skins fans taking over the Bucs' stadium is being proven wrong. If they were, this place wouldn't be like a mortuary right now. A few times, the fans got loud, waving their flags and raising the roof (if this place had one). But ten minutes into the game, the Redskins led 14-0, because Chris Simms got a pass deflected to LaVar Arrington and returned to the 6, and because Sean Taylor turned a Cadillac Williams fumble into a 51-yard touchdown play. Since then, Simms has perfected the five-yard completion and the eight-yard sack. Either the Redskins' defense is something special, or the Bucs got the Ravens' offensive playbook by mistake.

Just be thankful your faithful blog correspondent is here to pass this along. Traffic to the stadium got bad nearly three hours before kickoff, so I found myself in front of my hotel with about six other fans, all waiting on different cab calls. One couple was a Baltimore native, a Colts and Ravens fan, and his wife, from Montgomery county and a Skins fan. (A mixed marriage. How will the kids be raised?) After about 20 minutes, the hotel shuttle driver pulled up for a pickup for one guest going to the nearby mall - and the Ravens fan quickly offered $50 to the driver to take us to the stadium. We were on our way two minutes later.

Problem was, after dropping off the shopper, the shuttle driver got an airport pickup call. So he chased down a cab making a dropoff at a different hotel - yes, whipping around corners and gliding through stop signs in the mall lot - and caught up to him. He gave the driver the money we'd given him, we piled into the cab, and he took us to the stadium. It all took maybe a half-hour, and we made it in plenty of time. And I have no doubt that we beat whatever cab was supposed to have picked us up in the first place.

Plus, the Ravens guy said to me as he and his wife headed in, "You've got a great story.'' True. So far, it's a better one than the game.

Posted by David Steele at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

One of the perks of the Redskins opening the playoffs in Florida was that the Maryland-Miami game from Coral Gables would be televised here, early enough to watch the whole thing and then head to Raymond James Stadium. Perfect day!

Or so I thought. Miami 84, Terps 70. That, after the Hurricanes took a 13-0 lead. This makes Maryland 0-2 at Miami since Miami joined the ACC, and the Terps are the only ranked teams the 'Canes have beaten in that span. You'd have thought they'd have the edge in basketball, at least.

Maybe this will brighten some moods. If this story in today's Tampa Tribune about the Bucs' Jon Gruden is an indication, a successful, Super Bowl-winning coach can change his style and re-connect with his players if he has to.

Posted by David Steele at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

It appears that Redskins fans have invaded Tampa in much the way Texas fans flooded Pasadena. I'm here to write about tomorrow's Redskins-Buccaneers playoff game, and I'm lucky to be here. Flights from BWI to Tampa for tomorrow were sold out by Monday night, about a day after the matchup was set. The flights after noon today were sold out by Tuesday afternoon (I literally got the last one). My flight today was packed with Skins fans, and so are most of the hotels downtown. This happens when you go six years and four coaches between playoff appearances.

A handful of Ravens fans heading to Florida for other reasons were scattered about the plane. One, a middle-aged man going down to check on some property, got into an unfortunate exchange with a Skins fan, an elderly woman (I hope she was, or else I'm in trouble). Both lived in Anne Arundel county. They were (well, she was) discussing how Skins fans in Maryland were stuck supporting the Ravens' stadium even though it's not their team. He was politely replying, telling her that a D.C. team was putting money in Maryland's vaults through the tax revenue from FedEx Field, which the late Jack Kent Cooke built with his own money.

For some reason, it escalated from there, and she closed the discussion, in a calm, quiet voice, by saying, "I hope you get a bad drink in Annapolis.''

All he could do was shake his head, and say, "Great, she doesn't like my team, so she hopes I get poisoned.''

It's playoff time, baby!

Speaking of drinks, I was in my seat enjoying a ginger ale when I read the first answer to today's question of the day, which was: Have the Orioles turned you off from attending tomorrow's Fanfest?

Replied my new hero, Will Sinnott of Westminster, "I was going to go to the Orioles' fanfest, but at the last minute I've decided to go to the Pittsburgh Pirates' fanfest.''

It was nearly the first-ever in-flight spit take.

Posted by David Steele at 8:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

The second-funniest quote in this morning's sports section comes from Gil Brandt, who says in Ken Murray's story about the Rose Bowl MVP's NFL prospects, "Hopefully, Vince Young stays in school. I'm a great believer that, as a quarterback, the more experience you get, the better off you are.''

Personally, I'm a great believer that Gil Brandt probably wouldn't tell his own son to turn down $20 million so he can get more "experience." Also, I'm guessing that as a longtime front-office executive with the Cowboys and now an employee of the NFL, Brandt is a great believer that it's best to pay players as little money over as short a period of time as possible.

Of course, Young could stay for his senior year, as many pundits already have suggested, go for a second national title and get a Heisman Trophy - the way Matt Leinart did. (Or tried to do.) Sure. Who wouldn't stay in the dorms an extra year, worry about being given a free t-shirt by the wrong person, keep attending classes you hate, risk a suspension for shouting "SportsCenter is next!'' into a nearby camera, possibly get injured and blow your pro career, so you can revel in the majesty and pageantry of college football one more time?

Never mind that, though. The funniest quote in this morning's sports section was, "Wow, look at this.''

That's from Candus Thomson's piece on the U.S. Olympic women lugers buck-nekkid on a website promoting a drinking game, and it was spoken by the marketing director for the national governing body.

So we've got the U.S. women's luge team, and we've got skiier Bode Miller telling "60 Minutes'' this Sunday that he not only has competed drunk, but that he might do it again. And from past Games, we've had snowboarders and the like testing positive for herb. (I don't even know if they still call it that, but it was a popular term in Northeast D.C. 20 years ago.)

Good thing none of our fun-loving, free-spirited winter Olympians are an embarrassment to our country and the movement, the way the NBA players are.

Posted by David Steele at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Ninety-nine percent of the time, the Rodney Dangerfield strategy - "We get no respect'' - is badly overused by athletes and teams. The latest to sing that tired tune is Tom Brady, of all people. He should know better.

But Texas had every right to play the disrespect card going into last night's Rose Bowl, and they have every right to slap it on every table they see from now on, because this was portrayed everywhere as a USC coronation. Texas got the perfunctory "They're pretty good, too, you know, being undefeated and all'' coverage. But they sure didn't get an 11-part series on The Worldwide Leader about where they fit in with the greatest teams in the history of college football.

Nor did Vince Young, a stupendously talented, successful and mesmerizing player since his freshman year, get mentioned as the "best-ever'', the way Reggie Bush was. The next Gale Sayers? I'm not convinced he's the next Rocket Ismail. Especially after last night. When, of course, Young's performance was anointed as the "best-ever'' in a championship game.

And this is not a crack a ESPN, although their mere size and status magnified the slant of attention being paid to one team in this matchup. (The network did do some serious backpedaling and revising afterward, after hearing Young's postgame Rodney speech. "It wasn't disrespect for Texas, it was respect for USC,'' Chris Fowler explained. Respect, slobbering, same thing. You say tomato, I say tomahto.)

In fact, the lopsided coverage of USC isn't even the main point - it was the fact that the "best-ever'' talk once again got out of hand before the final game was played. It's not a new phenomenon, just exaggerated because of the size of the media universe now. But it's been too easy to start the "best-ever'' hype too early and blow it too much out off proportion. Ask this year's Indianapolis Colts. The week of the San Diego game, the comparisons to the old Dolphins and all the other all-time greats was deep enough to swim in. And the regular season hadn't even ended. I've sounded off here already about how much Tony Dungy was getting picked apart a month in advance for POSSIBLY ruining the Colts' shot at glory IF they got to the final week undefeated.

Then they lost. And the "best-ever'' talk was never heard again. Even if they win the Super Bowl, that story line is buried forever. It never should have been raised in the first place, not then.

Again, this can happen - and has - without the help of cable TV, six ESPN networks, several dozeon Fox sports affiliates, talk radio, blanket newspaper coverage and the internet. Anyone remember what they were saying about the 1983 Nebraska team, with Mike Rozier, Turner Gill and Irving Fryar? Yeah, you know. Then came Miami, Howard Schnellenberger and Bernie Kosar. You think everyone would have learned. It only got worse.

Another example, another sport. Duke basketball, 1999. Where did they fit in with the all-time greats in the history of the game? As it turned out, at least one spot below UConn.

So now that the Colts and USC have been victimized by this, what do we do about it?

Oh please, you already know. The Pistons are on pace to win 70 games in the NBA. Which date do you want in the pool for the first "best-ever'' mention? I've got Feb. 2. Yup, you guessed it.

Groundhog Day.

Posted by David Steele at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Everybody likes stand-up players and stand-up coaches. But how about stand-up owners?

What a performance by Steve Bisciotti this morning in this State of the Ravens press conference up at the Castle. He laid down the law last week to Brian Billick and the players, and then when time came to explain why to the increasingly disgruntled fans - as he had promised he would - he came clean. He could have played the diplomat, mouthed some platitudes about how it's not important to air dirty laundry but that we should all know that we're behind our coach 100 percent and that's that. Instead, Bisciotti said what he demanded of Billick, and why.

More important, he said that if Billick didn't like it - specifically, if he didn't want to make "significant changes'' in the way he did things - he would be free to go look for another job, and the Ravens would be free to find a replacement. The fact that Billick not only was there, still coaching, and sitting next to him at that moment hearing his job being dangled before the media horde, indicated that Billick was serious about taking that advice and changing.

"His (job) security comes from his willingness to change,'' Bisciotti said, in one of the many blunt observations he made over the course of the 50-minute session.

Plus, he said, if he didn't hear what he wanted, he was ready to go get someone else. But, he said, "We felt that a new and improved Brian Billick was better than making a change.''

Wow!

It was mesmerizing to watch Billick up there dealing with it. That's not at all to smirk at him or revel in his discomfort. In fact, everyone in the room could empathize, because it's bad enough to hear that sort of evaluation from your boss behind a closed door in his or her office. It's almost unimaginable to hear that - for at least the second time, mind you - in front of a room full of people, to be disseminated publicly. It was squirm-inducing just to witness it in person.

Billick must really love this place, or really want to turn this team around, or fix the problems being attributed to him, or clear his own slate - something deep down, maybe a survival instinct, allowed him to handle what he went through today. How he didn't say - after about the 10th time Bisciotti mentioned the "options'' both he and the coach had - that he'd changed his mind and would rather go someplace else that be put through this, is a real feat of strength.

Maybe a month ago, I suggested in a Point After in the Sunday paper that ESPN needs to devote a day to Classic Press Conferences. This makes the cut.

Anyway, that's why Billick is back. Give Bisciotti credit for standing up there and being accountable. He doesn't make many public statements or appearances, but when he does, they pack a punch. Give Billick credit, too; he put himself out there on the line in a big way. By owning up to needing to change, he opened himself up to scrutiny of everything he does, and how he does it, from now on.

A quick aside to put some of this back into a football perspective: the last three teams the Ravens beat this season - the Texans, Packers and Vikings - have all fired their coaches. That says something; not sure what, but it's something.

Posted by David Steele at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

Yesterday was a long day. Today will be even longer: the Ravens brass break down the season later this morning, led by owner Steve Bisciotti, who will certainly be asked what he thought of the team following up the vote of confidence for Brian Billick by blowing a 13-0 lead in Cleveland and losing on the road for the 11th straight time.

Later tonight, the Codger Bowl - er, Orange Bowl, between Penn State and Florida State. I expect that several times during the broadcast, cameras will focus on the players on the field, providing backdrop for the only angle being pushed in this game, the coaches.

At the same time, the Rockets play the Wizards at MCI. Sure, it doesn't have the importance of the big bowl clash between ... uh ... well ... OK, what does this game mean, again? Oh yeah, Paterno and Bowden. Sorry.

I hope Laura Quinn is there at the stadium tonight, because we really didn't get to see much of her or about her, her brother Brady or her boyfriend A.J. Hawk, last night during the Fiesta Bowl. Congratulations to her for winning the game MVP, by the way. Wait a minute, she didn't win? She was getting interviewed every couple of snaps, so I had assumed she had won.

Not to say that the eventual MVP, Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith, didn't get his fair share of attention. He did appear in one of those pre-taped featurettes. He was asked whether he would be OK with his sister dating his teammate, Hawk.

I'm glad ABC found a story line worth telling, Laura Quinn and her half-and-half jersey. Between fourth-ranked Ohio State and sixth-ranked Notre Dame, the all-Americans on the field, the recent national championship by Ohio State, the latest Maurice Clarett troubles, the return to glory by Notre Dame and the ongoing tale of Charlie Weis, the way he became coach and what he's done since coming there, there clearly wasn't much else for ABC to work with.

Time to head to the Castle and hear the Ravens' wrap-up. More later. I'll leave you with this: how the Redskins prepared last week for their big game against the Eagles. Maybe the Ravens should try this.

Posted by David Steele at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

What else is there to say about this Ravens season that hasn't already been said about most of the losses, and even about most of the wins?

Just that today in Cleveland, midway through the second quarter, the Ravens were leading 13-0, Browns quarterback Charlie Frye was looking as if he could use an extra year of college eligibility, fans in the half-empty stadium were booing, and the Cleveland media was chasing everybody in a suit down the nearest hallway trying to figure out who was or wasn't still running the team.

And the Ravens ended up losing. In case you didn't watch, it was hideous. Frye suddenly turned into Brett Favre (at least the old Brett Favre). Antonio Bryant turned into Jerry Rice. Dennis Northcutt turned into the old Deion. The old Deion just looked old. Kyle Boller turned back into Kyle Boller.

When it was over, the old Browns faithful around the stadium, who still enjoy beating this team more than any other (with the possible exception of the Steelers), were talking much smack. For most of the fourth quarter, fans were pounding on the glass of the press box, mostly in joy, but probably because there was an off-chance that Art Modell might be up there. (No chance of that. That streak is still alive.) The elevator operator that took us from the press box to the locker rooms almost had to be sedated, she was crowing so loud and long.

Give it to them, they earned it. This should have been an ugly finish for the Browns, and instead it was an ugly finish for the Ravens. Very few players bit on the theory that 6-10 looks a lot worse than 7-9, especially if the 7-9 had included a three-game winning streak at the end. But from here, 6-10 looks a lot worse.

But at least it's not freezing cold in the press box right now. Oh, wait a minute ...

Posted by David Steele at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)