Welcome to beautiful and balmy South Beach, and by beautiful and balmy, I mean cold and windy. It is  54 degrees as of right now, it was in the 50s last night, and there's supposed to be a cold front sweeping in the early part of this week. And this was supposed to be the anti-Detroit.

Kidding! There's not a cloud in the sky, the sight of the beach and ocean are breathtaking, and even those who have gotten here early are giddy over the Houston-Jacksonville-Detroit Super Bowl site death-march ending. Plus, as of right now, no player arrests, although only one team is here so far.

Still, we have our first lazy, cheap-shot, no-imagination sportswriter rip of the host city. Sigh. Hope that's not a sign of things to come.

Meanwhile, if you are coming, and fly into Fort Lauderdale, and rent from Hertz, don't get driving directions at the printout machine, unless you want to end up at a completely different hotel than you intended. Shhhh, don't tell my editors, though.

Posted by David Steele at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Technically, from Indy back to Baltimore, but still ... I'm sitting in the Indianapolis airport, where they're still opening fresh boxes of Colts AFC Champions gear and people are still lining up at the stores waiting for the boxes to be opened. A couple of thoughts before I board:

* There is a real tangible sense of relief emanating from a lot of people, outside of New England, that is, because someone other than the Patriots are in. Everybody knows the Brady-Belichick-Scott Pioli stories by heart from the previous five years. The Colts do bring something completely new, starting with the quarterback's big-game reputation.

* Remember last week when Brian Billick said he faced a lot of nights waking up at 2 and 3 in the morning replaying the mistakes from the Ravens' playoff loss? What do you think Belichick will be doing? He already looks like he doesn't sleep. What will jolt him out of his slumber most - Reche Caldwell's drop with no one within 10 yards of him? The too-many-men-in-the-huddle call? Not coming up with Reggie Wayne's bobble after the catch? Letting Dallas Clark get that wide open? Getting beaten not by Marvin Harrison, but Bryan Fletcher? Just for starters.

* I agonized all last night and most of today over not playing up the magnitude of Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith getting into the Super Bowl in this morning's column. My consolation is that there are two weeks to explore every angle of it, that it's not a bad thing to just credit Dungy for being brilliant without segregating him by race, and that the moment (and the deadline) demanded that Manning get the attention. Remember, it was do-or-die until the final seconds whether Dungy would be joining Smith. Oh well, what can you do.

* Still, the sight of Dungy being completely hemmed in by family, friends and well-wishers of every color after the game last night, with several onlookers near tears, was powerful. There was a lot of "I never thought I'd live to see the day ...'' talk going around.

* Manning was so good in the final two and a half quarters, there's no way you can't ask yourself why in the world it took him this long to play this way in a playoff game. I wonder if even he could answer that. He chewed the Patriots up like he usually chews up the likes of Detroit on that Thanksgiving Day a few years ago, or some other regular-season bottom feeder.

* Fans here didn't run around the streets acting crazy and getting the cops involved. It was more like thousands of people wandering around dazed, occasionally yelling, "Go Colts, yeah, who-hoo!'' It had sank in, but in a different way. And, as always, it's great to see a city not burn itself down when its team wins, not to bring up cities that do, like College Park.

* Dungy held his usual Monday press conference at the team facility, and from the way he told it, it appeared that in the many past job interviews that went nowhere, he ran into as much resistance over his calm demeanor as over his skin color. Go figure. Owners apparently not only thought you had to be white to be an NFL coach, you had to be a raving, obsessed, fire-breathing lunatic. But guess whose calm demeanor kept his team in a game it trailed 21-3?

* The Colts are refurbishing their facility. Looks pretty functional, but aesthetically, it won't hold a candle to the Castle. So the Ravens won that, at least.

Posted by David Steele at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Welcome to snowy Indianapolis, site of tonight's AFC championship game and, this weekend, the glitter-sprinkled, false-eyelash-wearing, pompom-waving pre-teen girl capital of the universe.

The JAMfest Cheer Super National cheerleader tournament has been booked at the Indiana Convention Center for a year, and, naturally, so have all the hotel rooms downtown. Besides the national media coming in, fans around the state who come in for games and normally camp out near the RCA Dome are now scattered all over the place. Which means there probably will be more cars on the road at game time late afternoon/early evening, which means trouble even if four inches of snow hadn't fallen last night. Yikes. Still, thank goodness for domes; Soldier Field, three hours south of here and hit with the same weather system, doesn't have one. Football weather? Easy to say when you're sitting at home watching.

Anyway, the convergence of events also made for a weird scene in the streets last night: crazed pumped-up Colts fans, a sprinkling of staggeringly drunk and loud Patriots fans, a swarm of basketball fans coming out of the Pacers home game - and screeching, squealing tweeners  zigzagging about, still in uniform and glitter, still looking peppy, with parents and siblings in tow, not looking peppy at all.

Speaking of Patriots fans, by the way, there are, in fact, lots of them here, and according to this Indianapolis Star story yesterday, it's because Colts fans are notorious for selling their tickets to out-of-town fans. Baltimore gets an unsolicited shout-out for its fans' loyalty, a little surprising considering how Brian Billick pleads with fans before every Steelers game not to do what Colts fans are accused of.

More later.

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

Have a mildly humorous story about the end of Sunday night's Patriots-Chargers playoff game, and I'll get to it, but right now I'm still traumatized by last night's episode of '24'. If you watched, you know what I'm talking about; if you recorded it, I won't spoil it here. Still ... wow ... give me a minute here ...

...

...

OK. On Sunday, while the Patriots were driving toward the game-tying touchdown, there were about six minutes left in the game, and it was about quarter to 8. I was sure at that point that the game wasn't going to be over by the time the much-hyped, much-promoted, much-anticipated '24' season premiere began, and as anyone who's seen it knows, you literally cannot miss a second of it. This was a no-brainer: my TV was already set to switch channels at the stroke of 8. Of course, the Patriots do tie the game, then make us wait while they line up for the two-point conversion, then shift all over the place for the entire play clock, and Tom Brady goes through the whole Peyton Manning jump-around hand-signal routine, and they direct-snap it to Kevin Faulk and get the two points. That happened at about 7:56. Oh great.

So, of course, they hadn't even kicked off to San Diego by 7:59. So I blew it off. I also got a text message minutes before that, saying "Damn the game, man. Heidi Time!'' (For those too young to get the Heidi reference, here's what it means.) He was dead-on right. At the first commercial, I checked my cell phone and saw that the Patriots had, in fact, taken the lead, and that the Chargers were driving with a minute left. I quickly put it on auto-refresh. Then they were inside the New England 40 with 20 seconds left, and there had been some sort of Patriots personal foul that had moved the ball downfield. (I still don't know what it was.) Then it was a final. I had no idea what had happened. Just then, '24' came out of commercial. I had no choice but wait an hour and 45 minutes to see how it ended.

And at the first break in the second hour, I get another text: "Did LT meltdown after game?'' Naturally, I still couldn't change and risk missing anything. So when they finally ran the credits and showed previews of the next night, I clicked to ESPN News - and they showed the Bears highlights first. It took a while to get to the Patriots, but finally I got caught up on it all, including LT going off on the Patriots at midfield.

I know this had to have happened with a lot of people. In fact, yesterday after Brian Billick's final press conference, I mentioned it to a few of the media types still hanging around, and they had gone through the same thing. "Good thing the game wasn't on Fox,'' one of them said. You have to figure that if the CBS game hadn't been on the West Coast, Fox would have gotten the late time slot and really would have been driving people crazy by running over.

So that was Sunday. But again, after last night's show, I have to agree with Jack Bauer: I don't think I can do this anymore.

Posted by David Steele at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
                    

To paraphrase Gene Wilder in "Young Frankenstein,'' It ... could ... work!''

Steve Blake, of the 2002 national champion Terps, is now a Nugget. It's not going over particularly well in Denver, apparently, because the man for whom he was traded, explosive 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins, was incredibly popular and valuable. And it appears it was a cap move more than anything. On the other hand, the Nuggets badly needed a pure point guard. They traded one away to get Allen Iverson, played without one in the weeks after the trade, and are 3-7 since the deal. (Of course, all of those games have been without Carmelo Anthony.)

Plus everybody knows AI's best years were when he had a guard, like ex-76ers backcourt mate Eric Snow, next to him who set others up, ran the offense and didn't need to shoot. If that doesn't describe Blake, it doesn't describe anyone. (Nuggets management described him exactly that way, too.)

After two good years as a Wizard his first years out of Maryland, Blake's on his third team in a season and a half, which shouldn't be held against him. He not only has proved he belongs, he had his best year last year when he beat out about 30 other point guards (at least it seemed that way) to start along with Juan Dixon in Portland. He just happens to be one of those eminently trade-able guys. He definitely thinks his new home is a good fit.

Carmelo is out four more games for his suspension, including tonight's. He's the last of the suspended guys to return (J.R. Smith is back now). Put them all together with a guard like Blake who has no problem feeding others and who can hit open jumpers fairly well, and the Nuggets are back to being a threat in the West. Good for Stevie.

Now, if only Juan can be rescued from that mess in Portland.

Or if either of them can regain some eligibility before tomorrow's Terps game against Clemson. One of them ought to be able to break up those nine-minute field-goal droughts.

If nothing else, area NBA fans who are determined not to pay attention to that team in D.C. now have another reason to keep track of the Nuggets.

Posted by David Steele at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

No doubt that by now you've heard of one Hall of Fame voter - Paul Ladewski, a Baseball Writers Association of America member at the Daily Southtown near Chicago - who turned in a blank ballot, assuring that Cal Ripken's vote total today would not be unanimous. Here is his rationale. His point about the steroid era is not one I disagree with: "... let's suppose a player is voted into the Hall of Fame, then a short time later, a former teammate steps forward to Canseco him. And another. What to do then? Keep him there? Take him out? Drape black crepe over his plaque?'' (For the record, I made the opposite argument back in November and said a vote for the McGwires of the world would send just as strong a message as a non-vote would.)

Still, no beef here with Ladewski withholding his vote on those grounds. It was when he invoked his "no unanimous selections'' rule that it all falls apart. Full disclosure: I've never met Paul Ladewski, never talked to him, don't know if he's a wonderful human being or a genius at writing baseball or anything else. Besides, he's not the only voter who does this. In terms of moronic, pointless sports traditions, this might be the grand-daddy of 'em all.

His words: "Walter Johnson, Cy Young and Honus Wagner didn't receive such Hall passes. Neither did Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. In fact, nobody has in the history of the game. Based on the standards set by the Hall of Fame voters decades ago, is there a neutral observer out there who can honestly say Gwynn and Ripken should be afforded an unprecedented honor?''

Yup, here's one right here. (I've mentioned this previously, before Ripken became a candidate; besides, we're all supposed to be neutral observers in this business, but thanks for the patronizing crack, Mr. Ladewski.)

Just because the boneheads who denied those legends their well-earned votes had their agendas and issues preventing them from doing the right thing, you have to follow their lead and deny other worthy candidates your vote out of some sort of loyalty to the precedent they set? He's got to stay faithful to those warped "standards''?

You think there's some legitimate reason to perpetuate the short-sighted, narrow-minded mistakes your forebears made? They had their own idiotic reasons for reading the list of candidates and saying, "Ty Cobb? Nah. Babe Ruth? What's he ever done for the game? Cy Young? A bum.'' So, seventy years later, let's validate their stupidity and screw our generation's greatest players. Makes a lot of sense.

Besides, many of those same previous voters, whose standards he wants to uphold, also voted in people of horrible character, including several who were subject to the same scrutiny over gambling and throwing games as today's players are of using enhancers. But by withholding his vote this year and in future years due to a character issue, he pretty much breaks with the tradition he holds so sacred. Nice consistency there. Make up your mind: are you going to follow the rules, your own heart, someone else's mistakes, what?

And besides - why is the Baseball Writers Association of America known as the BBWAA? "Baseball'' has been one word for about a century now. God forbid they ever merge with the NAACP and end up writing about "colored base ball players.'' I mean, as long as you're thinking up ways to misuse the Hall of Fame vote, why not vote on joining the 20th century before the 21st gets much farther along?

Sorry, pet peeve, totally irrelevant.

If you want to hear Paul Ladewski explain himself this morning on ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike show, and if you're registered, listen here.

Posted by David Steele at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
                    

At this moment, Nick Saban is being introduced as Alabama's new head football coach. He's making introductory remarks, about what he expects to accomplish with the program and what it means to hold a position like this. Soon, to be sure, he will answer questions about, among other things, why we're hearing from him for the first time nearly 24 hours after his acceptance from the job was confirmed. And why Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga was the one to make the announcement, in Miami, and why no one - like him or any Alabama official - had any comment until today, even though Saban flew to Alabama yesterday afternoon and was swarmed by a crowd upon landing as if he was the Beatles, as many observed at the time, and as was captured in the Birmingham News and the Tuscaloosa News. And why his Dolphins players heard their coach was leaving from TV.

Here's what I wrote in this morning's Sun.

Meanwhile ...

* It's a lot easier to call up the Miami Herald's sports website this morning than it was yesterday afternoon; for a couple of hours in midafternoon, it was impossible. It surely had to do with the high traffic as events unfolded, and with it being constantly updated, not only because of Saban's departure, but later in the day, Pat Riley's leave of absence from coaching the Heat.

* It was worth it, though, to see columnist Dan leBatard, frequent guest host on various ESPN shows, who, in his initial column yesterday afternoon, called Saban a loser, a gasbag, a weasel, a quitter, a hypocrite - all in the first three paragraphs. Then, in the version that ran in this morning's paper, he had Don Shula (ex-Dolphins coach, father of the Alabama coach Saban replaces) chime in, also calling him a loser, a quitter and a fraud.

* Saban, by the way, just told us that while he "likes the pro game'' and admires Huizenga "as much as any man besides my own father,'' he prefers college ball because of "the ability it gives you to affect young people, their character, their attitudes, work ethic, perseverance, dealing with adversity.'' No, he didn't mention influencing their honest or integrity. And, full disclosure, he didn't say "he'' prefers it; he said "we'' prefer it, meaning him, his wife and kids, seemingly. Now, three questions in, he has not been asked about the way we slithered out of Miami.

* Here's how the Sun-Sentinel, the Sun's sister paper in Fort Lauderdale (owned also by the Tribune company), handled it. This includes columnist Charles Bricker taking Huizenga up on his request for help from the media with suggestions - seriously, not tongue-in-cheek, which had to be tempting.

* Now Saban is patting himself on the back for the job he did with the Dolphins, saying he left the team in better shape than when he got there. Impressive, considering he went from 9-7 his first year to 6-10 the second and brought in two quarterbacks who both got replaced by season's end, then left. He also acknowledged that he 'fessed up to Huizenga on Dec. 23 that he no longer could stand coaching there and wanted to go back to college. That's two days after his now-constantly-replayed "denial'' of any contact or interest with the Alabama job.

* One of the better shots at Saban, from ESPN.com college sports columnist Pat Forde. The headline says it all: "Saban only lied when his lips were moving.'' Also pretty direct: CBS Sportsline NFL writer Clark Judge, CBS Sportsline columnist Mike Freeman,

* The glee in Alabama isn't unanimous. Saban's contract is too much, and says that with football at the university, the tail is wagging the dog, says a former university trustee.

* The questions have gotten a little softball-ly now - and, now, it's wrapped up, after about a half-hour. Looks like the whole lying angle to this story is almost dead. Now it's about looking forward to what he might do at 'Bama, instead of what he did and didn't do with the Dolphins, at least from the standpoint of people down there, particularly him.

More later on everything else going on right now - such as, staying in the college vein, the shellacking LSU handed Notre Dame last night.

Posted by David Steele at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)