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Last Updated: Sunday, 07-06-08 1:00 pm PDT

January Arrives Early - (12/17)

MINNEAPOLIS Nearly as sweet as the NFL playoffs is the desperation that precedes them. We saw it Sunday night in the Meadowlands, where the more desperate team, the one that simply couldn't afford to lose, beat the one that didn't have that sense of urgency -- yet. The playoffs may not begin until the first Saturday of January but don't kid yourself. Single elimination is here, or so teams feel going into the final two weeks of the regular season.

The Sentence Reflects the Lies - (12/10)

ATLANTA -- It caught most of us by surprise, the length of the sentence handed down Monday, when perhaps it shouldn't have. When two of his co-conspirators were sentenced a few weeks back to 18 and 21 months respectively, we should have known Michael Vick wasn't going to get a year or 15 months. He wasn't going to get less jail time than the people who delivered him to the feds. He wasn't going to get less jail time when it was his money that financed the dogfighting enterprise that was his undoing.

A Big Win, A Big Loss - (12/06)

Usually victory on any given Sunday, Monday or even Thursday is about all that matters in the NFL, whether it's the undefeated Patriots, winless Dolphins or everybody in between. Pro football, demanding as it is, doesn't waste a lot of time with context.

With Tables Turned, No Mercy Is Shown - (12/05)

As sweet as his disposition is most of the time, Caron Butler can look at the end of the Wizards' bench and become annoyed quickly. The last time the Cleveland Cavaliers were in Washington, last April for the playoffs, Butler was sitting in the very last seat on the home team sideline, his broken hand wrapped, unable to play. "That seat right there," Butler said 45 minutes before last night's tip-off. "I was sitting right there, in that seat, looking over at Agent Zero, helpless to do anything while they swept us out of the playoffs. It's been driving me ever since."

A Tale to Tell - (12/03)

BALTIMORE If the New England Patriots put together the perfect regular season, if they can do what no NFL team has done and finish 16-0, they'll undoubtedly tell the story of the one they stole from the Baltimore Ravens. They'll smile at the memory of surviving on a cold, blustery, contentious night when the outcome was in doubt, right down to the final desperate heave and incredibly unlikely catch-and-struggle 72 inches or so from the goal line.="all"/>

Dying Young, Black - (11/27)

If you're hoping to read about the on-field exploits of Sean Taylor, or a retrospective of his time with the Washington Redskins, it would probably be better if you cast your eyes to a piece elsewhere in this newspaper.

It Might Not Hurt That Much - (11/21)

Two years ago, even last year, losing Gilbert Arenas for three months would have been a season killer. The Washington Wizards were built around Arenas completely and perhaps to a fault. Though Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler and Larry Hughes all were accomplished players, the Wizards were dependent on Arenas, as most NBA teams are on their star player. And this latest knee surgery that will keep him out of the lineup for three months is, in the short term, an obvious setback.

Giant Catch for Feds - (11/15)

The possibility that federal prosecutors could take down Barry Bonds at any moment hovered like a giant storm cloud over the summer of 2007. It's why Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig never wanted to get too close to Bonds during his pursuit of Hank Aaron's career home run record. It's why Selig and other baseball officials didn't want syrupy ceremonies and grand proclamations about Bonds becoming the official home run king.

Weighing In, Shula Has Heavy Words - (11/07)

This isn't a case of the media belittling the New England Patriots, or some loose-cannon coach like Jerry Glanville sounding off for the fun of needling. Sometimes the messenger is so respected that the criticism has greater legitimacy, and such was the case when former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula said that, if the Patriots remain undefeated, their perfect record should carry an asterisk in the NFL record books.

Lack of Monday Mourning Led to Promising Week - (11/04)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. What happened six days earlier, on the Monday after the massacre, won't show up under yards rushing or tackles made. There's no way, exactly, to tell how serious self-examination six days earlier affected time of possession or a place kicker's accuracy in overtime Sunday against the New York Jets. But the Washington Redskins, particularly the coaches and old pros who've had to recover from football humiliation a time or two in their lives, knew the overtime victory here in the Meadowlands over the Jets couldn't have happened without some honest soul-searching 24 hours after Sunday's embarrassing loss in New England.

The Great Debate: Which QB Is Greater? - (11/03)

About once every decade or so, a regular season NFL game comes along that has circumstances and conditions that make it historically irresistible. In 1985 the Miami Dolphins, the franchise with the only perfect record in the Super Bowl era, stopped the 12-0 Chicago Bears at the Orange Bowl. In November 1994 the two-time defending champion Dallas Cowboys, featuring Hall of Famers Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, lost in San Francisco to the future Super Bowl champion 49ers, featuring Hall of Famers Steve Young and Jerry Rice and a future Hall of Famer named Deion Sanders.

Arenas for Kobe? No Thanks - (11/01)

When the Chicago Bulls announced yesterday that they were pulling out of the Trade-for-Kobe sweepstakes, my mind went to the one player in the NBA the Los Angeles Lakers should want in exchange for Kobe Bryant.

Redskins Go A Little Too Quietly - (10/29)

College teams can object to the playground bully running it up. Little Murray State can be legitimately annoyed when nationally ranked Louisville guns it to 73-10. But no pro team, certainly no NFL team, can ever whine about an opponent zooming up and down the field at will. There's no difference in admissions policies in professional sports. Nobody has an advantage in walk-ons or scholarships. With salary cap restrictions and the yield from the college draft, NFL teams compete on the most level playing field imaginable. So the notion that another team should voluntarily stop beating another team's brains out is, well, dumb.

Plenty of Possibilities To Bounce Around - (10/29)

The nightmarish spring and summer aren't entirely forgotten. Most of the iconic players, the ones who drive the league's popularity, either didn't make the playoffs or were dumped quickly. Lack of interest in the championship series was measurable. The stench of the referee scandal remains. The No. 1 draft pick with the irresistibly sweet demeanor is injured and out for the season. Unarguably, the NBA is in need of a rebound.

Colts Concede Nothing to Pats - (10/22)

Parity Levels College Football's Playing Field - (10/19)

They can't stand this in Nebraska and Alabama, at Florida State and Miami, at Oklahoma and Notre Dame. The keepers of big-time college football never meant to share the rankings or the bowl games and certainly not the pile of money with the likes of Boise State and Hawaii. Bad enough that schools known primarily for basketball, such as Kentucky, Cincinnati and Rutgers, have gotten up the nerve to compete at the highest level. . . . But to have half the season hijacked by a fascination with a toddler of a program such as South Florida's is simply unacceptable to the college football blue bloods.

Patriots: Poised to Be Perfect - (10/17)

The NFL season is less than one-third over, yet it's already been distilled to one issue, unquestionably the greatest issue that can be raised in pro football.

Dallas in Wonderland - (10/09)

BUFFALO

The Patriots' Game: No Mercy, They Rule - (10/01)

CINCINNATI They've been great for a while now, three Super Bowls' worth of great. But only this season have the New England Patriots become The Show, the must-see team of stars and pretty boys. Suddenly, the Patriots are not simply great; they're compelling, fascinating, appearing to be almighty and a touch lawless.

Let Down Again in New Orleans - (09/25)

NEW ORLEANS

McNabb Displays His Accuracy - (09/20)

Thankfully, Donovan McNabb had the guts to stand tall in the pocket with critics trying to knock his head off. Thankfully, McNabb, at 30, has some sense of the NFL beyond his own participation. Most celebrity athletes talk only when paid to talk, and usually about something benign if not downright useless.

A Winning Formula Is Taking Shape - (09/17)

PHILADELPHIA

Crime Deserves More Punishment - (09/13)

Coach Bill Belichick picked the absolute worst time to cheat, or more to the point, the worst time to get caught cheating. Of course, the New England Patriots aren't the only team that has spied on opponents to gain a competitive advantage. But the Patriots, with Belichick leading the way, already were perceived in a great many football circles as smug, dismissive and manipulative to the highest degree, and they got caught cheating at a time when the boss of the NFL, Roger Goodell, has declared zero tolerance on anything that reflects negatively on the product.

Boller Comes In, and Again He Errs It Out - (09/10)

CINCINNATI

The PGA Finds the Rough - (09/07)

Normally, we're not talking much about golf during the first full week of September. We're a football nation now, consumed with pigskin after Labor Day. So it's probably a good thing for golf that there is any discussion of it on the eve of the NFL's first Sunday. But . . .

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