Sports Sense

He leads one of the NFL’s best teams. But we barely know who he is.
What does this brother have to do to get some love?

His team remains undefeated which means he’s now 14 and 0 – the best record ever for a first-year NFL head coach. But all we seem to know is that he’s the guy who replaced the noble legend Tony Dungy.

He apparently blends in so well that the commentators never give him his due for his leadership and knowledge.

Even though he’s not publicly complaining, it’s got to be tough being virtually anonymous despite so much success. No one is calling him a genius even though he replaced an icon and actually improved on his team’s brand. One game at a time is the way he looks at it. But don’t lose sight of the fact that every win means he’s extending his own record breaking victory streak.

He’s on the road to 19 – 0 and the Super Bowl. One day the masses will notice he’s a very good coach, maybe they’ll notice in February.

Who is this unassuming, under-appreciated man? His name is Jim Caldwell, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.

The way I see it he’s the NFL’s coach of the year. He deserves the love.

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Bryant Gumbel can really rub you the wrong way. There is something not quite right about him at times. Maybe its the arrogance he sometimes exudes. Despite that, he is also celebrated as one of the most well-prepared and brilliant interviewers of our time.

On Regis and Kelly the other day, Gumbel, the erudite TV pro, showed another side of himself – humility and vulnerability. He announced on-air that he is fighting lung cancer. But surprisingly he looked at peace.

Gumbel sometimes comes across as smug and self-important. He really angered me a couple of years ago, because of a commentary on his HBO show, in which he cruelly belittled and mocked the late Gene Upshaw. A Hall of Fame player with the Raiders, Upshaw gained even greater fame as the longtime executive director of the National Football League Players Association. I thought Gumbel was way out of line.

On the other hand it’s just as important to recognize that Bryant Gumbel is a valuable trailblazer. Gumbel was a role model for me and millions of others. I always admired his preparation as well as his command and elegance.

Ironically, Gumbel shared his battle with cancer as Tiger Woods continues to dominate the headlines. If anyone can understand what Tiger might be going through it is Gumbel. Gumbel also had to deal with tabloid allegations of infidelity and a humiliated wife. Tiger should call him up. Tiger might hear what we witnessed as Gumbel revealed his cancer fight. An older, wiser more humble man, who might be able to help him.

Life hands out lots of lessons. And Gumbel who always seems cool under pressure, appears to have learned his.

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Almost every year I get angry the second week of December. That’s when the Heisman Trophy winner – symbolizing the nation’s best college football player – is announced. It’s rarely the right guy. I’d be shocked if the right guy gets handed the trophy on Saturday.

The politics of major college football are often infuriating and insulting. We all know that the BCS, the cartel which controls the alleged national championship game, the bowl system and more importantly the money, should only have two letters – BS.

But the Heisman Trophy selection process makes the BCS look absolutely democratic.

The five finalists for the 2009 Heisman Trophy were announced on Monday. They are:

Toby Gerhart – Stanford running back
Mark Ingram – Alabama running back
Colt McCoy – Texas quarterback and last year’s runner up
Ndamukong Suh – Nebraska defensive tackle
Tim Tebow – Florida quarterback and 2007 winner

To me the Heisman symbolizes everything that is wrong with college football. I’m not a mathematician like my father was, but by my count there are 22 guys on the field, each playing different positions, 11 on offense and 11 on defense, all contributing to this thing called TEAM. But the Heisman Trophy is apparently reserved for players at only 2 or 3 positions. This statistical anomaly is why I consider the Heisman Trophy the biggest joke in football. This is absurd.

Of the 74 times the Heisman has been awarded since 1935, a total of 41 running backs and 26 quarterbacks have won the award. That means 67 of the 74 Heisman recipients have played only one of two positions. That’s bad enough, but worse is the fact that only once has a defensive player ever won the award – defensive back Charles Woodson of the University of Michigan won it in 1997. Are you kidding me?? One defensive player – One. And Woodson was helped in his win because he occasionally played spectacularly at wide receiver and kick returner.

The best college football player hands down this year is the University of Nebraska’s all-world defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. He is an absolute beast. Suh is the closest player I’ve seen to the late, incomparable, Reggie White.

Suh is so strong, so fast and so dominant, that I can’t imagine another player who is better than he is. Suh tossed around last year’s Heisman runner-up Colt McCoy like a ragdoll in Nebraska’s heartbreaking loss to Texas the other day. The right guy for the Heisman this year is Ndamukong Suh. He is one of the best college football players I’ve ever seen.

But the numbers don’t lie. Suh has as much chance to win the Heisman as I have of becoming the next coach of the Washington Redskins. And that’s a shame. It is an embarrassment to college football.

Wouldn’t it be great if the Heisman voters stop laughing at us and end the biggest joke in football by doing the right thing.

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For many other players it would have simply been a happy homecoming. Another feel good end of a career story. But we’re talking about Allen Iverson. Iverson is one of the greatest one-on-one talents to have ever played the game of basketball. If there was a pound-for-pound, inch-for-inch crown, the 6 foot tall 175 pound Iverson would wear it as the undisputed champion of basketball.

But the light is dimming on his career. And sadly on his reputation. Coming home is one last chance to change minds. To regain his pride. To get back into the starting lineup.

Maybe that’s why Allen Iverson cried so emotionally when he announced his return to the Philadelphia 76ers. The tears were real. Iverson’s pain remains deep.

Allen Iverson is the original hip-hop basketball superstar.

He became a man in an era when you were deemed soft if you smiled too much. Allen had the tats, the cornrows, the attitude, and the skills, but most importantly he was a hero who never left the hood. He was still hard. That was the upside for Iverson for a lot of years as he often led the league in scoring and spectacular plays.

But when he was traded to Detroit from Denver last season something changed. Yes, he got hurt, but there were other pains as well. For the first time he seemed irrelevant. A high scoring loser playing out the last days of a forgettable career. He deserved better. But he has mostly himself to blame. And he knows it.

Allen Iverson is struggling. At 34 years of age he is grappling with who he is as an athlete, and ultimately who he is as a man.

This season playing for Memphis, he wasn’t willing to come off the bench. So he quit. For a minute it appeared he had retired. But mostly he was mad. Of course he can still play. He was the best player on the Grizzlies as he would be on most teams. But for Iverson, his reputation as a me-first, shoot-first player, had lost it’s appeal.

Right now Iverson is feeling every possible emotion.

You can’ t always shake the image that people have of you. But you can change the image you have of yourself.

It’s up to Allen now. He’s home.

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As malicious as the tabloids can often be, there is sometimes a grain of truth in those stories. Sometimes there’s a huge grain of truth. And today Tiger Woods came as close to admitting to the affairs alleged by the tabloids as he ever will. He said in a statement released on his website that he let his family down and that he regrets “transgressions.”

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No, it wasn’t a full blown “confession” but his words make it vaguely clear that not everything being speculated about the SUV accident and his alleged infidelity is untrue.

Tiger Woods Statement: I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone.

Although I am a well-known person and have made my career as a professional athlete, I have been dismayed to realize the full extent of what tabloid scrutiny really means. For the last week, my family and I have been hounded to expose intimate details of our personal lives. The stories in particular that physical violence played any role in the car accident were utterly false and malicious.

I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves. For all of those who have supported me over the years, I offer my profound apology.

So once again the tabloids appear to get it right. And thanks to them, as of now, at least two women have claimed to have had affairs with Tiger Woods. One of the women has a voice mail recording from a man whose voice sounds a lot like Tiger’s.

But do we really need to know more? Will we ever get closer to the truth of what is now obviously a marriage in trouble? Probably not. Or will we learn with even more certainty that golf’s greatest immortal is actually a mere human? This story is about as true as its going to get for the curious among us.

I suppose all we need to know is that Tiger messed up and then sort of manned-up. That’s a lot more than most celebrities could or would do.

But sadly that isn’t saying much.

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