Two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic advanced to his third consecutive Australian Open final with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 win over No. 4-seeded David Ferrer on Thursday night.

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“I’m so glad we’re going to the Super Bowl right now,” Baltimore wide receiver Torrey Smith said, “so people can get off Joe’s back.”

Flacco threw three touchdown passes in the second half, helping the Ravens reach the Super Bowl for the first time in 12 years with a 28-13 win over the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game Sunday.

He beat two-time NFL MVP Tom Brady one week after outplaying Peyton Manning, who has won the award four times, in a 38-35 double-overtime win over the Denver Broncos.

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Congratulations to them.

What a match in Australia. Novak Djokovic wins 12-10 in the fifth (on match point #3).

We are all sinners, the Bible says and everyone knows. But not everyone is as accomplished a violator of the Ninth Commandment as Lance Armstrong, who is finally admitting this week after years of vociferous denials that he doped himself up to win the Tour de France seven times.

Mr. Armstrong has decided to admit his deceptions at America’s secular confessional, the Church of Oprah. No doubt the TV ratings will be huge, as the cancer survivor turned champion cyclist tries to salvage what he can of his reputation. If he really wants to atone, however, he’d be better off following the example of the late Chuck Colson.

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Congratulations to them–it sets up an exact rematch of last year’s NFC Championship game.

The Falcons’ playoff drought under head coach Mike Smith and quarterback Matt Ryan is over.

Just barely.

Kicker Matt Bryant banged a 49-yarder through the uprights with eight seconds to play to lift the Falcons to hard-fought 30-28 victory over Seattle in the NFC divisional round of the playoffs at the Georgia Dome on Sunday.

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Caught the English Premiere League contest between Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers early this morning . It ended 0-0 and the Rangers played their hearts out. Good for them–KSH.

Steroid-tainted stars Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa were denied entry to baseball’s Hall of Fame, with voters failing to elect any candidates for only the second time in four decades.

Bonds received just 36.2 percent of the vote, Clemens 37.6 and Sosa 12.5 in totals announced Wednesday by the Hall and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. They were appearing on the ballot for the first time and have up to 14 more years to make it to Cooperstown.

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I have questions. In effect, I am asking The Sun for an update on that 2006 SI cover, which provided details that I don’t think I’ve seen in the local newspaper.

Question No. 1: Where does Lewis go to church? Past? Present? Future? Is it still Empowerment Temple? What role does his church play in his life, his philanthropy, his future?

Question No. 2: Who is his pastor, his spiritual leader? Who does he call when he is in spiritual crisis? Is is still the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant of Empowerment?….

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Watch it all–LOL (hat tip–Abigail Harmon).

A spectacular late goal by Robin Van Persie in the 90th minute gave them a chance to try again. West Ham played well, congrats to them.

The backup quarterback throws a touchdown pass with 11 seconds left on the clock. My goodness what a win for the Gamecocks–and it was a super game.

Chandler Catanzaro kicked a 37-yard field goal as time expired to give No. 14 Clemson a wild 25-24 win against No. 9 Louisiana State in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on Monday night.

Trailing 24-22, Clemson (11-2) took possession on its 20 with 1:39 remaining. Tajh Boyd completed a pass for 26 yards to DeAndre Hopkins on a fourth-and-16 play during the decisive 10-play drive.

Catanzaro’s kick set off a wild celebration on the field and in the stands. Some players collapsed on the field in apparent disbelief while most of Clemson’s orange jerseys met in a midfield circle.

Read it all. I was unable to stay up for the end; congratulations to the Tigers–KSH.

A midseason turnaround that no one saw coming culminated Sunday night for the Washington Redskins with a 28-18 victory over the Dallas Cowboys that gave them an improbable NFC East title and a spot in the playoffs for the first time since 2007.

Quarterback Robert Griffin III wasn’t at his dazzling best in the win at FedEx Field. But the Redskins used the bullish running of another reliable rookie, tailback Alfred Morris, and leaned heavily on their defense to churn out a workmanlike triumph over Dallas.

The Redskins improved to 10-6 and ended the regular season on a seven-game winning streak. They seized their first division crown since the 1999 season and, as the NFC’s fourth seed for the postseason, will host the fifth-seeded Seattle Seahawks in a first-round playoff game next Sunday at 4:30 p.m.

Congratulations to the Redskins. Read it all.

The Steelers were eliminated from playoff contention today when Cincinnati beat them 13-10 on Josh Brown’s 43-yard field goal with four seconds left.
Cincinnati clinched a playoff berth with the victory.
The field goal was made possible when safety Reggie Nelson intercepted Ben Roethlisberger’s pass and returned it 10 yards to the Steelers’ 46 with 14 seconds left in the game.

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In assessing the greatness of Lionel Messi, Arsene Wenger, usually the world’s most insightful soccer manager, once said a trite thing: “When you look at the numbers, you have to kneel down and say they are fantastic.”

Wenger was referencing the 2010-11 season, in which Messi scored 53 goals in all competitions.

On Saturday, in his last game before the Christmas break, Messi scored his 91st goal of 2012. So Messi not only crushed the 40-year-old calendar-year scoring record held by German Gerd Muller (85), he reversed over it a few times.

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It’s not hard to be a Christian while everything is going well ”” while grace flows all around, while providence sprinkles miracles along the path, while joy abounds and times are good. It’s easy to praise the Lord and feel his presence, to do his work, when you stand in the bright sunlight. But eventually the night cometh, the darkness and the shadows, when faith is more difficult and no man can work.

The quarterback Tim Tebow was always something of a young mystic ”” he was David, dancing in the joy of his youth before the Ark of the Lord ”” and amid all the hoopla of the overtime victories and sudden triumphs to which he led the Denver Broncos last season, he found himself professional football’s most vocal and visible Christian: praising the Lord, feeling his presence, and spreading his message.

Always well-mannered ”” “the politest interview in NFL history,” Sports Illustrated’s Peter King called him ”” he expressed nothing but confidence in his teammates and his coaches, nothing but a manifest belief in the hoariest of cliches about hard work and sportsmanship and inspiration, nothing but alleluias for the Lord who had so blessed him.

Then came a darker time for him….

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Few players have provided more important plays for the Steelers the past few years than Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown, and they were at it again Sunday.

Roethlisberger, their Pro Bowl quarterback, had thrown two touchdown passes, one of them to Brown, who fought through a defender to reach the end zone. He had more than 300 yards passing and he led his team from behind into a fourth-quarter lead against the Dallas Cowboys. Brown, their MVP a year ago and Pro Bowl returner, returned one punt 29 yards and led the Steelers with eight receptions.

But both players made critical errors in the fourth quarter and overtime, each blaming themselves for a 27-24 loss, their fourth in the past five games that dropped them to 7-7, yet somehow still quite alive for a playoff spot.

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It was Pep Guardiola, the former manager of Barcelona, who once suggested that Lionel Messi should be observed instead of dissected. He is, after all, widely considered the world’s greatest soccer player, not a biology project.

“Don’t try to write about him,” Guardiola said. “Don’t try to describe him. Watch him.”

On Sunday, Messi set an international record by scoring his 86th goal in a calendar year, for both Barcelona and the Argentine national team, delivering an average of one goal every four days, more frequently than a starting pitcher takes the mound, as often as Starbucks opens a new store in China.

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Watch it all. Simply stunning.

Read it all. I watched it on tape delay–electrifying until the end when a few fans ruined the atmosphere.

Congratulations to Navy and especially Keenan Reynolds who won the game with his arm. My heart goes out to Army Quarterback Trent Steelman, it was hard to watch him after the game–KSH.

Defending BCS national champion Alabama got all it could handle from No. 3 Georgia in a 32-28 victory in front of a sold-out crowd of 75,624 fans, who watched the Bulldogs’ last-ditch comeback hopes come up just short at the Crimson Tide’s 5-yard line as time expired.

Alabama rallied from an 11-point deficit in the second half and then watched UGA nearly steal the game — and a trip to Miami to play for the national championship — at the end.

“I told them congratulations and now go handle your business,” Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones said. “It was a war. It was a battle all night. You can look at the scoreboard and see.”

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From here:

“The entire Chiefs family is deeply saddened by today’s events, and our collective hearts are heavy with sympathy, thoughts and prayers for the families and friends affected by this unthinkable tragedy. We sincerely appreciate the expressions of sympathy and support we have received from so many in the Kansas City and NFL communities, and ask for continued prayers for the loved ones of those impacted.”

You may also read more there.

Wow, the defense really needs work. They were fortunate to beat Reading 4-3.

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After his East Mississippi Community College football team went undefeated and won the 2011 junior college championship, star lineman Derrick “DJ” Wilson was offered full athletic scholarships to four-year colleges in Alabama and Louisiana.

But as the football season came to an end, the 2010 Horn Lake High graduate had more important concerns. His mother, Jelks Wilson, was dying of cancer. Wilson was driving home from school every weekend ”” an eight-hour round-trip ”” to care for her and his two younger sisters.

Wilson would wake to the sounds of his mother’s soft mumbling. Straining to hear, he realized she was praying.

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