Check them out.

It is an amazing city–I lived there in graduate school from 1982-1984–KSH.

Among the many findings:

¶Coach Kevin Broadus successfully lobbied for a player’s grade to be changed.

¶Independent study classes were created exclusively for basketball players.

¶An assistant coach and a player openly discussed cash payments and academic cheating.

¶Coaches tried to keep arrests of players quiet, and gave players advice on what to tell the police while being questioned.

Binghamton is not alone in encountering problems with men’s basketball, as the report noted; if anything, its troubles reflect the struggles that many universities face in balancing academics and athletics.

Read the whole thing (my emphasis)

The Winter Olympics tends to be heavy on glitz and fanfare, but this year much of the pageantry is taking place unusually close to one of the bleakest neighborhoods in North America.

Vancouver’s “Skid Road” is just a few blocks from the site of Friday’s opening ceremony, and the host city has found that proximity awkward, to say the least.

East Hastings Street is the main drag of a neighborhood often referred to as “Canada’s poorest postal code.” But it’s not just poverty that sets this area apart.

“It’s where a lot of people get their drugs; it’s a lot of dealing around here,” says Tillman Doiron, who lives nearby.

Read or listen to it all.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees was 32-of-39 for 288 yards and two touchdowns.

But it was the big 75-yard interception return for a touchdown by cornerback Tracy Porter that sealed the deal.

“I studied and knew their tendencies,” Porter said. “I just jumped around and the ball went right into my hands.”

Porter’s teammate Darren Sharper, who was on the Green Bay Packers as a rookie when they lost to Denver, said this was a game that nobody had faith in the team except for the team.

“Man this is unbelievable,” Sharper said. “I don’t know of anyone who gave us a chance, but when you get here, anyone can win.”

How great for the city and the team. Read it all.

After practice one late-summer day in 1986, Alan Veingrad strode into the Green Bay Packers’ locker room, feeling both spent and satisfied.

An undrafted player from an obscure college, he had made the team and then some. On the next Sunday, opening day of the N.F.L. season, he would be starting at offensive tackle.

In his locker, Mr. Veingrad found the usual stuff, his street clothes and sweat suit and playbook. On a small bench, though, lay a note from the Packers’ receptionist. It carried a name that Mr. Veingrad did not recognize, Lou Weinstein, and a local phone number.

Alone in a new town, too naïve to be wary, Mr. Veingrad called. This Lou Weinstein, it turned out, ran a shoe store in Green Bay, Wis. He had just read an article in the paper about a Jewish player on the Packers, and he wanted to meet and welcome that rarity.

Read the whole article.

Tim Tebow may steal the Super Bowl spotlight by appearing in an antiabortion TV commercial with his mother, Pam, on Sunday night, but his faith is kept on the sidelines. Most reporters writing about the ad neglected to say that his mother’s faith was the reason she did not abort him when doctors warned he could be born severely disabled in 1987. Perhaps the sportswriters assumed that most people know about the family’s Christian beliefs. The former quarterback for the Florida Gators paints Bible verses under his eyes and is vocal about saving himself for marriage. Or perhaps writers, for a variety of reasons, are just uncomfortable exploring religion’s impact on an athlete.

Peter King, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, admits his own skepticism when players bring up their faith after a game. “I’ve seen enough examples of players who claim to be very religious and then they get divorced three times or get in trouble with the law,” Mr. King said earlier this week. “I’m not sure that the public is crying out for us to discover the religious beliefs of the athletes we’re writing about.”

Faith is the belief in things unseen. Sportswriters are trained to write about the observable. “One of the problems that we have is determining the veracity of a person’s claim that he has just won this game for his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Mr. King said.

Read it all.

For 43 years, Super Bowl viewers have watched all kinds of commercials from companies that are famous (Coca-Cola) or otherwise (Cash4Gold.com), peddling everything from automobiles to Xerox copiers. But never has there been a Super Bowl spot that took sides on a contentious social issue — until now.

CBS, which will broadcast Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday, has sold 30 seconds of commercial time in the game to Focus on the Family, an evangelical organization known for conservative views on subjects like abortion and gay marriage. The commercial is to feature Tim Tebow, the college football star, and his mother, Pam, discussing their anti-abortion positions.

A news release distributed by Focus on the Family last month said the spot would feature the Tebows sharing a personal story centered on “Celebrate family, celebrate life.” In the past, Mrs. Tebow has spoken of a decision she made to give birth to Tim rather than have an abortion.

But whether she recounts that story — and how much the commercial deals with the arguments between supporters of abortion rights and anti-abortion advocates — are not known at this time. Focus on the Family has not provided further information about the spot and CBS has declined to discuss it because the network’s policy is to let an advertiser decide whether to reveal the contents of a commercial before broadcast.

Read it all.

Millions of viewers understandably appreciate the Tebow family for standing on faith when faced with a difficult decision, and we can all celebrate the brilliant outcome. But use of the Tebow story in this context raises difficult questions as well: Does it mean that women should always ignore medical advice pointing to the necessity of an abortion? Even if the woman’s life is at stake? How is this message to be received by the many decent women who agonized and made the other choice?

Regarding CBS, is money alone the reason for its accepting an advocacy ad after years and years of refusing such content for Super Bowl telecasts, or is deeper political intrigue in play? What does this Sunday’s pro-life ad portend for future Super Bowls?

As for Tebow, the Super Bowl controversy is playing out at exactly the same time as the mounting criticism of his passing skills and his suitability for the pro game. Given the NFL’s well-known aversion to controversy, is he putting his draft prospects in even greater jeopardy by aligning with Focus on the Family and its anti-abortion stance?

One thing we do know: Tebow has proved like few others the ability to withstand the heat and stay in the kitchen. That ability is being tested like never before. With this pro-life Super Bowl ad, he’s sizzling in the frying pan of sports-celebrity scrutiny and the white-hot fire of culture-war politics.

Read it all.

Every few weeks I see a new study showing a link between exercise and improved cognitive performance.

The most recent from an article in the New York Times showing how strength training improves the cognitive performance of older women.

A quick sampling of the studies like this, this and this are adding to the growing body of evidence that exercise has benefits beyond the heart and waist line.

Read it all.

The omega to the college hockey season came Saturday night when Travis Roy entered Metcalf Hall, on the second floor of George Sherman Union on Commonwealth Avenue, and sat beneath the huge flags of the schools of Boston University to exchange banter with his teammates. It was a week short of six months since the Terriers had raised the 1995 NCAA championship banner at Walter Brown Arena.

The banner marks the spot of tragedy now. It was a week short of six months since four players – Roy, Dan Ronan, Michel Laroque and Scott King – had walked out of their brownstone dormitory that overlooks Fenway Park and gone to the rink to play their first college hockey game. Three walked back, empty after an 8-5 victory.

It was a week short of six months since Roy had accomplished the goal he stated to Lee and Brenda Roy when he was a tow-headed 14-year-old in Maine: to be a Division I hockey player. His career lasted 11 seconds.

Read it all.

Watch the whole video.

CBS is set to air an anti-abortion ad featuring Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother Pam. The two will discuss Mrs. Tebow’s decision against an abortion after she became ill while pregnant with Tim.

The network has received complaints, most notably from women’s advocacy groups, and the prominent National Organization of Women. Tuesday the network responded.

“We have for some time moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became apparent that our stance did not reflect public sentiment or industry norms,” CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said in a statement. ”In fact, most media outlets have accepted advocacy ads for some time.”

Read it all.

Wow.

Congratulations to them.

Minutes after the Jets cemented the most surprising upset of this N.F.L. season, before travel plans for the American Football Conference championship had been booked, linebacker Bart Scott stood defiant at his locker, mouth running, faster than ever.

Scott loudly listed the slights, the dozens of so-called experts who picked against the Jets, who said they backed into these playoffs, even the Chargers, who Scott said spent the first half reminding the Jets they did not belong.

On the Jets’ joy ride to the game before the Super Bowl, their loquacious linebacker and the rest of his teammates have clung to their underdog status. Even after they topped the Chargers, 17-14, in front of the 69,498 they silenced at Qualcomm Stadium, the Jets sounded the same theme.

“Everybody can say we don’t deserve to be here,” Scott said. “That we snuck in. That we’re a fluke.” Then Scott added, “We haven’t even cracked the seal on how good we can be.”

Read it all.

Update: Agony in San Diego–“Bolts’ bitter end: Miscues derail hopes of Chargers ”” and fans.” Read it all also.

Football fans everywhere are preparing to settle in for the NFL’s biggest and most electric weekend of the season””a four-game playoff marathon that will swallow up at least 12 hours of broadcast time over two days.

But here’s something even dedicated students of the game may not fully appreciate: There’s very little actual football in a football game.

I had no idea it was this little until I read this article last week–check it out.

This is why Brett Favre said he was coming back. And back he is — maybe better than ever.

Four — count ’em, four — touchdown passes from Minnesota’s 40-year-old quarterback put the Vikings within a game of the Super Bowl with a 34-3 rout of the Dallas Cowboys to advance to the NFC championship Sunday.

Congratulations to the Vikings–their defense was magnificent. Read it all.

Both won convincingly in yesterday’s NFL playoff games.

Mark McGwire, whose inflated statistics and refusal to address his past came to symbolize a synthetic era in baseball history, acknowledged on Monday that he used steroids through the 1990s.

McGwire has been out of baseball since retiring after the 2001 season, making few public appearances besides his infamous performance before Congress in 2005, when he dodged questions about steroid use. He starts next month as the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, and said he needed to make the admission to move forward.

“It’s something I’m certainly not proud of,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. “I’m certainly sorry for having done it. Someday, somehow, somewhere I knew I’d probably have to talk about this. I guess the steppingstone was being offered the hitting-coach job with the Cardinals. At that time, I said, ”˜I need to come clean about this.’ ”

Read it all.

As I have followed this battle of Brit vs. the Buddha, I have found myself returning to the story of the Buddha himself, who in his youth led an existence eerily reminiscent of the life of Tiger Woods. He was rich and powerful and lived a private life in a grand palace with a beautiful wife and a beloved son. And for a time, he thought he was happy. But after a while, he realized that no amount of money or power or sex could bring him true happiness. So he left his wife and his child and his palace to seek the source of human suffering. This might seem selfish, but his goal was to find a path that could alleviate the suffering of all of humanity. And one day, according to Buddhists, he did just that. While sitting under a Bodhi tree, he saw that suffering is rooted in a combination of ego and ignorance, and he learned how to uproot both through meditation.

Tiger Woods might well have something to learn from Christianity, and soon enough we might well see him engage in what historian Susan Wise Bauer has called “the art of the public grovel,” complete with Jimmy Swaggart’s tears, Bill Clinton’s confession and Ted Haggard’s repentance. But Brit Hume clearly has something to learn from Buddhism, too, not least that there is more than one way to make yourself new.

Read it all.

Whether Monday’s 82-79 overtime victory over No. 9 ranked North Carolina is the biggest win in College of Charleston history is debatable. But there’s no question it was the biggest win for the Cougars at Carolina First Arena.

The Cougars’ last win over a nationally ranked team was in 1998 over then-No. 3 North Carolina in Charlotte. And it gave Cougars faithful something to really be proud of, a 3-3 record against one of the country’s top basketball programs.

‘When I look back on my career, I will remember this moment forever,’ said Cougars coach Bobby Cremins.

Read it all.

What a terrific game, it came down to a two point conversion try with 4 seconds left in the game.

Mark Ingram dabbed his eyes, took a deep breath and tried to steady himself. All set, he accepted the Heisman that completes Alabama’s trophy case.

The tough-running tailback turned tearful after winning the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night in the closest vote in the award’s 75-year history. Next, he’ll try to lead the most storied program in the South to a national championship.

Ingram finished 28 points ahead of Stanford running back Toby Gerhart.

The sturdy, 212-pound Ingram took a moment to get composed before starting his speech. Dressed in a dark suit with blue pinstripes, his voice wavered throughout.

“I’m a little overwhelmed right now,” he said. “I’m just so excited to bring Alabama their first Heisman winner.”

Read it all.

The South Bend Tribune first reported the hiring.

The 47-year-old Kelly is 34-6 in three seasons at Cincinnati, leading the Bearcats to back-to-back Big East titles and two straight Bowl Championship Series berths. The Bearcats set a school record last season for victories with an 11-3 record, then topped that with a 12-0 mark this season.

Notre Dame has been searching for a coach for about a week and a half since firing Charlie Weis.

Kelly has long admired Notre Dame, which seemed to be the perfect fit for an Irish Catholic coach raised in the Boston area. His name first popped up as a possible candidate last season before Notre Dame said Weis would be back for a fifth year.

Read it all.

By the time the phone rang at 5:30 one morning two years ago, Will Johnson was already intimately acquainted with tradition in college sports. He had stood proud at Harvard Stadium and battled the enemy in the Yale Bowl. He had played in the Game.

But the voice Johnson heard through his sleepy haze was telling him that he still had plenty to learn about tradition.

Johnson was being offered the chance to play in an older rivalry, one between universities that make Harvard and Yale look like expansion teams: Oxford and Cambridge. He could not turn it down, even if it meant moving to a country he hardly knew and playing a sport he had only just met.

On Thursday, Johnson will pull on his navy blue Oxford rugby jersey to face Cambridge in the Varsity Match, which stands alongside the Boat Race in the two universities’ annual tussle for bragging rights. He called it a one-game season.

Read the whole article.

Check it out–fascinating to ponder.

I caught this one yesterday on the morning run and am still thinking about it. What an incredible illustration of the damage unresolved volcanic anger can cause. Take the time to listen to it all (about 5 1/2 minutes).

Notre Dame fired head football coach Charlie Weis on Monday after a string of disappointing seasons that was capped by an agonizing four-game losing streak.

Athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced the decision, saying in a news release: “We have great expectations for our football program, and we have not been able to meet those expectations.”

Swarbrick said he recommended to university president the Rev. John Jenkins on Sunday night that Weis be let go with six years left on his contract. Weis leaves his alma mater with a 35-27 record in five seasons, among the worst of any Fighting Irish coach.

Assistant head coach Rob Ianello will step in for Weis until a new coach is hired.

Read it all.

The rise of College Sports Inc. didn’t happen by accident. Administrators at many universities have allowed athletic departments to operate independently, like stand-alone entertainment divisions. They have separate budgets, negotiate their own TV deals and, in some cases, employ hundreds of coaches and staff. And as long as they continue to collect ever-larger sums from ticket sales, boosters and television, who is going to tell them to spend less?

Another key element fueling the arms race is the increasingly indefensible tax treatment of sports revenues. Decades ago ”” before the lucrative television contracts, Internet marketing, Nike sponsorships and luxury boxes ”” Congress essentially exempted colleges from paying taxes on their sports income. The legislators’ reasoning now appears shockingly quaint: that participation in college sports builds character and is an important component of the larger college experience.

Many booster clubs are recognized as charities under the federal tax code. At Florida and Georgia, to name just two universities, the athletic departments are set up as charities.

Read it all.