November 06, 2006 | Volume 105, Issue 18

Tough Love

IN THE NFL," says a league veteran, "every team has a get-back coach, a guy whose job is to hold up his arms and yell, 'Get back!' when [bench players] get too close to the field."

Browns games rarely give them much to cheer about, but the NFL's most faithful fans just can't stay away

Thanks to labor peace and record revenues, major league teams are swimming in cash and eager to spend

Won By Roger Federer (above), the Swiss Indoors in his hometown of Basel, Switzerland, his fourth straight title and 11th of the year. The world's No. 1 player defeated Chile's Fernando Gonzalez...

2 NFL teams that have started consecutive seasons 7--0: the 1929, '30 and '31 Packers, and the 2005 and '06 Colts.

TREVOR BERBICK was an accomplished fighter—he had a record of 50-11-1 and won the WBC heavyweight title in 1986—but he's best known as the degree of separation between two boxing immortals....

THE YEAR'S biggest horse racing story has had little to do with actual horse racing: Handicappers and nonrailbirds alike have been transfixed by Barbaro's recovery from the gruesome leg injury he...

TO MANY the enduring image of Joe Niekro is the 42-year-old's getting busted with an emery board in his back pocket during a 1987 game. Niekro, who died last Friday of a brain aneurysm at age 61,...

SHE BECAME a hero in America when she won a figure skating silver medal at the Olympic Games in Torino. He became persona non grata in Kazakhstan when he created Borat, a fictional journalist...

The 59-year-old, who retired from Georgia Tech in 2000 after 19 seasons, is the new coach at the College of Charleston

WHAT WAS it that Muhammad Ali once boasted? That he could float like a butterfly and sing like a bee? Not exactly, but in a new book former Esquire art director George Lois argues that the...

TIKI BARBER Giants running back, upon hearing that Terrell Owens is writing a children's book called Little T Learns to Share: "He may be drawing on someone else's experiences."

A Bulgarian soccer team ordered a volatile 19-year-old player to get married, believing that would force him to settle down.

What to watch and watch for

Whitney Taney FACES IN THE CROWD JAN. 24, 2005 SHORTLY AFTER she took up tennis at age nine, it became apparent that Whitney Taney was going to be quite good at it. But instead of doing what...

Lizzie Barnes NEW ORLEANS > Soccer

SUNS GUARD

WHO'S Hot

Which head coach has the best defensive mind?

Rams Running Back

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy or pdf.]

The Giants' Luke Petitgout has farmland roots

In seven hell-bent minutes a day Edgerrin James steels his abs for a season's pounding

When private high schools court top athletes, public schools usually lose

HAMILTON (Chandler, Ariz.) AT CHANDLER

A New England soccer phenom contemplates a move home and a pro career

COACHES SENT HOME

For more high school news and rankings from RISE and Dave Krider's Primetime Performer of the Week, go to SI.com/highschool.

During the regular season, the Cardinals won plenty of acclaim for losing; then came October, when a cast of unlikely heroes helped dominate defenseless Detroit and silence, for good, the doubts...

With the fistfuls of cash that are likely to be thrown at free agents this winter, here are some potential money pits--and bargains

RED AUERBACH, who suffered a fatal heart attack last Saturday at the age of 89, was not only as successful a coach and general manager as there ever has been in professional sports but was also,...

USC's loss to Oregon State blew the national championship door wide open. Here is SI's playoff map, drawn from the contenders' key remaining games

Choosing wisely from his wide range of weapons, Peyton Manning picked apart the vaunted Denver defense as the 7--0 Indianapolis Colts took command once more in the AFC

NFL GIANTS DEFENSIVE END

1 Schools (Texas Southern) that offered him a scholarship.

An SI writer was invited to join NBA commissioner David Stern's five-country, eight-game, seven-day tour of Europe last month, during which Stern schmoozed, cajoled, teased, challenged, lectured...

Stiffed Upper Lip Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson blasted through a tackle by Rams safety Oshiomogho Atogwe en route to a 38-yard touchdown, the first of his three scores in San Diego's...

College Football How off-season parties helped turn Texas A&M around • Temple finally gets off the schneid • Is it time for Florida State's Bowden to go?

Arm in Arm

HOT TOPIC

Cool Hand

Philadelphia's reliance on the big play is backfiring big time. Despite gusty conditions on Sunday against Jacksonville, the Eagles called 43 passes and just 15 runs in a 13--6 loss; Donovan...

HOT READ

THERE IS an unfounded belief that when the Patriots meet the Colts, Bill Belichick gets into Peyton Manning's head and confounds him with trickery so diabolical that Manning leaves his game in the...

Swift Success

Thrashers coach Bob Hartley blundered last Thursday in a 3--2 shootout loss to the Flyers when he replaced Johan Hedberg with his top goalie, Kari Lehtonen, after OT. The outcome aside, Hartley...

PLEASE ALLOW me to introduce myself.

ADAM DUERSON MATCHUP OF THE WEEK These third-year backs broke out last season by carrying their respective teams to the AFC Championship Game. But will either have much room to run when they go...

Busts happen, even to good fantasy owners. Sometimes the offensive line can't block or a key teammate gets hurt. Sometimes a star player just tanks. Whatever the reason, busts can kill a fantasy...

WE LIKE THE MATCHUP

DON'T LIKE THE MATCHUP

Ted Nolan went from coach of the year to a nine-year exile; now he's returned to lead the Islanders

Modern-day Cinderella Man Carlos Baldomir is going to find out soon if his glass slipper still fits

The welterweight division is the most competitive in boxing; these formidable fighters loom as challengers to the winner of the Mayweather-Baldomir bout.

Number 1 starters are in short supply, so one club will pay a hefty tab for Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka

WILL DAISUKE MATSUZAKA BE WORTH THE PRICE? The short answer is a resounding yes. According to Baseball Prospectus's Davenport Translations (DTs), a method that has accurately predicted the...

Three new releases prove that the sports world is best viewed through the lens of a camera