November 11, 2002 | Volume 97, Issue 19

AUGUST 30, 1982

As an American father I'm required by law to nap on the couch on Sundays. I was complying when something woke me up that I couldn't believe.

Hurricane WarningHow could Oklahoma make the cover for its 35-24 yawner against overrated Texas (Football Fever, Oct. 21)? Miami's 28-27 win over Florida State, decided by FSU's Xavier Beitia—who...

LETTERS

This election week, in the interest of equal time, we give voice to another kind of professional athlete, one who's never made a headline, an excuse or a Bentley payment. What he has made,...

Want to get your kid more playing time? Hate the varsity's game plan? Just call your lawyer

Woods's handlers want his image pulled from a clean-water campaign

They're not the most expensive commercials the league has produced—they just look that way, thanks to appearances by $20 million-a-movie man Adam Sandler, the Rolling Stones and, if things go as...

1U.S. woman (Deena Drossin last year) ever to run a New York Marathon faster than Maria Runyan's 2:27:10; the legally blind runner finished fifth behind Kenya's Joyce Chepchumba on Sunday.

ThreatenedBy former U.S. Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding, 31, a lawsuit against Made In Oregon, distributors of Tonya Hot Sauce. The label features an unflattering caricature of Harding...

Announced

I missed the Country Music Awards. Help me out here. Did David Eckstein win for Best Banjo Hitter?

Though she's eight months pregnant, the 29-year-old actress and wife of tennis star Pete Sampras is still quick on her feet. Her latest film, Extreme Ops, opens on Nov. 27.

The man at the center of ABC's The Bachelor knows his sports. Aaron Buerge was an all-state swimmer in high school, is an avid Chiefs fan and plans to open a sports bar with two 105-inch...

Halloween came a night early for Mavericks coach Don Nelson and his son, assistant coach Donn. Hit with a two-game suspension for illegally attending two amateur workouts this summer in...

The Houston Aeros of the American Hockey League will give fans a free ticket if a fight does not break out in their Nov. 14 game against the Milwaukee Admirals.

STEVE FRANCIS

Find every SI cover subject—from Eddie Mathews to Joey Harrington—online in our new, searchable covers database at cnnsi.com/si_online/covers.

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NOVEMBER 8-14

Best of the Brunch, Solid Operation, Deion the Dummy

Amy Dodson, ADRIAN, MICH.MarathonDodson, 40, completed the St. George (Utah) Marathon in 3:53:24, lowering the world record for female below-the-knee amputees by more than 24 minutes. Dodson, a...

With Tom Brady of the Patriots showing the way, a new generation of explosive young quarterbacks is fighting up the NFL

BC-ing You!Boston College players take flight as they celebrate their 14-7 win over Notre Dame on Saturday (page 56).

Rookie Joey Harrington has all the tools—the talent, the toughness and the moxie—to bring real hope to the fans of the long-lost Lions

In the 45-year history of the NFL Most Valuable Player award, only one man, Packers quarterback Brett Favre (left), has won it more than twice. Favre was MVP in 1995 and '96 and shared the honor...

Want to be a quarterback? Here's what Harrington goes through on one play

Realignment's worst nightmare: An 8-8 division winner could go to the playoffs while a 10-6 wild card stays home

AFC

Working overtime is just one of the factors going against the Raiders in Denver

One horseplayer defied astronomical odds to hit the Pick Six jackpot on Breeders' Cup day. Was he unbelievably lucky—or did he pull off a scam?

How investigators think two men turned the Breeders' Cup Pick Six into easy pickin's

The winning horses in the Breeders' Cup Pick Six included a pair of long shots in the first and last races that made the likelihood of a correct bet extremely remote

Seemingly without hope a week ago, one-loss teams are back in the race

Gordie Howe, one of his sport's fiercest warriors, can only watch and grieve as his wife—the smarts behind Mr. Hockey—slowly succumbs to a rare brain disorder

The NBA returned to the Big Easy after a 23-year absence, but how long is the buzz about the Hornets likely to last?

For nasty rivalries, earsplitting noise and bone-rattling collisions, nothing beats the mud-caked, low-staked, high-speed, steel-and-horsepower free-for-alls of demolition derby

College FootballAfter taking a backseat to quarterbacks last season, running backs are once again playing starring roles

In a year of spread offenses, the running back has reemerged as the most important position on the field

N.C. State tailback T.A. McLendonversusMaryland linebacker E.J. Henderson

Neutral-Zone RapThe slick-skating Wild is winning games and fans by defying the notion that a trapping team has to be dull

C Guy Carbonneau 1980-81 through '99-00 A scoring sensation as a junior, he transformed his game to become the best defensive forward of his era. His signature moment came in the '93 Stanley Cup...

PenguinsBehind playmaking center Mario Lemieux (20 assists) and blossoming right wing Aleksey Morozov (seven goals), surprising Pittsburgh, which last season missed the playoffs and had only 69...

The Stars are frustrated by center Pierre Turgeon's uninspired performance. Turgeon, who in his first season with Dallas last year had only 15 goals in 66 games, has been switched to a line with...

Vijay Singh won the Tour Championship, but all the fresh faces were the talk of the tournament

Some of the 18 first-time winners on Tour this year dominated the events they won, while the victories of others seemed as fluky as Jack Fleck's first W—a shocking upset of Ben Hogan at the 1955...

A canceled final round at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic complicated the money-list race

Charles Howell's sophomore slump—prematurely forecast by some—is history. His win against a weak field at the Michelob was an important milestone, but scaring the big boys at the Tour Championship...

The belly putter helped Vijay Singh, who holed this 82-footer at East Lake, turn the flat stick from a weakness into something he can stomach

Vijay Singh saved par 16 of the 21 times he missed a green at the Tour Championship, including 10 of 11 tries from the sand....

The Belly Putter produces a fundamentally sound stroke, but one that is slightly different than the action used with a conventional putter. The ball should be positioned directly under the point...

You don't hear boos on a golf course very often, but they rained down on Chris DiMarco last Saturday during the Tour Championship. DiMarco, an over-the-top Florida fan, was wearing an...

The celebrated author of Golf in the Kingdom waxes philosophic on the 30th anniversary of his mystical—and occasionally mystifying—novel about the game

VOTE AT GOLFONLINE.COM

The 2002 PGA tour will be remembered not for Tiger Woods's five wins, including his semi-Slam. The year will be remembered for those whose names we can't remember, from Jonathan Byrd (winner of...

Chris Smith claims to be a man of many interests, but he mainly just wants to have fun