OSU on Top

OLD ATHLETES never die and they certainly don't fade away, but instead do the opposite, becoming more magnificently tanned by the hour. These days, former NBA guard Dan Majerle—who aptly played...

The city loved him for embodying its blue-collar ideals—and winning a lot of basketball games—but now it's time for Allen Iverson to move on

WHO'S Hot Payton Saints coach Sean marched into Dallas and outfoxed his former mentor, Cowboys boss Bill Parcells, 42--17. Among the tricks on Payton's play card: a reverse on...

Retained By Jermain Taylor (26-0-1), his undisputed middleweight title with a decision over Kassim Ouma (25-3-1). Fighting in his home state of Arkansas for the first time since becoming champ...

Off drugs for a year, a former top draft pick gets a second chance with Cincinnati

2 NBA coaches with 1,200 career wins: Lenny Wilkens (1,332) and Don Nelson, who joined the club when the Warriors beat the Hornets last Saturday.

One of the NHL's most wily players—and top scorers—retires after 20 seasons

Why young coaches are turning down high-profile jobs

The 45-year-old actor (The Bad News Bears, Breaking Away) costars in Little Children

IT'S A VERY unscientific polling method, but it appears that Terrell Owens is much more popular than he was a year ago. The Cowboys receiver celebrated his 33rd birthday on Dec. 4 at the Shag...

A military takeover of the government of Fiji was delayed until after a rugby match between the army and national police.

China's He Ning is more than just a talented gymnast—she's the kind of athlete who can carry a team on her back. At the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, He, 16, stayed limber by letting teammate Zhou...

GIL SCOTT, Agent, on why his client Mike Vanderjagt (below), who was recently cut by the Cowboys, is having trouble finding another job: "Right now, there's just not a whole lot of kickers messing...

What to watch and watch for

Patrick Deuel

Krystina Orwat WHEATON, ILL. > Volleyball Orwat, a sophomore outside hitter at Kishwaukee College, led the Kougars to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II championship...

Its streak is broken, but a wrestling power stays on top

Another streak ends: On Dec. 5 the girls at Las Animas (Colo.) High handed McClave (Colo.) High its first loss since 2003. The Trojans' 51--43 win ended the Cardinals' state-record string of 78...

The 50th Pop Warner Super Bowl in Orlando showed how far the game has come, and where it's going

Looking back at a surprising year that kept the high in high school sports

2006 Once there was sports and there was entertainment, and, aside from The White Shadow or the occasional chat between Muhammad Ali and Johnny Carson, the twain rarely met. Things are...

Looking for the perfect gift for a sports fan? Jimmy Traina gives you a complete guide in his blog at SI.com/scorecard.

Standing out in a year of silly, slight and sentimental films, We Are Marshall tells the moving story of a team and a town struggling to get past a tragedy

HIGH Think solving crossword puzzles isn't a sport? Talk to the competitors at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, featured in the charming documentary Wordplay. Think only geeks do...

The top-grossing sports movies in the U.S. in 2006

He's thicker and slower in Rocky Balboa, but Stallone's punchy hero recaptures his youthful appeal in Round 6

IT'S HARD enough following a sequel when you haven't seen the original; picking up a series on a sixquel like Rocky Balboa can be downright impossible. Luckily for those too young or old to...

It was a year for fresh insights on old heroes--and a watershed steroids exposé that damned many stars

HIGH How would Kant, who tried to define beauty, feel about a perfectly turned double play? He'd love it, says Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht. The Stanford comparative literature professor's In Praise of...

FINALLY, a book you can judge by its cover. The title of XL: Forty Years of the Super Bowl couldn't be more fitting. At 850 pages and 88 pounds, the latest coffee-table--make that...

BASEBALL, more than any other sport, is intertwined with its past, and the game's story is presented in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's The Baseball Book. It features more than 400 photos and celebrated...

Changes on Sunday and Monday nights rocked the NFL's prime-time landscape

HIGH HBO's Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer is required viewing for anyone who remembers her mainly as Bobby Riggs's foil. With insights from Chris Evert and other contemporaries and some...

High school football becomes a hot topic on TV

VETERAN OUTFIELDER Eric Byrnes has a simple broadcasting philosophy: "To bring locker room talk minus the obscene language onto television," he told the New York Post while moonlighting as an ESPN...

AFTER ESPN named Dave O'Brien--who had virtually no soccer experience--as the lead announcer for its World Cup coverage, network VP Jed Drake explained, "We felt the need to create a...

MLB's site is changing the way fans watch their teams

AMUSING PARODY UnflinchingTriumph.com offers a hard look at a man who specializes in hard looks. The site hosts director J.R. McCord's Unflinching Triumph, a hilarious mock documentary about a...

A revolutionary system gets gamers out of their seats

OVERCROWDED MARKET Four pro hoops games hit shelves in the past four months--two too many. 2K Sports's NBA 2K7 is the MVP, and EA Sports's NBA Live '07 isn't bad. But even the most obsessed gamer...

In his native Houston, in front of friends and family, Titans rookie Vince Young got payback on the team that didn't want him--and showed the NFL the shape of things to come

The smashing debut of 7-foot Ohio State freshman Greg Oden has reshaped the college hoops landscape and made the Buckeyes the team to beat

Flush with cash, teams are lavishing eight-figure salaries on some of the most unlikely free agents (Gil Meche?). Good news for the '07 crop: Binge spending won't be a one-year phenomenon

LaDynamo

Handsome, hardworking, underappreciated New York Giants running back Tiki Barber is about to hang up his cleats. But guess what? You'll be seeing even more of him once he's out of the game

For a photo gallery of some of Tiki Barber's greatest moments, free of charge, go to SI.com/nfl.

College Basketball With speedy Darren Collison running the show, UCLA is a title contender again • Purdue's surprising surge • Wichita State is a Final Four threat

Collison Course With speedy Darren Collison at the reins, UCLA has picked up its tempo and set off on another possible Final Four run

1 Purdue is vastly improved. After winning 16 games over the last two years, the Boilermakers were 8--1 through Sunday. Carl Landry (right), a senior forward, was the Big Ten's leading rebounder...

Pinball Wizard Jaguars rookie Maurice Jones-Drew, all 5'7" of him, ricocheted through the Colts and boosted Jacksonville's playoff hopes

AS AN INTERVIEW ended last Friday, Seahawks linebacker Julian Peterson was asked for a closing thought. "A prediction of us winning the Super Bowl—how about that?" said Peterson. Well, how about...

HOT READ

THEY MET in happier times. It was the second week of the season, and the Giants and the Eagles waged a spirited battle, New York scoring 23 unanswered points to win in overtime. Seems like a...

Ready to Assist The Thrashers' unstoppable two-way threat, Marian Hossa, lifts the fortunes of teammates as well as those in need

The Flyers don't know what's wrong with winger Kyle Calder (right), who did not score in his first 26 games for Philadelphia after netting a career-high 26 goals last season for Chicago. He could...

I KNOW WHAT you're thinking because I used to think it too.

Watch exclusively on Verizon Wireless V CAST and SI.com.

The Italian Job Top draft pick Andrea Bargnani is delivering unexpected value

So your plan to build a playoff powerhouse didn't pan out, and you're thinking there's no sense in dwelling on the past. But as you look to next year, history is your best teacher

WE LIKE THE MATCHUP

DON'T LIKE THE MATCHUP

Is it her hair? Her eyes? Her smile? Is there something in her posture that wakens a memory? Is it the girlish wave? Her purposeful stride? Is it the way she swings the club? The way she comes up...

A gift-giver's guide to a trio of whopping volumes designed to break backs, bust budgets and bring a little golfing cheer to the holiday season

How the Tour would look without Woods

Grab one of only two houses on Vegas's showcase, Shadow Creek

WHO: Marcel Siem

SI recently drafted a press release trumpeting the PGA Tour's plans to penalize players who are caught using performance-enhancing drugs

Budding architect Tiger Woods goes into the course-design business

A 47-Year-Old Tour Virgin, Jim Rutledge Is The Oldest Rookie But with a well-traveled game, a loving, healthy family and a newfound confidence, Rutledge could be the first-year player who does the...

THERE'S A FRESH TAKE ON GOLF EVERY DAY AT SI.COM/GOLF.