Members of the Rolle clan, descended from freed slaves in the Bahamas, have left their mark on football, baseball, basketball, track and other college and pro sports in the U.S.

The NFL With Marvin Harrison out, Reggie Wayne has emerged as the Colts' go-to guy • Peter King's early look at the draft's top quarterback prospects • Dr. Z's Forecast: Patriots over Steelers

Wayne's World In Marvin Harrison's absence, longtime No. 2 receiver Reggie Wayne has kept the Colts' passing game clicking

After a career-high four straight games without a sack, Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman had four in his last two games, including three in Sunday's 24--10 victory at Kansas City. Merriman is a...

In next April's draft three experienced passers seem certain to be among the top 10 picks for the first time since the fateful trio of Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb and Akili Smith went one-two-three...

Members of the unbeaten '72 Dolphins are casting their eyes to the heavens and pleading, "Won't anybody stop them?" When the talk about the Patriots' going undefeated this season got serious,...

Eye-catching When it comes to drawing serious interest from the top programs, one breakout season is sometimes all it takes

DE LA SALLE (Concord, Calif.) vs. CALIFORNIA (San Ramon), Dec. 8 The old guard meets the nouveau riche in the North Coast Section 4A final. Mike MacGillivray (left), who has thrown for 18 TDs,...

SLOWING A RUNAWAY TRAIN Karns City (Pa.) was the first team this season to hold Jeannette (Pa.) to fewer than 40 points—but it still lost by the mercy rule. Led by five-star QB recruit Terrelle...

1 NORTHWESTERN (Miami) 13--0 Faces Deerfield Beach, the last to beat Bulls in '05, in 6A semis

WHEN I knew him best, the only occasionally irascible George Plimpton, who had written for SPORTS ILLUSTRATED from its freewheeling birth, liked to warn fellow writers of the "tin-eared butchery"...

In his story on the perils of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (page 90), reporter David Epstein discusses how the congenital heart disease killed his close high school friend and training partner...

Power Play On a fast home court the U.S. pounded Russia into submission to win the Davis Cup for the first time in 12 years

The Next AI? In dealing Allen Iverson, the Sixers made Andre Iguodala their franchise player. He may not be up to the role

On the Warriors, who started 1--6 while 6'8" Stephen Jackson (right) served a suspension but then won seven of eight (with Jackson averaging 21.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists) upon his return:

On the Rise Playing in a glorified rec gym, a team of Big Easy natives is leading the latest rebuilding project in New Orleans

1 After winning eight of the 11 games in this year's ACC/Big Ten Challenge, the ACC has taken the series nine straight years. Perhaps it should pair up with the Colonial Athletic Association next...

I've covered Brett Favre throughout his pro career, and when people ask, "What's Favre really like?" I might tell a story about his dead-on imitation of Billy Bob Thornton's character in Sling...

Mayo Nays

He didn't have a great track record—but that was part of Evel Knievel's allure

WHO'S Hot

Who is the NFL's most overrated running back?

IT'S THAT time of year, folks—time to play College Coaching Carousel, in which candidates fib about everything from their interest in other jobs ("I'm not going to be the Alabama coach," Nick...

Announced By Andy Pettitte (below) that he will put off his retirement and pitch for the Yankees in 2008. The 35-year-old lefty, who was 15--9 with a 4.05 ERA last year, declined a $16 million...

12 Starting quarterbacks with which Tampa Bay's Jon Gruden has won games in his career, the most of any active NFL coach.

eBay banned a collector from selling a jock strap that Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell wore during the World Series because it is "adult-oriented" material.

ANDRE IGUODALA 76ers forward, on how much his 5--11 team has struggled this season:

NUGGETS CENTER

Remembering speedy Bill Willis, who helped integrate the NFL

IT STARTED with a simple question: "Doctor, why don't players wee-wee after a football game?" That query, posed by a Florida assistant football coach in 1965, inspired Dr. Robert Cade (above),...

The least welcoming town in the NFL

Helio Castroneves

Two bare Bruins are the highlight of a New York City art exhibit

EVEN BY the standards of celebrity culture Floyd Mayweather Jr. has had a remarkable year. Not only did the undefeated welter weight champion earn more than $25 million for his 12-round victory...

A TV series on small-town hoops love

THOSE WHO thought Bob Knight was mellowing at 67 should head over to The Dallas Morning News website (www.dallasnews.com). In October the Texas Tech basketball coach was twice accused of being...

IT'S HARD for either side to claim the moral high ground in the dispute between the NFL and the country's leading cable operators, a yearlong spat between billion-dollar behemoths that has kept 53...

HOME OF THE NIMRODS

What to watch and watch for

Louis Bland MODESTO, CALIF. > Football Louis, a senior running back at Central Catholic High, has scored a Sac-Joaquin Section--record 100 career touchdowns. This season he has rushed for 1,378...

The Packers' iron man is, at 38, enjoying one of his finest NFL seasons. His passing is more precise, his leadership more evident than ever, but his greatest attribute is the devotion he inspires...

Personal Picks Check out 40 SI writers' selections for Sportsman of the Year.

With all due respect to Ohio State and LSU, if ever a season screamed for the BCS to be blown up, it's this one. But that won't happen until the folks at the Rose Bowl come to their senses

Talk Back Sound off on the BCS fallout and weigh in with your thoughts in Stewart Mandel's Mailbag.

Take the top seven teams in the final BCS rankings and No. 10 Hawaii (sorry, Kansas, the only undefeated school in Division I-A deserves a shot to win it all), and you're left with a bracket that...

Bearfaced

HE HAD been dead for less than nine hours, the victim of an apparent break-in gone awry at his $900,000 home in a Miami suburb, when The Washington Post put up a column on its website under the...

With Detroit's claim to fame undermined by poor attendance at Red Wings games, SI set out to find the U.S. city that can rightfully call itself the capital of hockey in this country

Ice Man Michael Farber offers his take on the NHL's hot topics every week in his On the Fly column.

With his childlike enthusiasm and spectacular athleticism, rebounding and dunking savant Dwight Howard, in only his fourth year, has quickly turned the NBA into his own Magic kingdom

Full-Court Press Get a new Inside the NBA column from Jack McCallum every Thursday.

A congenital cardiovascular abnormality has become a leading killer of young athletes in the U.S. So why isn't more being done to save those who have it?

NORMAL HEART Left Ventricle Wall Right Ventricle Septum Left Ventricle Cavity

A Tragic Turn More from David Epstein on how HCM cut short one promising athlete's dreams.

HCM may be the leading killer of young athletes, but other cardiovascular conditions have also claimed prominent lives

Most of the running backs at the top of this year's fantasy drafts were major letdowns. Here's why, and what you can learn from it

Who to start and who to sit in every game this week

Having lineup problems? David Sabino fields your fantasy questions on Sunday mornings at SI.com/fantasy.

PGA TOUR

SI senior writer Gary Van Sickle has covered more than 225 golf tournaments during his 11 years at the magazine. Here are his five favorites from 2007.

Cost of a Card

Robert Beck, who got his first assignment for SI in 1988, has shot more golf tournaments--almost 160 and counting--than any other photographer in the 53-year history of the magazine. Here are his...

5 TOMMY'S HONOR: THE STORY OF OLD TOM MORRIS AND YOUNG TOM MORRIS, GOLF'S FOUNDING FATHER AND SON by Kevin Cook (Gotham Books, $27.50) Cook's superbly researched study of Old Tom, his star-crossed...

Buddy Allin

The drama of Q school is a familiar one. On the one hand you have this year's victor at Orange County National in Orlando, 38-year-old two-time Tour winner Frank Lickliter, who lost his game after...

Greg Norman's spectacular Florida estate hits the market

My Christmas wish list includes two items that would be huge gifts to golf. First, I'd love to see David Duval (left) return to the PGA Tour's elite. With his family now healthy and a medical...

WHO Tommy (Two Gloves) Gainey

Who gets your vote for player of the year?

For the first year since 1970, Dave Anderson has no Masters plan

by JAMES P. HERRE

Tiny Scottish town rejects Donald Trump's proposed $2.1 billion resort

When 16-year-old Tadd Fujikawa announced that he was turning pro, he was lumped together with another Hawaiian prodigy--even though they are polar opposites

Weird flavors help Jones bust the Coke-Pepsi sports monopoly

WHEN THEY were negotiating the current CBA with the players' union in 2005, NHL owners pushed through a bylaw that players with entry-level NHL contracts would be paid in that team's...

IT'S HOCKEY'S VERSION of the Louisville Slugger—the Sher-Wood stick, which the Sherwood-Drolet company has made of birch and aspen at its Sherbrooke, Que., factory since 1949. But no more. Next...

Fans can work up a sweat at the new college hoops Hall

IT WAS almost as rare a sight in Cambridge, Mass., as a pro-Bush rally: a sellout crowd (of 2,050) rushing the court at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion after a basketball win. "It's amazing," forward...

NAVY SMOTHERED Army all afternoon when the teams met last Saturday for the 108th time, in Baltimore. Even Billy the Goat got into the act. The Navy mascot scored a takedown on a boisterous Cadet...