BeelineGeorgia Tech tailback Joe Burns wings it, going over the top for a one-yard touchdown against Clemson (page 104).

Only three teams head into Week 4 undefeated, and two of them could be in real trouble.

Cardiac 'CatsHo-hum. Northwestern got two scores in the final 29 ticks of another amazing win

•YA GOTTA LOVE THIS GUY

Whether on the field or on the stage, Syracuse's Kyle Johnson is comfortable playing his role

Closing the Gap?Formula One champ Michael Schumacher sizes up his biggest threat next season

Work as a stuntman funds Stanton Barrett's Busch racing career

Me, I like to be alone. I like wide open spaces and crickets and long walks without seeing a soul. That's why I like Montreal Expos games.

Opinions about overrated and underrated people, places and things in sports:

Letters

Those who'd deny 38-year-old Michael Jordan his comeback miss the point—many of them

Highlights

With fancast.com, would-be sports announcers can get on-the-job training—and an audience

Trev Alberts pulls no punches when choosing the most disappointing pro football player ever. He picks himself.

ESPN's replacing its puffy interview program, Up Close, with the supposedly edgier Unscripted seems an attempt to match the success of Fox's often heated Last Word with Jim Rome. But will...

JULY 8, 1974

Afghanistan has had an oddly central position in sports history

When comic book impresario Todd McFarlane paid $3 million for Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball after the 1998 season, memorabilia cognoscenti around the country let out a collective gasp. "There...

52%Barry Bonds's homers as a percentage of his RBIs (69/132) through Monday; if the figure stays above 50% he'll be the first home run champ in either league whose total was more than half his RBI...

(Q) Is that Powerade commercial in which Michael Vick throws a football 100-plus yards for real?

Warned•Colleges, by the NCAA, that putting U.S. flags on team uniforms might offend some players. "Institutions desiring to place flags on uniforms should consider the nationalities of all of...

At 10 p.m. last Saturday in a 5,000-square-foot tent where World Trade Center relief workers take their breaks, Stella Lin was giving orders. "Get me garbage bags now," the 4'9", 100-pound Lin...

After the NFL postponed its Week 2 slate, pushing the playoffs back a week, the league began negotiating with the National Auto Dealers Association (NADA) over which outfit would stage its biggest...

With the Dodgers all but out of the playoff race, Gary Sheffield can turn his attention to something really important: selling his house. Sheffield has had his 11,000-square-foot mansion in St....

JOHN THOMPSONFormer Georgetown coach, on the return of Michael Jordan: "All that stuff about him jumping from the foul line is over. His game is going to be on the floor now. We're going to start...

Otis Smith is steering the Warriors' three rookies through their transition to the NBA

That he had a shot at a home run mark shows Tuffy Rhodes's stature in Japan

Janelle Tomlinson, STRATFORD, WIS.VolleyballTomlinson, a sophomore middle blocker at Wisconsin-Green Bay, broke an NCAA women's record for service aces in a three-game match by firing 15 in a...

With the greatest slugging in recent memory, the Giants' remarkably efficient Barry Bonds was primed to break Big Mac's record

Home runs are the most obvious, but hardly the only, key stat of Barry Bonds's season. Here, with six games remaining, is a litany of his major offensive accomplishments and milestones.—David Sabino

A bullying North Dakota alumnus built the school a $100 million rink but tore its campus asunder

Thanks to a jolt from Doug Flutie, the Chargers have run off three straight wins and become the talk of the AFC

Long overlooked Bernard Hopkins capped his career and unified the middleweight title with a stunning upset of Felix Trinidad

The biggest stars usually have elevated hockey intelligence a trait that more and more teams are looking for in players

Here is SI's second-team All-Smarts squad, plus the five coaches and general managers who have the best hockey brains.

What goes through a goaltender's mind when Pavel Bure is racing in on a breakaway? Or Al MacInnis is teeing up a slap shot? Here are the thoughts of New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, one of the best...

For complete NHL scores, stats and news, plus Michael Farber's exclusive insider reports and Kostya Kennedy's mailbag, go to cnnsi.com/hockey.

In contrast to their stereotype, most NHL players aren't dumb, toothless, beer-drinking brawlers

Avalanche star Peter Forsberg stayed home, seemingly the only marquee player who did during the NHL's wild off-season. Forsberg took an indefinite leave of absence from the Stanley Cup champions...

If the administrators of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto get an urge to expand a few years hence, they might look westward to Windsor, the Ontario city that's just across the river from...

The Red Wings are the first NHL team to have three active players—Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Steve Yzerman—who have scored more than 500 goals.

After helping Jeremy Roenick tug on his new Flyers sweater at a July press conference announcing the signing of the free-agent center to a five-year, $37.5 million contract, owner Ed Snider was...

Roman Cechmanek's 10 shutouts last season made him the first Flyers goalie to hit double digits in that category since Bernie Parent had 12 in 1974-75.

The summertime itinerary of the Stanley Cup is a thoroughly documented phenomenon. Players from the NHL's best team spend the off-season carting the trophy everywhere from family barbecues to...

Ken Hitchcock arrived at June's NHL entry draft in Sunrise, Fla., looking healthy and tan, a startling contrast to the slouching, sleep-deprived figure he normally cuts at mat time of year. "I've...

The Avalanche's top line of Joe Sakic (+45), Milan Hejduk (+32) and Alex Tanguay (+35) combined for a +112 rating last season, the highest of any NHL line.

Last season Marty Turco led the NHL in save percentage (.925), becoming the second straight Stars goalie to do so (Ed Belfour, .919).

Jaromir Jagr's shining moment last spring occurred not on the ice, where he scored only twice in 16 playoff games for the Penguins, but on an off day. With the Penguins and Devils tied at one game...

If you're a fan who had no rooting interest in last year's finals, you probably delighted in the sight of 40-year-old Raymond Bourque at long last thrusting the Stanley Cup into the air. As his...

Peter Bondra needs 16 goals to pass Mike Gartner as the Capitals' alltime goal scorer. In 10 seasons Gartner scored 397 times for Washington; Bondra enters his 12th year with 382.

The Devils' five consecutive seasons with at least 45 wins matches the third-longest such streak in league history, behind the Canadiens (11) and Oilers (6).

Unlike most everything else in Silicon Valley, the prospects for the Sharks remain bullish. For five years running San Jose has improved its point total from the previous season, finishing last...

The good citizens of Canada may have taken one look at the Blues' training camp and wondered if coach Joel Quenneville, a Quebec native, was being unpatriotic. After all, what sort of Canadian...

In 2000-01 the Sharks' Evgeni Nabokov became the 14th goaltender to win the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year. Of the 13 netminders who previously were so honored, 11 went on to play for a...

Last season the Blues played a league-high 34 regular-season games that were decided by three or more goals. In those matches St. Louis's record was 24-10, best in the Western Conference.

For those lucky Torontonians with digital cable, there's now must-see Leafs TV, a channel devoted to the fortunes and history of a franchise that has crossed the line between civic passion and...

The Bruins officially disappeared into Bizarro World in late September when center Jason Allison, who was ensnared in a contract impasse, volunteered to cease squabbling with Boston general...

Last year Mats Sundin led the Maple Leafs in scoring for the seventh straight season, a streak that is second in franchise history to Darryl Sittler's eight consecutive years (1972-73 through 79-80).

Right wing Bill Guerin, who was acquired by the Bruins last November, played in 85 regular-season games in 2000-01, one short of the single-season record held by Jimmy Carson and Bob Kudelski.

When the Kings acquired right wing Adam Deadmarsh from the Avalanche last February as part of the trade that sent Rob Blake to Colorado, they knew he would provide more than a nice scoring touch....

The Senators, a team that each spring races the ice on the Rideau Canal to see which melts first, addressed their perennial lack of grit this summer by bringing in former enforcer Don Jackson as...

Last season Lubomir Visnovsky became only the third Kings defenseman named to the NHL All-Rookie Team, joining Rob Blake (1990-91) and Steve Duchesne (1986-87).

The Senators are one of four teams to finish with 95 or more points in each of the last three seasons. Ottawa hasn't won a playoff series over that span, while the other three clubs—the Stars,...

The Penguins' plan was for coach Ivan Hlinka, a native of the Czech Republic, to take English courses over the summer. Instead he returned to Prague and listened to language tapes. The move irked...

During a training-camp bonding junket to Charleston, S.C., 26 Sabres spent a day on the 1,600-acre grounds of the oceanfront Wild Dunes Resort doing a series of team-building exercises such as...

When Jaromir Jagr totaled 121 points last year, it marked the seventh straight season that a Penguin had won the league scoring title, tying the record held by the Bruins (1968-69 through '74-75)...

The Sabres, who led the league in penalty killing last season, were scored upon only 12% of the time in shorthanded situations (40 goals in 334 opportunities).

Weightlessness has been known to make people queasy and wobbly, and Edmonton fans know the feeling. Their condition, and the gravity of this situation, stems from the loss of the Oilers' captain...

In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the Canucks instead had 90 points in 2000-01, only the third time in their 31-year history that they reached the 90-point plateau. They were then...

With Markus Naslund in the lineup last season (playoffs included), the Canucks were 34-23-8-7 (.576). When he was sidelined by injuries, Vancouver went 2-8-3-1 (.286).

No goaltender allowed as many power-play goals last season as the Oilers' Tommy Salo, who surrendered 53.

The Hurricanes may have migrated south from Hartford in 1997, but hockey didn't really arrive in Tobacco Country until last spring. Now, after three years of drawing the some of the smallest...

Ron Francis needs 33 assists to overtake Raymond Bourque (1,169) for second place on the alltime list. Wayne Gretzky is No. 1, with 1,963 assists.

The Brain Trust gathered after last season, surveyed the team that had gone 21-51-7-3 and missed the postseason for a seventh straight year, and devised a two-pronged plan. First, the Islanders...

The Islanders have missed the playoffs seven straight seasons, one shy of the longest streak in league history, held by the Bruins (1959-60 to '66-67) and the Capitals ('74-75 to '81-82).

David Poile had always run the Predators on a shoestring budget. In the franchise's first two seasons Nashville's payroll was the NHL's smallest, and last year's $19.6 million tab, though large by...

So much of the Rangers' future is tied up in their acquisition of Eric Lindros that general manager Glen Sather, a thoughtful man of 58, has been characterizing the deal as a symbol of his larger...

Of the 77 NHL players who appeared in all 82 of their team's games last season, Predators defenseman Cale Hulse had the fewest points, eight.

Twenty-four onetime Rangers have scored 50 or more goals in a season. Only two, Adam Graves and Vic Hadfield, did so while playing for New York.

As far as hockey siblings go, the Sutters and the Bures stand at opposite ends of the spectrum. If you belong to the Sutter clan, you are likely to be as relentless as a Saskatchewan winter,...

Refusing to rest on his laurels after finishing second to San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov in the Calder Trophy voting, Tampa Bay center Brad Richards spent his off-season working out with fellow...

The most goals scored by teammate brothers in a season is 88, by the Blackhawks' Bobby and Dennis Hull. Last season Pavel (59) and Valeri (27) Bure combined for 86 goals, although Valeri's came...

Two of the Lightning's top three scorers last year, Vincent Lecavalier and Brad Richards, were two when a new teammate, 38-year-old left wing Dave Andreychuk, made his NHL debut with the Sabres,...

Nobody's likely to confuse Ron Tugnutt with Ralph Nader, but the Columbus goaltender did play a small part in last November's U.S. presidential election. Tugnutt, a Scarborough, Ont., native, was...

Coach Brian Sutter, an exacting man who took over the job last spring, has both a pessimistic side and a gift for hyperbole, traits that led him to arrive at training camp last month and declare,...

The Blue Jackets' Ron Tugnutt (22 wins) broke the record for victories by an expansion goalie, which was held by the North Stars' Cesare Maniago and the Panthers' John Vanbiesbrouck (21 each).

Since the beginning of the 1997-98 season, the Blackhawks have had eight coaches, the most in a five-year span for any team since the Blues had eight from 70-71 to 74-75.

Sunny forecasts are as common to Phoenix as cacti and AARP cards. They are far less common for the hometown hockey team, over which storm clouds seem to hang perpetually. Since last year's trading...

The news on the eve of training camp that captain Saku Koivu has non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was a knee to the groin for a storied franchise that has long been groping to find its way again. Koivu was...

Last season the Coyotes became the second NHL team to fail to qualify for the playoffs despite getting 90 or more points (the '69-70 Canadiens were the other).

Last season was the first time the Canadiens finished as many as 12 games under .500 (28-40-8-6) since 1939-40, when they were 10-33-5.

Greg Gilbert came into training camp this summer insisting that he would dole out playing time on a merit system, which is a polite way of saying that the Flames' coach doesn't have the players to...

In one of last season's more memorable exchanges, Penguins center Mario Lemieux ripped Wild coach Jacques Lemaire last February after a game in which Minnesota's neutral-zone trap had suffocated...

With 71 points in 2000-01, Jarome Iginla became the fourth player in the past four seasons to lead the Flames in scoring. The others—Valeri Bure, Cory Stillman and Theo Fleury—were traded.

In 2000-01 the Wild was shut out a league-high 14 times and finished last in the NHL in scoring, with 2.05 goals per game.

There was a surprising air of enthusiasm in Anaheim's training camp this fall. Some of it surely had to do with the presence of new coach Bryan Murray, who has made a career of turning losing...

Anytime a team tries to sell season tickets with radio ads featuring sound bites from the draft, it's a safe bet it isn't loaded with talent. Such is the case with the three-year-old Thrashers....

Mighty Ducks defensemen Oleg Tverdovsky (290 games) and Keith Carney (247) have the second-and fourth-longest active consecutive-games-played streaks.

The Thrashers' Damian Rhodes faced more shots per 60 minutes (32.7) than any goaltender in the league.

The NFL

Back in StrideThe Ravens showed they haven't lost their swagger with a convincing win in Denver

The Jaguars' salary-cap woes have caused depth problems that were painfully obvious during a 23-14 loss to the Browns. Star left tackle Tony Boselli was inactive with a recurring shoulder injury,...

•WORD ASSOCIATIONWith Broncos wideout Rod Smith (left), the NFL's leading receiver

Way out west in the White Mountains of Arizona, near Springerville, real and wannabe cowhands gather every year for a nine-hole tournament that gives new meaning to the term country club. The...

A sports psychologist found a home on the staff at Olympic in San Francisco, the golf club that has everything

•Lone StarJustin Leonard, winless for a year, gets well in San Antonio for a second straight season.

Swamped by a freak storm, the Florida project suffers a setback but not a disaster

As construction winds down, the design process begins to resemble a teenager picking at pimples an hour before a date. Designer Scot Sherman's latest memo, faxed from the offices of Weed Golf...

Most Improved PlayerThinking Big

What do these players have in common?

Which weighed most heavily in the Ryder Cup postponement: the logistical difficulties of international travel, as the PGA claims, or Tiger Woods's avowed fear of flying abroad?

SYNONYMS for a GOLF WRITERAnimal, chop, hack, greenfly, media scum, noise, talking dog, vulture

Freezing the Ryder Cup rosters so that the players who qualified for the 2001 team will play in 2002 is a mistake. What happens if Texas Open winner Justin Leonard—or anyone else not already on...

I'm shocked that Arizona State would hire a man to coach the women's team

When women's groups, the American Civil Liberties Union and the media came down hard on Southern Dunes Golf Club, a private, Fred Couples-designed course near Phoenix, for permitting only men on...

In late-season tournaments like the Texas Open, it's the grinders, not the mostly absent golden boys, who get a chance to shine