November 18, 2002 | Volume 97, Issue 20

Secondary ConcernAlready playoff contenders, the Saints got a lift with the addition of Dale Carter to a suspect pass defense

TRADING E-MAIL WITH...Former NFL coach Sam Wyche

Rams coach Mike Martz has said that Kurt Warner's his guy and that Marc Bulger, the hottest quarterback in the NFL (107.4 passer rating), will go back to the bench when Warner is able to return...

The Winston Cup gets some long-overdue final-weekend drama, with Tony Stewart in the driver's seat

Here's where points leader Tony Stewart has to finish—at worst-in the year's final race to win his first Winston Cup title, depending on the performance of Mark Martin, who trails him by 89 points...

Jake Porter is 17, but he can't read, can barely scrawl his first name and often mixes up the letters at that. So how come we're all learning something from him?

Alexander WolffThis week's issue features the first installment of a four-part series on the state of high school athletics in America. To look into the increasing specialization in the high...

JUNE 20, 1983

An Early MingI thought Ian Thomsen did a great job on the article about Yao Ming (The New Mr. Big, Oct. 28). I agree that Yao has a long way to go before he can play up to Shaq's level, but I...

LETTERS

Magnolia Lane, which leads to the front door of Augusta National, is adorned by 61 trees planted in the 19th century. And so, in a manner of speaking, is the club's membership directory, which for...

A self-imposed punishment deleted five glorious Michigan seasons, but college basketball's larger problems remain

Boston (zero titles in 84 years) hires Bill James to crunch its numbers

Why he may remind you of a guy who played indoor soccer 20 years agoHe is that guy. The 43-year-old star of the MISL's Milwaukee Wave is not only indoor soccer's greatest goalie ever but also the...

7:28Time into his first game after a heart attack in September that Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins called timeout and berated one of his players and a ref.

RetiredLess than one month into his 19th season, Blue Jackets forward Kevin Dineen, 39, one of only eight players in NHL history with 300 goals and 2,000 penalty minutes. Dineen, who played for...

Retired

You know, I don't need this job. Anytime I want, my frat buddies can hit a Pick Six for me.

An accomplished archer (she has ranked as high as 13th in the U.S.) and a trustee for the Women's Sports Foundation, the 46-year-old Academy Award winner had her first child, Alizeh, in April.

Those swinging 1970s wife-swappers have nothing on the producers of Inside Edition. For a segment that aired on the show last week, Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Brandi Nace, 24, switched roles for a...

Barry Bonds has found a way to stop that talk about his looking pumped up: sit next to Konishiki, a 606-pound retired sumo wrestler capable of causing a worldwide flannel shortage. The pair...

The Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary high school basketball team, which features projected NBA draft pick LeBron James, will air some of its games on pay-per-view.

MICHAEL VICK

The Continental Basketball Association, which went bankrupt in '00, will tip off this week as strong as ever

Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis is just 5'7½", but his height hasn't kept him from being a top NHL scorer

The fresh playmaking of midfielder Aly Wagner, 22, has the U.S. steaming toward the 2003 World Cup

The 1969 Texas-Arkansas title game may have signaled the end of the God-Family-Football era

Australia's Todd Woodbridge is practically a lock to break the record for men's doubles championships

Alcorn State coach Dave Whitney imparts the wisdom of his five illustrious decades in sports

NOVEMBER 15-21

•Tommy Points•Chick in the Mail•Charles on O.J.

Greg Rota, GRAFTON, MASS.GolfRota, 38, coach at Westborough High, noticed mat one of his players had filled out a scorecard incorrectly after the team had been handed the state championship...

With Brett Favre playing as well as ever—and on track for a fourth MVP award—Green Bay has won seven straight and emerged as the team to beat in the NFC

Toronto, the hockey capital of the world, is home to the NHL's most notorious band of whiners, divers and cheap-shot artists

A pair of brawny, brainy Ukrainian Ph.D.'s, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, hope to soon divide and conquer the heavyweight division

Back home in Venezuela, Angels postseason phenom Francisco Rodriguez revealed some secrets of his success

In pummeling Tennessee, Miami reasserted itself as the team to beat in the race to the national title

Texas A&M ran off with Oklahoma's title hopes

Fifteen years ago SMU's powerhouse football program was obliterated by a pay-for-play scandal and the NCAA's first "death penalty." Since then 20 other college programs—including Alabama football...

SI's Peter King and Don Banks go head-to-head on the NFL's hottest topic every Wednesday. Read their takes and offer your own at cnnsi.com/football.

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THEY ARE STRONGER and more skilled, but year-round commitment to a single sport and far-flung travel for more and better competition are isolating our best young athletes from their communities...

Turning Over a New LeafGoalie Ed Belfour, who signed with Toronto in the off-season, stretches between periods at the Air Canada Centre, preparing to do battle for the feisty Maple Leafs (page 48).

Bucking a powerful trend toward specialization, two athletes in Louisville are excelling in multiple sports—and savoring the challenge

High school kids who want to major in tennis—or one of five other sports—get their wish at IMG Academies in Bradenton, Fla.

A three-sport sensation 28 years ago, Bruce Hardy is not sure he could pull it off were he a teenager today

For Carolyn Rauen of Cincinnati, happiness is competing hard in four varsity sports, including two in the fall

Basketball so consumed Stefanie Schilling's life that she lost her love for the game and walked away

The NBA

Zydrunas Ilgauskas has put his injuries out of mind to carry the Cavs

Contrary to some of his recent remarks, Shaquille O'Neal is in no hurry to retire. "More so than in any other year, I sense a renewed enthusiasm for the game from him," says Lakers G.M. Mitch...