The best scenes in the film "The Blind Side" (and there aren't many) were when Michael Oher, the giant football playing teenager adopted by the Tuohy family, is being wooed by college coaches.

Showing up at the Tuohy's doorstep is an all-star cast of football's best known coaches...

There's been a lot of hand-wringing over the Penn State scandal. Much debate over who did or did not do the right thing.

I've tried to ignore the daily news ticker on the case, the lawyer-fueled battles for favorable public opinion. Stories are changing as parties involved cover their...

Joe Paterno didn't say much last week. A lot was said about him, some accurate, some not. He did deserve to be fired. He does not deserve to have all the good things he has done in his career forgotten about because he failed to act responsibly in one situation....

Twenty years ago, NBA great Magic Johnson called his legendary press conference to announce he was retiring from basketball. I was a junior at Michigan State University, working at the student newspaper the State News. I remember we all huddled around a 20-inch newsroom black and white television...

I was driving, listening to the radio, stuck in Chicago traffic (which is as redundant as Justin Bieber and badness, I know) when the on-air hosts said "another big college scandal, this time at Miami."

I actually hit my preset button for a different station.

I thought about when...

Jim Delany is a smart man.

His history of successes as Big Ten commissioner reads like a Michael Phelps swimming resume. In 22 years he has overseen the development of instant replay, the conference basketball tournament and the cash cow Big Ten Network. The last two were...

So I just finished watching ESPN Films terrific special on Jack Nicklaus's 1986 Masters championship. The aging legend Nicklaus making one last stand at Augusta, fending off a younger blond bomber named Greg Norman to win his 6th and final green jacket.

Amidst all the sentimental goose bumps, I...

One of my favorite novels is Cormac McCarthy's The Road (stick with the book; forget the movie). It tells of the story of a father and son navigating through a post-apocalyptic world, dodging bandits, exhaustion and coming to grips with the end of civilization after a disaster. Although...

If you are a parent of a high school student athlete who has aspirations to play in college, you may want to pay attention to what's going on at the University of Oregon.

Friday, Oregon admitted it has been contacted by the NCAA regarding its use of a...

Did Michigan really hire the best football coach it could find in Brady Hoke?

Or did they hire the guy who understood them best?

Today, the winningest program in college football history officially hires a man with a career losing record.

At some universities, understanding...

The best definition I've heard for the word magnetism is this: the power to affect others with the delight someone takes in himself.

Ron Santo was truly a magnetic person.

I met him several times, but the first time was the most memorable. I was hosting a Cubs talk...

By now we've all seen it. Sunday. Overtime. The hard luck Buffalo Bills on the verge of upsetting the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers. Harvard grad Ryan Fitzpatrick throws the pass of his life, a perfect spiraled heave that hits receiver Steve Johnson in stride in the end zone. If he catches...

In the fall of 1998, I was working as a sports anchor and reporter for a television station in Chicago. I got a call from a friend of mine who had just landed a job as a runner for a fledgling sports agency. He had an angle on a potential...

I don't think it's that much of a shock that Brett Favre was allegedly trying to hook up with women other than his wife while he was a member of the New York Jets.

We are so jaded about athletes these days, we assume they are promiscuous. That lead...

Early Sunday morning on September 19, Michigan State Head Coach Mark Dantonio suffered a heart attack.

Tuesday, he announced he would be coaching his team against Wisconsin on Saturday, only nine days after a doctor inserted a stint in his heart.

The only thing surprising about the...

Finally, Reggie Bush got it right.

His decision Tuesday to give back his Heisman Trophy was not only smart, it was necessary.

Here's why the New Orleans Saints running back needed to do this now.

Bush's preemptive act is a first step to repairing his public image, which...

As I've done many times over the past 20 years, I picked up the phone and called a friend. And in that familiar Missouri twang, my buddy Mark picked up like he always does, shouting into the phone, "Yell-o!"

We spent the first minute of the conversation in predictable "what's...

As the calender page turns to August we are faced with annual absolutes about our existence: school is around the corner, the Chicago Cubs are playing out the string and Brett Favre is wishy-washy about playing football.

Riveting drama.

This is what the ticker tapes at ESPN would have you...