Serena Williams Champion - Welcome Back!

When this years Australian Open started Serena Williams' mother said she was rusty. Well, two weeks and a championship later the rust appears to have fallen off. Let's just hope it stays off. Judging by her celebration and the look on her face after she hit the championship point Serena Williams was ecstatic and relieved about her 6-1, 6-2 straight-set destruction of Maria Sharapova the world's number one player. The demolition confirmed once again that Serena Williams at her best simply cannot be beaten by any of today's top females. But we also know that a Serena out of shape and unfocused can be beaten by most of those same players.

Injuries and apparent disinterest nearly robbed Serena and her fans of this sweet comeback. The last time she won a tournament of any kind was two full years ago, ironically at the Australian Open. Two years between wins is way too long for a player of Serena's ability and potential greatness. The former number one ranked player came into the Open ranked 81st and unseeded. She started the tournament a little shaky and not quite in game shape but she fought through it and wound up finishing off Sharapova with power, precision and a steely eyed determination that left no doubt she was going to win.

My hope is that Serena does not take this victory - her eighth overall Grand Slam title - for granted and squander it on some frivolous endeavor like acting and the many other non-tennis related activities that have zapped her focus in recent years. I'd like to think that her effort these last two weeks were a way of saying first to herself and then to others that at 25 years of age she is not done and that the best is yet to come. But for that to happen she will have to re-commit to playing tennis on a regular basis because there is no guarantee that she will be able to play dominant tennis again if she fails to train and doesn't take her game seriously.

Serena Williams leaves Australia now ranked 14th in the world. Oh what a difference a Grand Slam victory makes. I'm hoping that the real Serena Williams a potential legend - and champion of the 2007 Australian Open - is back to stay.

Reggie Bush In Trouble: What About the Vultures?

Reggie Bush is in the news again. This time though its not about doing flips while scoring touchdowns for the New Orleans Saints. Published reports suggest that audio tapes exist of Bush and or members of his family striking a deal with a start-up sports marketing firm for thousands of dollars under the table while Bush was still enrolled at USC. A federal prosecutor is looking into allegations that the firm - New Era Sports and Entertainment - attempted to extort money from Bush after Bush decided to sign with another firm when he announced he was turning pro last year. New Era contends it provided a home and cash as part of a loan to Bush's family in exhange for a promise that Bush sign with the sports marketing firm after he left USC. For the record Reggie Bush has consistantly contended he's done nothing wrong.

Bush just completed his first season with the New Orleans Saints helping lead the team to its first ever NFC championship game last Sunday against the Chicago Bears. Although the Saints lost the game Bush's spectacular play and his contributions to the hurricane recovery efforts in New Orleans during the season have been hailed by just about everyone. But with unanswered questions about whether Bush and his family took money while he was playing football at USC his quick start in the pros may be slowing to a crawl, tarnishing the sparkling image he's crafted since winning the 2005 Heisman Trophy.

There is also the possibility that Bush's problems could cost his school the national championship it won while Bush was a sophomore and could cost Bush the Heisman Trophy he won 14 months ago. While Bush is the focus of all of this attention very few people are talking about the real villains - New Era Sports and its principles Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels. Making this even more ludicrous is the fact New Era Sports is apparently not being charged with making the alleged illegal inducements to Reggie Bush and his family. The firm is only being investigated for attempting to essentially blackmail Bush and extort money from him. This is ridiculous.

Let me be clear I do not condone athletes taking money under the table. But I have a much bigger problem with agents, marketing firms, boosters and others who illegally induce vulnerable, often cash-strapped athletes and their families into violating college rules. These illegal deals are almost always instigated by folks who absolutely should know better. While schools and athletes often take the fall, corrupt agents and other sheisters get very little attention or blame for the trouble they cause. These vultures are seemingly allowed to go after just about any athlete they please with little or no repercussions for it. There ought to be laws against illegal under the table payments with the vultures that think up the schemes bearing most of the blame and all of the potential jail time.

I'm not saying Reggie Bush and his family didn't put themselves in a very bad position. And I'm not saying they didn't have the capacity to say no to any proposition offered them by New Era Sports. But what I am saying is that without tough laws and stiff fines to end the corruption instigated by the people and organizations with dirty money who seek to curry favor with star athletes this problem will never end.

Super Bowl XLI: Validating the Rooney Rule

Following the AFC and NFC championship games yesterday there is one certainty: an African American head coach will win the upcoming Super Bowl. Let that sink in for a minute. For the first time in NFL history two black men will lead their teams in football's biggest game. This is an extremely significant development for America's biggest sports league and its fans and for sports in general. It also validates the importance of the Rooney Rule, which mandates that NFL teams seeking a new head coach must conduct serious interviews with minority candidates as part of the process.

Super Bowl XLI will see Tony Dungy, the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, taking on his close friend and former coaching colleague Lovie Smith, head coach of the Chicago Bears. I couldn't be more pleased about this matchup. For some of us this is the best possible Super Bowl. A Super Bowl where even if you lose you still win. I grew up a huge Bears fan when Indianapolis did not have an NFL team and later became a fan of my hometown Colts after they "relocated" from Baltimore. I also feel good about the fact that the winning coach will be a black man - another no-lose proposition.

While the Rooney Rule was not in place when Tony Dungy was first hired head coach by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers twelve years ago, it was the reason that Dungy protege Lovie Smith got a chance to interview for the Bears job three years ago. It is also the reason that former Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin, just announced as the new head coach of the Steelers, was given a fair hearing by the Rooney family in Pittsburgh. Mike Tomlin also used to work for Tony Dungy.

One day I suppose there will be no need for the Rooney Rule. But history tells us that for awhile at least NFL team owners must be "motivated" (forced) to do the right thing. For years black coaches in the NFL labored under the ludicrous misperception that they didn't have what it takes to lead teams as head coaches. In 1989 when the Raiders hired Art Shell as the NFL's first modern day head coach the perception of black coaches started to change. The Minnesota Vikings later hired Dennis Green as head coach and the perception changed further. Today six black men are head coaches in the NFL and two of them will face off for the title. This is indeed progress.

But in a league where well over two thirds of the players are black and less than ten black men have EVER been head coaches in the NFL the Rooney Rule is still needed.

But when the first black head coach wins the Super Bowl two weeks from now I hope there will be a greater understanding of the intelligence and leadership skills that African Americans have always brought to the game. When there is a general acceptance of that fact it is then that the Rooney Rule can be retired.

Martyball: More Than Wins and Losses

For the record I'm a longtime Marty Schottenheimer fan, so I am pleased that he did not take the fall for coaching yet another losing playoff game last weekend. Still, the outcry for his ouster has been loud and long. While I'm not Marty's apologist, maybe I should be.

There has been a lot of crazy talk this week about Chargers owner Alex Spanos firing the NFL's winningest active coach after the Chargers lost to the Patriots. But yesterday Spanos granted Schottenheimer a reprieve. Schottenheimer's Chargers finished a league best 14 - 2 during the regular season. But his latest post-season loss drops an already very poor career playoff record to just 5 wins and 13 losses. The naysayers and critics say Marty was coaching a team that was supposed to not just go to the Super Bowl but win it. Instead the Chargers lost and it just had to be Marty's fault.

It's been more than 30 years since Marty last put on shoulder pads and actually played a game in the NFL. Which is why Marty was on the sideline looking on helplessly when several of his players made a couple of horrendously costly - and stupid - mistakes on the field Sunday. There is only so much a coach can do. It is a players game. The coach can't make the tackles, blocks, passes, runs or kicks that are the essential elements of the game. The coach can only watch and hope that his coaching sticks somehow. Kind of like parenting.

Marty's coaching style is honest, straightforward and quintessentially old-school. His uncompromising, no excuses character also leaves him virtually unprotected from the vultures who try to feast on him when the going gets tough and the playoff losses mount. Most coaches these days don't leave that much ass exposed - covering it early and often. But Marty's unique (say honest) approach to coaching is exactly what makes Marty Schottenheimer special and vulnerable.

At no point did Marty beg for his job or point to his record. He didn't because he shouldn't have to. No, he hasn't won very many playoff games or the Super Bowl and maybe he never will. But a lot of coaches and players have never won the big game either. That doesn't make them or Marty losers. He knows perhaps too well that all you can do is work hard to prepare your team and let the players play the game. And in the end if the owner wants to fire you then so be it. In Washington a few years ago Marty Schottenheimer was fired for being Marty after just one year. But the Redskins have never quite recovered from Schottenheimer's honorable year as coach. For this year at least the owner wasn't so stupid as to let one of football's best coaches go because the players failed on the field. Martyball is definately more than wins and losses.

The Williams Sisters: Past Champions

Whatever happened to...., I started thinking about the Williams sisters the other day when it was reported that Venus Williams was pulling out of next week's Australian Open, the first leg of tennis' grand slam. It seems that Venus and her sister Serena have been off my radar screen for a long time now. There was a time that whenever one of them was playing it was appointment viewing for me. Well, its been a year and a half since Venus last won a tournament, and two years since Serena's last victory. Venus is ranked number 48 in the world, Serena has dropped all the way to 94th.

I don't know how to feel about their fall. On one hand I feel sad that two of the best players to ever play women's tennis who just happen to be sisters are on the downhill side of their careers. On the other hand I'm angry that both through the need to do everything but play tennis have allowed their great talents to atrophy. I once felt that they owed it to the historic paths carved out by Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe to dominate tennis and continue to knockout sterotypes.

They arrived on the tennis scene just over 10 years ago as teenagers to all appearances perfectly created for the game by their misunderstood Svengali-like father Richard Williams. They were big, cute and intimidating. For the first few years it was Venus threatening to redefine the game. Then it was Serena who finally upended her sister to run roughshod over all the girls in her path. Then as brightly as they'd shown in those peak formative years their tennis stars slowly started to fade. Serena turning to Hollywood to become an occasional actress and Venus distracted by her business goals as a fashion designer.

It seemed the Williams sisters were involved in everything but tennis. Eventually their distracted attention spans seemed to cause them to lose focus on the tennis court. Both were getting beaten by no names. And both had a laundry list of excuses why they were losing.

For the record, Venus will turn 27 years old in June. The five-time grand slam champion and winner of 33 tour titles is at an advanced age for today's tennis stars. Serena will turn 26 later this year. The seven-time grand slam champion will play in the Australian Open, but reports are that as has been the case in recent years, her weight remains a problem and her will to win is still questionable. Serena's last victory came two years ago at the Open down under.

Let me be clear the Williams sisters owe me nothing. But I must admit I really wanted them to be great. Tiger Woods great. Focused on destruction and titles. Boring all of us with finals between only each other with the rest of the tennis world forced to watch enviously. And us fans at home and in the stands saying - 'that damn crazy-ass Richard Williams sure knew what he was talking about!'

Unfortunately, it appears that my tennis dream for the Williams sisters will not happen and that's a shame.

Baseball's Righteous Hypocrites Cast the First Stone

It's official, Mark McGwire did not get elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. More than 75 percent of the baseball writers who cast votes for induction into the Hall made a statement against the alleged steroid user. Meantime those same voters had no problem voting in Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn. Both Ripken and Gwynn received more than 97 percent of the votes cast. Both were great players who deserved induction. Ripken will be remembered first for his Ironman streak of more than 2600 consecutive games played for the Baltimore Orioles. Gwynn will be remembered for being one of the greatest hitters in baseball history with a lifetime .338 batting average - the best since Ted Williams.

But Mark McGwire will mostly be remembered by writers and some fans for refusing to address questions on Capitol Hill a couple of years ago about steroid use in baseball as TV cameras slowly zoomed in on what looked to be his dishonest face. His shaky testimony before lawmakers to some absolutely meant McGwire was guilty of using performance enhancing drugs to hit his tape measure home runs. Soon after a lot of sportswriters couldn't wait to be judge and jury. These are the same sportwriters who gushed without shame in 1998 when McGwire hit his record breaking 62nd home run and finished the season with 70.

Should we care whether McGwire was a steroid user? Perhaps we should. But the fact remains that in an era when it now appears that untold numbers of players were using steroids and human growth hormone and everyone inside baseball knew about it, including writers, the hypocracy resulting in the Hall of Fame voting becomes almost shameful.

I feel sorry for McGwire. He like a handful of "obvious" alleged steroid users was caught in a trap of negative public opinion and writers' grandstanding without any real proof. The facts are that McGwire never failed a drug test. He also never admitted to taking illegal drugs. His only real crime is that he just "looked like" he used lots of steroids. And sportswriters looking for a scapegoat conveniently found one in McGwire, even though they, like us, will never know for sure if McGwire did or did not "cheat". Just like none of us will ever know whether the "good guys" Ripken and Gwynn used performance enhancing drugs either. But one thing is clear - on Hall of Fame election day the righteous hypocrites who pick and choose our heroes have indeed cast the first stone.

NFL Moving Toward Coaching Equality

Forty one years ago the NBA became the first major sports league with an African American head coach when the Boston Celtics named Bill Russell to lead the team. At that time the question many people had was when would the next minority coach be named. NBA teams responded with honor. In four decades black coaches have won multiple championships and have been hired and fired and hired again. That's the way it should be. No one raises an eyebrow anymore when a black man gets an NBA head coaching job or when a black man is fired. Which means the system is working.

Conversly, the NFL moved much slower. It didn't name a black head coach until 1989. That man, Hall of Fame lineman Art Shell was fired five years later with a winning record by the Raiders. More than a decade later Shell was hired by the Raiders again but last week was fired again just one season into his return. Art Shell was the fourth black re-tread coach - in other words a coach given a second chance to lead a team. Ironically that's a good sign, even as Shell licks his wounds from termination.

Another good sign was seen in Indianapolis over the weekend when Colts head coach Tony Dungy faced off against one of his African American coaching protege's, Kansas City's Herman Edwards, while another of his minority proteges - Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith sat in the RCA Dome stands cheering on his buddies. This is how the coaching fraternity grows, when one guy, like Dungy, spreads the wealth and the knowledge and witnesses the benefits of his teaching. In turn Herman Edwards and Lovie Smith are growing their own coaching trees. Which in a few years should result in more minority head coaches.

No, all is not perfect in the NFL. At the end of the regular season, two black head coaches were fired. Another, Romeo Crennel in Cleveland, perhaps needs no less than a winning season in order to survive past next year. Still, the fact remains that two African American coaches could face each other this year in the Super Bowl from the same coaching tree a potentially great thing for NFL coaching equality.

But let me close by offering this sense of perspective despite the NFL's obvious progress. Two black head coaches - KC Jones and Al Attles - X'd and O'd against each other for the championship in the NBA - in 1975, that was 32 years ago.

Tyson in Freefall: We're No Longer Watching

In the beginning we watched a former juvenile delinquent named Mike Tyson with awe and amazement. He was a little - big man with a never before witnessed combination of speed and ferocious power. While most of his fights were sensationally brief and abrupt we were nontheless completely entertained.

It wasn't long before we could see the cracks and the flaws. But we were still entertained. He was a "true" reality show character, before there was a TV format for it. Tyson, the monster-manchild would even go on to marry a Hollywood starlet named Robin Givens. It really was beauty and the beast. And we couldn't take our eyes off of them - especially him.

We watched even more when the beauty betrayed the beast on national television, accusing him of abuse while he sat passively beside her. It was real-life theater playing out before our eyes and we loved it and surprisingly loved him even more.

We watched when the completely unknown Buster Douglas knocked Tyson out. We watched when he was charged with rape and went to prison. We watched Tyson come out of incarceration three years later arm in arm with Don King who not suprisingly was wearing a multi-million dollar smile. We watched in horrified facination when Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield's ear. Tyson was pure box office. Our watching and fawning helped earn Tyson more than $300 million dollars. He was the most entertainingly flawed boxer of all time.

But when he threatened to eat Lennox Lewis' unborn children, the Tyson channel started to get some static. Lewis would violently knock out Tyson for that transgression. By the time Tyson literally had his face tattoed he was broke. And another unknown fighter would viciously knock him out. A fight that could be barely found on TV. Tyson was no longer entertaining. And we moved on to Flavor Flav and Bobby and Whitney.

When Mike Tyson was arrested in Arizona the other day for drug possession, alledgedly admitting to cocaine addiction most people weren't shocked and didn't care. Furthermore we weren't watching at all. The Tyson Show had been cancelled.

An Underdog in Name Only

It had to be the most improbable conclusion to a game in Bowl history. Its hard to imagine any higher drama than what played out in the closing minutes of the Fiesta Bowl last night. The Boise State Broncos - undefeated, but utterly disrespected - against one of college football's most storied programs, the University of Oklahoma Sooners, winners of the Big 12 title game with its best player, Adrian Peterson finally back from injury. On paper it played out as David versus Goliath. To most of the commentators leading up to the game it was a decided mismatch. But on the field it was a completely different story.

Let's start from the beginning. From the first few minutes of the game it was clear that "tiny" Boise State a former junior college, was the equal of seven-time national champion Oklahoma if not more so. A 14 - 0 Boise State lead eventually grew to 28 to 10 by midway into the third quarter. The Broncos were led by their tough under-rated defense, a poised senior quarterback, Jared Zabransky and a slick hardnosed running back named Ian Johnson.

Soon though Oklahoma with its historic pedigree and host of talented players elbowed its way back into the game, led by redeemed senior quarterback Paul Thompson. The Sooners staged a remarkable comeback and looked to just about everyone that although it took four hard quarters, that they were finally asserting dominance over a plucky but overmatched team. With just over a minute to play Oklahoma took what looked to be a game deciding lead when cornerback Marcus Walker intercepted Zabransky's errant pass and ran 33 yards for a Sooner touchdown. But no the game wasn't over.

Even as the clocked ticked down, Boise State collected itself to gain a couple of key first downs in a march to tie the score. With less than 20 seconds left - 4th down and 18 - the Broncos went into the trick bag. A pass from Zabransky to Drisan James and a shockingly beautiful hook and lateral sprint by Jerard Rabb to the endzone took our breath away. The extra point kick tied it up. Now it was time for college football's version of overtime.

Oklahoma got the ball first. In college overtimes each team gets the ball 25 yards from the goal line. On the first play Oklahoma's Peterson scoots through Boise State's defense almost untouched for a touchdown. Now it was Boise State's turn. And Oklahoma made them work for it. With fourth down and two from the five yard line another trick play; with quarterback Zabransky going one way and receiver Vinny Parretta getting the ball - lofting it into the endzone to Derek Schouman for the touchdown. The question for Boise State was do they go for a tie and kick it which would lead to another overtime exchange or do they go for two and win the game outright? Well, they did what Hollywood would script and went for two. Not just going for two but doing it in the trickiest, most old-school way possible - a statue of liberty play - with Jared Zabransky faking a pass to his right and handing off behind his back for Ian Johnson to sprint in to the left for the two points and a win for the ages.

The wacky, historically dramatic and unbelievable finish to the game nearly obscures the fact that this was a real, hard fought game, between two very good teams. This was absolutely not a mismatch. It was never a mismatch. Not at all. Thanks to the conclusion it was simply one of the most satisfyingly delicious college football games ever played. Period.

It should be a lesson to us all that we should shut up and just let the kids play the game. Then watch and enjoy it. Damn our prognostications. Damn our ridiculous assumptions. Both teams on this night could have played with any college team in America. And for certain Boise State was an underdog in name only.