5, 4, 3, 2 . . .

The deal:

1. ESPN.com did a great piece on a fallen firefighter/assistant coach who died in a fire but whose lasting effect on his team propelled them to the state finals. Great job, ESPN. And good luck, Summerville!

2. If you hear some old guy cursing during the NCAA telecasts, it might just be Bob Knight. Yes, that Bob Knight of chair-throwing fame. Said Knight, "I think ESPN has been real good for college basketball and I look forward to working with some of their people who I have known a long time." Real good, Bobby, real good. I hope they're still using that five second delay.

3. Congress wants to talk about passing federal legislation banning the use of performance-enhancing drugs in all professional sports leagues. Naturally, the commissioners of the various leagues do not want the practices of their league members being legislated by the feds. I can't imagine why adding one more way for their players get arrested would not be appealing.

4. Title this under "Riiiight." Earlier, the Green Bay Packers official website ran an article stating that Brett Favre had indeed decided to retire. The Packers party line:

"There's nothing to it," Packers spokesman Jeff Blumb told The Associated Press.
"People who handle our Web site had set up a dummy page in the event he was to
retire. They were asked to take down that page."

Yeah, ok. Favre's decision is expected to come soon. Let's see if it differs at all from what was posted. You know where my money is.

5. This article is upsetting, if for no other reason than it contains information about 2 players that I find it tough to root for (see, I'm getting nicer ). According to Mary Sims, the MVP comes down to, among others, Kobe, LeBron, or . . . Kevin Garnett? Sims had him as leading the race back in December, and now still has him on the list at #3. I guess he felt like he could drop him down a notch but removing him from the top five would hurt his credibility. Too late. I'm not sure KG's the MVP of his own team much less of the entire league. Sims must have gotten dunked on by him in high school and he's just trying to make himself feel better.