Ballers, Gamers and Scoundrels

One stinking yard. Steve McNair passed for 31,304 yards during his 13-year NFL career. Had it been 31,305, he just might’ve ended up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

McNair, 35, announced his retirement today. He worked out hard during the off season to “see how his body would react to my mind,” he said today. “My mind was feeling, yes, but my body was saying, ‘What are you doing?’”

His legacy is clear at simple: Steve McNair was one of the toughest and most versatile quarterbacks ever to play the game. He epitomized the game’s warrior mystique, playing hurt for most of the last half of his career, taking pounds and yet most often rising to play again.

He’s one of only three QBs to amass more than 30,000 yards passing and at least 3,000 rushing. The other two are Fran Tarkenton and Steve Young, both of whom are already enshrined.

So why not McNair?

One stinkin’ yard. That’s what stood between McNair and a game-tying touchdown pass in finals seconds of Super Bowl XXXIV against St. Louis eight years ago at the Georgie Dome in Atlanta. On a play that started at the 10-yard-line, McNair hit wide receiver Kevin Dyson at the six, only to watch as Rams linebacker Mike Jones corralled and wrestled him down at the one just after the clock dinged :00.

After the game, McNair cried like a baby.

“It’s always going to be there,” McNair said three years ago, referring to the single yard that will always define his career. “I don’t care how many people say that they don’t think about it, you always replay it in your mind. I think about how sad and how bad I was feeling. It was a low point in my career because I think that we had a chance to win the game if we would have gotten that yard and went into overtime.”

The final score was 23-16. But it might as well have read “0″ for McNair HOF chances.

And that’s a shame. His numbers and longevity should at least give him due consideration.

He was also all that the NFL hopes its men to be. In an era too often defined by the likes of Pacman Jones, McNair was a family man of faith, a self-described country boy from Alcorn State - and a descendant, as it were, of Doug Williams, a player in whom many African Americans took pride.

The aura surrounding that day in the Georgia Dome was not quite like the one 12 years before when Williams led the Washington Redskins into Super Bowl XLI against the Denver Broncos. On that day, black America held its breath and the Redskins’ 42-10 victory, along with Williams’ courageous MVP performance, prompted what I like to call a national Negro holiday.

There was rooting for McNair, too, whom, like Williams, was nurtured at an historically black college. His loss was painful, but we moved on.

Something Steve McNair will never be able to do.

No one plays harder than Tyler Hansbrough!

No one has a bigger heart than Tyler Hansbrough!!

Tyler Hansbrough cures cancer!!!

We would not have been surprised at all to hear that last declaration from CBS announcers Dick Enberg or Jay Bilas during Saturday’s telecast of North Carolina’s exciting win over Louisville in the NCAA Tournament East Regional Finals. A few of my boys and I caught the game at one of our favorite haunts and by the middle of the second half it was clear that the talented and respected duo were beyond smitten with Tar Heel junior Tyler Hansbrough, the three-time All-American. Smitten to almost comedic proportions.

In time we were laughing out loud at the incessant fawning and lofty assertions.

Oh my Tyler Hansbrough!!!!

Nobody outworks Tyler Hansbrough!!!!!

Tyler Hansbrough stops global warming!!!!!!

Before I go on, let me be clear: Nothing I’m about to say is meant to diminish Hansbrough. Not in the least. His 28-point 13-rebound performance in UNC’s 83-73 victory was for the ages. The 6-9 forward hit 12 of 17 shots including two consecutive HUGE baskets after Louisville had erased a 12-point deficit to tie the game in the second half. From then on it was, quite frankly, as if Tyler Hansbrough was the only player on the floor. He was a downright beast hitting the kind of shots said Cardinal coach Rick Pitino, an opposing coach would “pray that he takes.”

‘Cept Hansbrough was knocking ‘em down like me and my boys were knocking back, well, never mind.

Moreover, he seems to be a nice, understated, humble kid. A Missouri native, he’s certainly shown me something.

I’m not sure what kind of pro Hansbrough will be, but he’s already one of the all-timers in college ball. He deserves his props.

But the way Enberg and Bilas were gushing you’d have thought Tyler Hansbrough was the reincarnation of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, David Thompson or, dare I say, Larry Bird. Their tone bounced from reverent to near-hysterical.

At one point I thought the veteran Enberg might start hyperventilating.

He’s a flailing crocodile, a whirling dervish!!!!!!!

To be fair, this isn’t just about the CBS duo. Much of the sports media have been lovin’ them some Tyler Hansbrough all season long. The kid gets a bloody nose earlier this season and he becomes Rocky. In fact, a colleague, Mike Freeman of CBSSportsline.com, first wrote about the media’s fascination with TH in early March. In a year that produced an array of stars on top teams - Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose, Kevin Love, just to name three - Hansbrough has been largely ordained by sports’ chattering class as the very best of them all.

He’s certainly in the discussion but he’s not so clearly better than the other top college players that his selection as player of the year should be delivered with a “Duh.”

So what are we talking about here?

To my boys it was pretty clear: “Isn’t he like the first white college superstar in like forever?” one of them said.

I thought for a moment, and the only name I could come up with was Christian Laettner, the former Duke star who left college ball in 1992. (Like most people, I completely blanked on J.J. Reddick, another Dukie who was the 2006 Naismith winner but was also a polarizing figure and pretty much an NBA bust. I couldn’t come with 2005 Gonzaga star Adam Morrison, either. See: Reddick.)

Is it really that simple? Even as our nation is on the cusp of potentially electing a black president, one who’s bravely forced us to talk about race in a manner unlike any politician ever, are we still so transparent that some of us will just get over-the-top giddy over a white guy who can ball?

Duh.

Primarily, I am annoyed at notions that evolve around “hard working” and “heart.” to assert, even in the emotion of the moment, that no one works harder that Tyler Hansbrough is asinine and unquantifiable. It feeds into the stereotype that white athletes “work hard” to achieve success while black athletes are “gifted.” Write this down: There is not an elite athlete in America that did not work hard to achieve greatness. Yes, some may have worked harder than others but to ultilize a particular hustle play to assert that no one works harder than that player is just stupid.

As for the declaration, based on Hansbrough hitting a big, tough shot down the stretch (of which he hit many on Saturday), that no one has a bigger heart, please. Heart is sports is on display every day and night on fields and courts throughout the nation and in every sport. How many big, touch in-the-clutch plays have you seen in your lifetime? Too many to count, probably. Elite athletes, who perform their best at the most challenging moments - on the biggest stages - all have heart. On that assessment, Hansbrough is just one among many bigger-heart ballers.
A generation ago, in 1987, we had this same discussion regarding the media’s views and descriptions of Larry Bird relative to the other great players of his age, particularly his clear peer, Magic. Dennis Rodman called Bird “overrated” by the media, which selected postseason awards. Isiah Thomas, then the littlest “Bad Boy,” defended his teammate: “I think Larry is a very, very good basketball player. He’s an exceptional talent. But I have to agree with Rodman. If he were black, he’d be just another good guy.”

Thomas, who was articulating the frustrations of many players in that era, meant that if Bird were black, the media would view him just as it did black stars, not deify him as many did. But rather than use the comment as a catalyst for an honest self-assessment and a discussion about how white stars were described relative to black ones, the media turned on Thomas like enemy armies on Spartan’s “300.” accusing him of racism. Ultimately, Thomas was forced to apologize.

Twenty years later, here we are again.

Tyler Hansbrough is unbelievable!!!!!!!!

Tyler Hansbrough will never be outworked!!!!!!!!!

Tyler Hansbrough rebuilds New Orleans!!!!!!!!!!

Tyler Hansbrough will no doubt be the darling of San Antonio. And what a stage. With an all-No. 1 seed Final Four, the Tar Heel has the chance to cement the legend that has already been crafted for him.

That is, unless he finds Osama bin Laden between now and then.

Coaches being fired due to, what, excessive dialing? Scandals at Harvard? Please. We’ve all gotten as soft the athletes we accuse of being too sensitive, too lazy or too “me.” The latest round of NCAA college basketball scandals - the kind that led to the firing/resignation of Kelvin Sampson at Indiana, and that are swirling about Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker - are milk toast on my scandal meter. Too many telephone calls? Running up on a recruit’s mom in a grocery store? as I said before, PLEASE!

Now listen. I hate cheating. I have two kids and the very last thing I want them to think is that Daddy condones cheating. But the NCAAs “cheating” standards have sunk to the level of damn-near-impossible to meet. Yes, Sampson, a good guy by most accounts, had used all his good-will chips. But Amaker is likely the victim of Ivy League-haters who cannot stand the fact that next season Harvard might actually compete for the league crown - and the automatic berth to the NCAA tournament (ca-ching) that goes with it. I’m not buying the cheating-at-Harvard headlines, at least not yet.

But I have to chuckle at the righteous indignation being passed about these days when the true scandal in college sports remains the pitiful graduation rates among programs that will be vying for berth in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

I’m talking true March madness.

Later this month, just after the announcement of the 65-team NCAA Tournament field, the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, at the University of Central Florida, will release its annual study of graduation rates for teams that will vie for the national title. It will be called “Keeping Score When It Counts: Graduation Rates for 2008 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament Teams.”

Last year the news wasn’t all bad, at least relative to national averages. Forty-one teams (64.1) graduated at least half of its players, which was 17.2 percent higher than the national norm. (The year before, 35 of the 65 teams failed to meet that standard.) Also in 2007, one in three teams graduated at least 60 percent of their players and 24 teams graduated 70 percent. Twelve teams in the 2007 tournament fewer than 40 percent of their players.

That’s the good news. It gets a bit dicey when you break down the data to differentiate between the graduation rates for white players and black players. why do that? Just start watching the game. It’s been two decades since I noticed that at NCAA tournament games the majority of the players are black while the majority of fans (and, yes, media) are white.

In fact, more than 60 percent of the players in Division 1 men’s basketball are black. So the comparison says more about how seriously our institutions of higher learning are taking their mandate to educate our young men relative to their desire to win.

In 2007, 41 of the teams in the field (68.3 percent) graduated at least 70 percent of their white basketball players, while only 19 teams (30.2 percent) graduated 70 percent or more of their African-American players - a 38.1 percentage point gap.

Forty-nine (81.7 percent) of the tournament teams graduated 60 percent or more of their white basketball student-athletes, but only 29 teams (46 percent) graduated 60 percent or more of their African-American players - a 35.7 percentage point spread.

Finally, 57 schools (95 percent) graduated at least half of their white players, but only 34 schools (54 percent) graduated as many black players - a 41 percentage point difference.

Dr. Richard Lapchick, a long-time advocate for race and gender equality in sports and the author of the study sad last year: “We have to look at race as a continuing academic issue, reflected in the remaining huge gaps between graduation rates for white and African-American student-athletes. Men’s basketball has the worst record for graduation rates among all college sports.”

Overall, the 2007 study noted that only half percent of the black players graduate, compared with 76 percent of the white players. Lapchick called this disparity “startling.”

He noted that 2007 was “the first time that the disparity is greater for between white and African-American basketball student-athletes than for white and African-American students as a whole.”

When the NCAA committee sequesters itself next weekend to decide who deserves a coveted invitation, it will digest reams of data, including RPIs and wins versus quality opponents and all kinds of minutia. Unfortunately, one byte of data they won’t consider is graduation rates.

Frankly, I believe no team that graduates fewer than four in ten players should be allowed to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Is that too old-school for you? Too naive, you say? Too bad. I’m still one of those guys who believes schools should be, well, schools first and not simply athletic factories.

Some of the responsibility for graduating is on the student-athletes, I know. As many young athletes - and yes particularly black athletes - are using their schools as much as their schools are using them. It’s a win-in for everyone. Or a lose-lose depending on your perspective.

Let’s be real: Forty percent isn’t a very high bar. But it’s something. Requiring a team to reach that standard - in any sport - isn’t asking too much. But maybe it’s asking enough for the schools to take it at least a bit more seriously than they are now.

Or at least as serious as they take trying to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Is that really so mad?

As major-leaguers gather in Florida and Arizona to stretch their hammies and revive their pitching arms, the game cannot ignore its continuing dilemma regarding American youth. Specifically black inner-city youths, who’ve dropped the game so far down its list of “games we play” there seem to be more African-American kids swinging golf clubs than baseball bats - which once seemed about as far fetched as America electing a black president.

No use rehashing the numbers. Everyone knows the numbers of black players in the majors is dwindling. The likes of NL MVP Jimmy Rollins and AL Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia are a anomalies today, a fact that isn’t likely to change soon.

Yet that has not dissuaded baseball from embarking on a wave of initiatives aimed at what we now call “urban” youth, with an emphasis on simply replanting the seed that once flourished among young blacks. The latest effort is called the Urban Invitational Baseball Tournament, a unique four-team event that will be held this weekend at baseball’s Urban Youth Academy in Compton, CA.

Think of it as the World Baseball Classic in the ‘Hood. Participants comprise two traditional college baseball powers, UCLA (Jackie Robinson’s alma mater, which is ranked No. 1 in the Baseball America poll) and USC (winners of 12 national titles) and two teams representing historically black colleges, Bethune-Cookman and Southern. BC graduated its top three batters from last season, who hit 27 of the team’s 40 HRs. Nonetheless, the ‘Cats and Southern are ranked Nos. 2 and 3 respectively in Black College Baseball’s preseason poll, so if you’re thinking rollover, well, you’re not thinking. BC has reached the NCAAs seven of the last eight years.

The Urban Invite is part of multi-pronged approach to exposing more African-American youth to the game and ensuring that if they want to play, they’re be able to find and field or a team or a coach - something or someone that will allow them to do so. Combined with the ongoing RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) program, the Urban Academy itself and, to a lesser degree, the annual Civil Right Game that takes place in Memphis on March 29, the events are to be commended for, if not results, their breadth and tenacity.

Jimmie Lee Solomon, the Executive Vice President or Baseball Ops (and game’s patron saint of its diversity efforts) says the goal of the Urban Invitation is to give “exposure to the HBCU baseball programs and an awareness of opportunities that exist there, and the high caliber of play they provide.” Another hope is that event creates “buzz” akin to college football’s Bayou Classic, an annual event featuring black-college football rivals Grambling State and Southern at the Superdome in New Orleans that sells out and has essentially become the black college football Super Bowl. While that may be a bit much to hope for the Urban Invite (at least for now), the event will be highlighted by a first-time ever “battle” between Southern’s famous marching band, “Human Jukebox,” and the marching USC Trojans.

Check out the JukeBox video: Click HERE.

More importantly, check out the Southern Dancing Dolls:

(Heck, Sunday’s “battle” between the dancing Dolls and the USC Song Girls is no doubt worth the five-buck ticket price by itself.)

Oh yeah, this is about baseball. My bad. Anyway, all of these initiatives combined may not alter the trend that is changing the face of baseball’s major leagues - at least not in our lifetime. But perhaps that should not be the goal.

Baseball is planning on expanding its urban academy concept to cities such as Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Miami and Atlanta. If through all these efforts, the game became another positive option for the myriad young men today who have too few then it would have accomplished something more critical than if just a handful of brothers reached the majors. If a dozen more black kids earned baseball scholarships to Bethune Cookman, Southern, UCLA or USC then the game would have truly honored the legacy of the man who changed it more than any other.

See, I’m not the only one. Blogger Mr. Irrelevant was watching TV the other night and commented that North Carolina coach Roy Williams had fielded an all-white squad. Granted the Heels were up by 40+ against Virginia Tech. But still ….

At some point, we all knew technology and the underbelly of college sports would converge into one sickening mass. It’s happened.

Thanks the Seattle Times, a scum alum has been exposed. Based on two emails sent to University of Washington president Mark Emmert - the first on, Oct. 30, the latter on Nov. 29 - and obtained via public record by the Seattle Times, Ed Hansen, a lawyer, developer, banker, 1966 graduate of the university’s law school and former mayor of Everett, Wash., said he’d donate $100,000 to the school if head football coach Tyrone Willingham was fired. He also offered to donate another $100,000 if athletic director Todd Turner was fired.

Here are the contents of the emails, as reported by the Times: In the initial email, Hansen said he’d “decided to defer establishing the law school scholarship until Ty Willingham is replaced as Husky football coach,” according to the report.

Later, Hansen went on: “By this letter I hereby pledge to contribute a minimum of $100,000 towards a law school scholarship within 90 days, conditioned upon the termination of Ty Willingham as football coach.

“In addition, I hereby pledge a second $100,000 towards a law school scholarship within 90 days, conditioned upon the termination of Todd Turner as athletic director.”

I am sure this sort of thing has gone on as long as there have been fat-cat boosters and college coaches. But damn. It’s still amazing.

The Huskies were 4-9 this past season, their third straight losing record under Willingham, who took over a program that had been in turmoil under former coach Rick Neuheisel. There have been some rumblings (aren’t there almost everywhere except, maybe , LSU?). As well as support: Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander e-mailed, saying that he’d hung out with several Husky players and was pleased “with the direction of the program and the character of the guys Ty has been bringing in … Let him finish what he started and you’ll be pleased with all your decisions.”

To his credit, Emmert, the school president is ignoring the madness. He says he ignores any financial threats or inducements related to personnel decisions. he told the newspaper that the emails are “grossly inappropriate.”

Ya think?

Watch a report on Willingham’s rehiring:

The one without the clue is on the right.

What is it about Duke? Okay, maybe that’s not fair. But it did make me scratch my head and wonder when I read what Kelly Tilghman, a former Blue Devil golfer, said on the Golf Channel last Friday during her gig as co-lead announcer for the network’s telecast of the Mercedes-Benz Championship, the PGA Tour’s inaugural event of the season.

It’s been widely reported that this is how it went down: As Kelly and her on-air partner Nick Faldo they wrapped up the telecast at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, they engaged in a discussion about young players who possibly could challenge Tiger. Faldo jokingly said perhaps those players should “gang up [on Woods] for a while.” They chuckled then Tilghman (and this is why comedy should be left to the professionals) added, “Lynch him in a back alley.”

The announcers chuckled awkwardly before moving on.

Watch the video:

Had Woods been white, to use one of the most heinous crimes committed in this nation to illustrate God-knows that point would have been egregious. But that he’s not makes the remark unconscionable. And punishable.

It would be a travesty if Tilghman is allowed to broadcast the next event for the Golf Channel. (It speaks volumes already that she was allowed to sit on the air all day Saturday, as if nothing happened. She then offered an on-air apology on Sunday but still did the entire telecast.)

At minimum, a suspension is in order. Some will surely call for a firing. If the network does nothing - just months after the Jena 6 dominated the nation’s airwaves - it would make a significant statement about the network’s tolerance of such actions. A statement that would hurt the sport of golf and rekindle memories of a racist history that Woods’ success has helped diminish.

Doing nothing would remind us of Fuzzy Zoeller.

Doing nothing would remind us of Shoal Creek.

Doing nothing would not be smart.

Okay, so it’s just the Golf Channel. And Kelly Tilghman is simply a hottie that was given an opportunity to anchor a telecast because can swing a golf club.

That is not the point. Tolerance of this sort of talk, at any level in our industry, simply cannot be tolerated.

Your move, GC.

Tilghman says she’s reached out to Woods to apologize. (Interestingly, they are friends.) Here’s hoping, at least for the moment - until the Golf Channel makes its statement - that he does not accept the call. Or the apology.

Roy’s Update: The Golf Channel issued this statement and has linked it on it’s homepage.

Tiger’s representative, Mark Steinberg says the matter is a “non-issue” with the golfer: “Tiger and Kelly are friends and Tiger has a great deal of respect for Kelly,” he said. “Regardless of the choice of words used we know unequivocally that there was no ill-intent in her comments. This story is a non-issue in our eyes.”

Oh, now they’re talking. Faced with stain that might never disappear, many of the major-leaguers named in the Mitchell Report are doing something they should have done a long time ago - they’re ‘fessing up.

Well, at least some of them are. Roger Clemens (the new face of the Steroids Era) has thus far allowed his lawyer/puppet to speak for him, issuing the requisite denial that’s now worth about as much as a used rosin bag. Until Roger speaks for himself - and under oath - he deserves to be treated just as Barry Bonds has been: Guilty until proven innocent.

As for those who are finally talking:

David Justice made a convincing argument that he never used steroids (he was in the report as having bought them) by admitting that he and needles have never seen, well, eye to butt. Confessing that he just might have ingested the substance had it been a pill, he said that once he learned he needed a needle to take the stuff it was end of experiment. “Anyone who knows me knows that,” he said.

So why didn’t he say that to George Mitchell?

And then there’s Andy Pettitte - the “little brother” in all this mess whom many feel was caught up in the stuff due as much to his friendship with Clemens as anything. Pettitte (that’s his autograph above), by all accounts, is a sensitive “stand-up guy,” and I have no reason to dispute that. In fact, I would bet most of the guys on the infamous list are pretty stand-up guys. They just happen to be pros in baseball’s win-at-all costs era when some people made choices that have finally come to bite them in the butt.

Here’s what the MR says: “From April 21 to June 14, 2002, Pettitte was on the disabled list with elbow tendinitis. [Informant Brian] McNamee said that Pettitte called him while he was rehabilitating his elbow in Tampa, where the Yankees have a facility, and asked again about human growth hormone. Pettitte stated that he wanted to speed his recovery and help his team. McNamee traveled to Tampa at Pettitte’s request and spent about 10 days assisting Pettitte with his rehabilitation.

“McNamee recalled that he injected Pettitte with human growth hormone that McNamee obtained from [former Mets clubhouse guy Kirk] Radomski on two to four occasions. Pettitte paid McNamee for the trip and his expenses; there was no separate payment for the human growth hormone.”

Pettitte tried to throw himself at the mercy of public opinion on Saturday, admitting he took Human Growth Hormone for two days prior to the 2002 season in order to speed the healing of his injured elbow. He said he felt obliged to get back to his team as soon as not-so-humanly possible. He said he felt guilty about it as soon as he did it, which is why he only took the hormone for two days.

“This is it,” Pettitte says, “two days out of my life; two days out of my entire career, when I was injured and on the disabled list.”

But he also made this curious remark: “If what I did was an error in judgment on my part, I apologize.”

If what he did was an effort in judgment? What that supposed to mean? Pettitte added that he accepts responsibility for taking the drugs but does he really when he hedges his confession with an “if?”

Is there any question that taking HGH was, at minimum, an error in judgment?

This is as silly as the proverbial statement folks make after they’ve made some insensitive (okay, I’ll say it: racists or sexist or simply stupid ) remark: “If I offended someone…” If you offended someone? Knucklehead, if you hadn’t offended someone - most likely millions of someones - you wouldn’t be making the statement in the first place.

Beginning your mea culpa with “if” tells me you’re really not sorry you said it, only sorry you said it in front of a microphone. It says you’re not really accepting responsibility.

Pettitte only gets a slight pass because the statement was actually issued by an attorney/agent - perhaps the same attorney/agent who advised Pettitte not to talk to Mitchell.

If so, Pettitte not only needs to issue a new statement. He needs to hire a new lawyer.

I’m not surprised.

Saddened. But not surprised.

Incensed. But not surprised.

My former colleagues named Green Bay QB Brett Favre their 2007 Sportsman of the Year today. Great guy. Great QB, and he’s having an unexpectedly great season. (At least he was until that little visit to Dallas at few days back.)

But, uh, Tony Dungy?? Great Guy. Great coach, and he won the freakin’ Super Bowl! He led his team, the Indianapolis Colts, to the biggest championship in pro sports a year after his teen-aged son committed suicide. A year after Dungy showed America what it was like to be a man of great faith in the midst of unspeakable tragedy.

And during that year - when he questioned whether he should coach again, comforted his wife and children, and dealt with his own great pain - Tony Dungy lived that faith, talked that faith and walked that faith, and he touched all of America as his team reached the pinnacle of its sport.

Tony Dungy was America’s coach.

And oh yes, he became the first African-American coach to win the Super Bowl, and in doing so, achieved a milestone that stands alongside all the great firsts achieved by so many people of color throughout our nation’s tortured racial history. But to me, that’s secondary to the way he embodied being a man in the midst of the storm of storms. That’s why he was my selection for SI’s 2007 Sportsman of the Year. No-brainer.

But I don’t work there any more. That’s full disclosure for those who find this post and don’t know that 12 years of my professional life were spent at the magazine.

I was there long enough to not be surprised at this selection. Favre has long been a favorite of the top editors there. Years ago, when it looked as if his Hall of Fame career was done, as he fought on gamely while it looked like his prodigious skills had eroded and that he should perhaps retire, they were looking for ways to tout him.

In fact I chuckled when the magazine published the cover below in December, 2006, a year after I last departed. I chuckled because there had been discussions about a Favre cover touting “Leadership” as far back as when I was still there. When I saw the “For the Love of the Game” cover I said to myself: “They finally figured out a way to get that cover.”

Yeah, they love them some Favre over there at SI. Little did I know how much.

Too bad. They missed a great story. They missed a great opportunity. They missed a great man.

I’m not surprised.

Bad news travels fast. Good news? Well, it generally chugs it’s way around the block, if it travels at all.

Just days before the tragic death of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor kidnapped the sports airwaves, a tale of new life an opportunity unfolded ion Philadelphia with - sadly - hardly a peep.

Philadelphia Phillies All-Star shortstop Jimmy Rollins, the 2007 National League MVP, donated 32 new Dell computers to Olney West, a high school in Northern Philly. The machines helped created the school’s first computer facility, which the students dubbed “The J-Roll MVP Computer Lab.”

Did you hear about it? Probably not.

Too bad. But not surprising. You missed a pretty good story, one that should have a profoundly positive effect on group of kids who deserve such. During his time at the school, Rollins spent time with the students, laughed with and inspired them. He cut ribbons and posed for pics, and was feted with thanks. One student sang her own version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” with the lyrics changed to reflect Rollins many charitable efforts around town.

“Lately,” said Tyaera Jones, a 17-year-old senior, “our city as a reputation for violence, but [Rollins] is a perfect example of what our city is really about.”

Rollins was presented with an Olney West T-shirt by principal Rita Hardy, who said the school had never received a donation “on this level.” With the following day being Rollins’ 29th birthday, he was also offered a cake with chocolate icing and showered with a chorus of “Happy Birthday.”

But you probably didn’t hear about it.

You probably know that Rollins represents a dwindling breed: African-American baseball players. They are but 9 percent of all major-leaguers and Rollins, as well as a few other black players, has been vocal about his desire to see the trend reversed. At the school, he said: “We have to let some of these kids in the city know, and change their perspective that baseball is not just a ‘white man’s game,’ as they would see it.”

Interestingly, the NL’s newest MVP and Cy Young winner, C.C. Sabathia, are black.

That you probably knew. At least some good news travels.