Column: Streak is history, the question remains

CHICAGO | Losing game after game is nerve-racking, sure, but after a point, so is winning.

Column: NFL's 'nice little story' gets even better

The Colts were a nice little story six weeks ago.

Column: Knight not living in past, will auction it

Here are a few things you won't find among the many items Bob Knight is putting on the auction block over the next two months in New York:

Column: NFL deserves penalty for arrogance

Sometimes you put a foot down wrong and don't find out for a week or two that you actually dislocated a hip. That's how it's going to be if the NFL sticks with its plan to start the regular season with replacement referees — from mild annoyance to major pain to humongous regret. And all beca…

COMMENTARY: 40 years of pain worth a minute of silence

LONDON | A minute of silence carved out of a three-hour opening ceremony is not too much to ask. It works out to little more than five seconds for each victim. Besides, the widows and families of the Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian gunmen at the 1972 Munich Games have been waiting f…

Identify the best, or embarrass them? Both

SAN FRANCISCO | The real star of this U.S. Open won't swing a golf club even once this week. Most fans couldn't pick him out of a lineup. No matter how aggravating The Olympic Club plays, he barely has enough hair left to pull any out.

JIM LITKE COLUMN: Players call NCAA's bluff, demanding share of growing riches be spent on education

The number of people who buy the NCAA's argument that amateurism is the backbone of college sports is dwindling by the day.

JIM LITKE: Owners should leave fashion to Tim Gunn

As a general rule, sports team owners should leave the fashion tips to Tim Gunn.

The "other" Manning QB searches for his voice

Asked where he ranked among NBA greats, Moses Malone didn't have to think long.

JIM LITKE: Bud has a long memory, but forgets quick, too

Bud Selig prides himself on being a student of history. In two judgments last week, though, baseball's long-serving steward reminded us he can be a fan of selective memory, too, so long as it suits his purpose.

JIM LITKE: NCAA justice not denied, but delayed another story

Bruce Pearl is hardly the first coach to cheat and-or lie to NCAA investigators, just one of the very few whose transgressions already cost him a job and could wind up costing him a career.

An inferiority complex 101 years in the making for Cubs

CHICAGO | For those who say 101 years is plenty of time to get over an inferiority complex, meet the fans of the 2009 Cubs.

Could Cubs, Sox meet in the World Series?

CHICAGO | The last time they met on baseball's grandest stage, it was preceded by earthquakes registering at least 7.8 on the Richter scale in San Francisco, Ecuador and Chile. There were major riots in Atlanta, Paris and Stockholm. Mount Vesuvius erupted and a 200-foot wide stream of lava f…

Manning makes it a family affair

GLENDALE, Ariz. | Move over, Peyton. Make room in the Manning family trophy case, Archie.

Bad reception the least of Sampson's phone problems at IU

COLLEGE BASKETBALL COMMENTARY

Only Tiger can cool Tiger off

TULSA, Okla. | The man never runs out of surprises.

Sergio needs to learn there's no crying in golf, either

COMMENTARY

When even chess is drug-testing, golf can't afford to hold out

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland | Golf doesn't have a drug problem.

Maybe pro wrestling has lost control of the script

Hucksters make their living ahead of the curve, or at the very least, by selling that illusion.

A coronation for certain -- but will it be for King James?

Four days later, people are still debating where LeBron James' 25 straight points to end Game 5 ranks on the NBA's list of all-time best finishes. The only point worth adding is this: Whoever has James' ear between now and Thursday can serve the King best by reminding him that better be just…

One eye good enough for brave Derby horse

COMMENTARY

Baseball's Hatfield-McCoy feud has long way to run

After decades of study, scientists revealed nearly three weeks ago that a disease may help explain the long-running feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. Had those same researchers asked, Red Sox fans could have suggested something much simpler.

Where does Florida belong on the all-time list?

ATLANTA | Most kids think the world began when they started watching TV.

Maybe this time, Self won't be denied

Talented teams are a given with Bill Self.

Will baseball be very, very good to Sosa again?

Sammy Sosa didn't come out of hiding and amble into baseball for the money. He's got plenty.

Split personality: Grossman shows flashes of Bart Starr -- and Bart Simpson

CHICAGO | After almost 500 throws during the regular season, half that many in practice each and every week, and three dozen more against the Seahawks late Sunday afternoon Bears quarterback Rex Grossman finally let one fly that kept a city from tossing him into the lake.

The real damage has already been done

Overspending isn't the point of the baseball meetings, it just seems that way.

Picking up the pieces

COLLEGE FOOTBALL | COMMENTARY

Young Fitzgerald has huge task ahead for NU

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

New NFL boss more of the same old, same old

NORTHBROOK, Ill. | The handoff couldn't have been much smoother.

From here on, it can only get harder for Tiger

MAMARONECK, N.Y. | Failure is never a welcome teacher, just a necessary one. And the lesson it taught Tiger Woods on a steamy Friday at the U.S. Open is going to take some time to learn.

The All-Performance-Enhancing team just got much bigger

Picking baseball's All-Performance-Enhancing team just got a whole lot easier. Because now, just about everybody who dropped in or out of the game in the last decade is in play.

Barbaro lives the luxe life before his date with destiny

The horse has it made.

Golfers struggle in a no-fun Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. | Tony Soprano should be half as feared as Masters chairman Hootie Johnson is.

One souvenir Peyton Manning could do without

PRO FOOTBALL | COMMENTARY

Riley pats own back, hires himself

Inside

Nice, nice baby? Not the NHL

Settling in for what should be the best game of the new NHL season.

BCS pulse barely beating

This is why you've got to love the newly reconstituted BCS:

Steroid scandals should hardly surprise

Enough with the "shocked" already.

All the rage not so good for youth sports

COMMENTARY

Wait lifted in Washington

WASHINGTON | Love makes the world go 'round, but it still takes cash to make the turnstiles spin.

Caddies lack enough hands in rain

AUGUSTA, Ga. | Not enough hands.

These Illini have few rules -- and no conscience

ST. LOUIS | Anytime.

Long-range shot about to get longer

ST. LOUIS | Add college basketball coaches to the long line of guys who can't stand prosperity.

Fans bring boos for Pearl

ROSEMONT | Bruce Pearl knows it's just as easy to scorn the accuser as the accused, a lesson he learned the hard way Thursday night.

Lubbock's Knight in shining armor

There's no mistaking the new Bob Knight.

3 out of 4 ain't bad for Brady, bunch

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. | Tom Brady was far from flawless.

Sharp-dressed men? Not these coaches

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. | And now for the show within the show.

For Bulls, it pays to be patient

Keep in mind that coach Scott Skiles gets paid a lot to make sure the glass always looks half-full. Anybody else who says they saw the Chicago Bulls in the playoff hunt midway through this season is either lying or had better have a doctor's note explaining they've been in a coma.