Detroit Free Press

MIAMI - After three touchdowns, one interception, three fumbles - two of them back-to-back - one muffed extra ...

Joe Biden thought he was giving a compliment.He says it was a compliment.He promises it wasn't an insult.And it proves: We hear what we want to hear.Let's examine exactly what Biden told the New York Observer when asked about Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as a presidential candidate. This is how it was widely quoted in the press: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

MITCH ALBOM COLTS 31, BEARS 17 The AFC was better this season. The Colts were the best of the AFC. The Bears have been wobbly in the two areas you can't be wobbly if you want to win a Super Bowl: quarterback and defense. If both of those are magnificent tonight, the Bears could pull the upset. But the Colts can control the game as long as they don't turn the ball over. Bet on Indy's win over New England to be the hump it needed to clear: The Super Bowl may actually be less pressure.

Well, well. Old Blue Eyes is back.Or is it Old Gray Hair?I knew you couldn't stay away, Curt. Like it says in the ...

I'm a week late in telling you this, but I'm still six days early. So for your sanity, please listen up.Make your Super Bowl prediction now!Otherwise, your brain will turn to mush, your ears will clog with statistics, you'll see Michael Irvin and Tom Jackson arguing in your sleep, and you will only make your pick next Sunday on what you'll tell yourself is thorough, brilliant analysis when it is, in fact, and I want to use a scientific term here, blah, blah, blah. Nothing happens.Remember that phrase. Nothing happens.

If you can't sing, you can't sing. It's sort of like height - you got it or you don't. So you'd think the off-key ...

Eleven years old. I was in the fifth grade. I wore black sneakers. I rode a Sting-Ray bicycle. I climbed trees with friends. I had never kissed a girl. I ate Cocoa Puffs for breakfast. That summer I went to sleepaway camp and a man landed on the moon. When I got home, I built a plastic model of Apollo 11 and kept it in my bedroom.Eleven years old. I have been thinking about how young that is, in light of arguments last week over how old it is.

I would like to write a glowing column about Chris Webber, one that celebrates him home. But it's not that easy.I would like to cheer his return, talk about winning a title with his hometown team in the autumn of his career. But it's not that simple.I would like to share only positive things about Chris Webber as I have been privileged to know many of them, his family, his intelligence, his grace. I once liked this kid as much as I've ever liked any young athlete in Detroit. But that wouldn't be the whole story.