Detroit Free Press

LET'S SEE. You can't hit the umpires, you can't bet on your own games, and you definitely can't play after ...

JUST OVER two minutes left in the Super Bowl. The score is tied. You are the quarterback. The ball is yours. What swirls inside your brain? Nerves? Hesitation? Does the inner voice say, "Be careful"? Does the inner voice say, "No mistakes"? Does the inner voice say, "The whole world is watching. Take it easy. Small steps"?Or does it say, "Aw, heck, go for the whole thing"?

ATLANTA -- I still remember my first ad. I was 6 years old, and my sister and I were selling lemonade on the curb in front of our house. In order to attract people driving by -- not that there were many driving by -- we needed a sign. So we got a piece of cardboard, a red Magic Marker and wrote the words, "Lemonade, 5 cents."Never mind that our letters were too big and that by the time we reached the "d," we were out of space. All in all, it was a good ad. Simple. Effective. Inexpensive. Reached the people.

FIRST OF ALL, Curt, congratulations on finally making it to Atlanta to do that Super Bowl story on the ...

ATLANTA -- "Come on, already. Don't you doi>anything wrong?"This question, which might be unique in the history of ...

ATLANTA -- You want focus? This is focus. It's freezing cold, and the Tennessee Titans are huddled in the hotel's last warm hallway before venturing outside into the media tent. Most are griping about having to do these interviews in the first place, let alone with their hands stuffed in their pockets and their heads covered in stocking caps.Except one.

If Super Bowls carried subtitles, then the line beneath this first Big Game of the Millennium would surely be: "What-Are-These-Guys Doing Here?"You would say it about the Tennessee Titans, a movable franchise with four homes in the past four years. What are they doing here? You would say it about Kurt Warner, the St. Louis quarterback who came out of arena football to be this year's MVP. What is he doing here?

In this country, land of the free, the Supreme Court just heard arguments over whether grandparents have rights to see their grandchildren.Those in favor say a child needs a grandparent's love. Nothing, they say, is more important than family.In this same country, land of the free, lawyers claim that a 6-year-old boy is better off away from his father than with him. They say that returning Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, where his father lives, would be bad for the boy. Some things, they say, are more important than family.I ask the obvious question:Which is it?