Detroit Free Press

NEW YORK -- People want to take Pete Sampras, throw him on a slab, hook up the wires and flip the switch -- a la ...

THE HUDDLE:All right, HUDDLE UP! Throw your arms around one another and lean in. We are here to answer questions from the football weekend. We are here to call the play for next week's games. We are here to--Would you mind getting off my foot?WHAT'S THE PLAY?Wait a minute. I'm thinking.While you're thinking, Huddle, I gotta tell ya, I am so geeked on the Lions! I am psyched! This is the year, baby! We're thunderin'! We're smokin'! We're cookin'! I'm in the ZON --Turn your radio down. Take a sedative.Hey, Huddle, can I get in?

Football is a game that takes hours to play but is defined by seconds. A fumble. A slip. A snap decision. You add those moments together and more than any statistic, they tell you who won. Here was Scott Mitchell, on the ledge of such a moment, late in the game, his debut in Detroit, trailing by a touchdown, his knee throbbing from an earlier collision and the new radio speaker in his helmet squawking like some old Russian telephone.Also, it was fourth down.And they were using their last time-out."Let's pass it," one of the coaches said.

"Hey, aren't you Rosa Parks?"It was a sentence she had heard a million times before, usually followed by a ...

I thought about retiring.After all, I've been making these pro picks since the mid- 80's, back when Curt ...

It was an ocean town, where people strolled barefoot on the boardwalk, ate saltwater taffy, and rode the Ferris wheel on a grimy promenade called the Steel Pier. Those who lived there worked in food joints, small hotels, or as jitney drivers. They made seaside wages, which were low, and many older residents did not work at all. It was hardly a boomtown, but it had its charm. Poor charm, perhaps. It became a poor place. A poor place that wanted to be rich.It turned to casino gambling.The town was Atlantic City.