John Madden is giving up his NFL commentating gig after 30 seasons. (See the news story here.) He was quoted as saying, “It’s time.” And it is. Madden long ago had become a caricature of himself, with his sound effects, and wild scrawls on a telestrator and his nearly incoherent ramblings.

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Just because it is logistically possible to make a road trip … doesn’t mean you ought to. A couple of weeks ahead of that theoretically possible trip, I never remember that idea, above. A couple hours before I leave … then I remember, but the money has been spent and I’m committed and, well, here […]

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If I could go back to the height of steroids abuse in baseball … and maybe 2002, 2003 would be it … I am convinced I could pick out the users, most of them, just by looking at them. I now believe I can spot the reckless or unsophisticated user — and that was most […]

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Pretty much all of us hang around too long, if we can get away with it. Getting career exits just right is a very tricky process, and so few of us manage it. Brett Favre certainly didn’t get it right. He should have remained retired after his tearful announcement in Green Bay a year ago. […]

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I haven’t done a list in ages. Since before Hong Kong. Maybe since before Beijing. I was looking occasionally at the Pro Bowl today, and I remembered a stat about that … So, in the vein of “it’s all about me” … 10 events I covered, as a sports writer — that happened an impossibly […]

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I’ve been back in the Western Hemisphere for, let’s see … 16-plus hours now … so I’m back to being an expert on all American sports. Thus, I can speak authoritatively on the Super Bowl, which begins in only XLIII commercials from now. Which reminds me of something else:

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I love the Super Bowl for one reason as much as any: It keeps Roman numerals alive. I had to sit and think for a minute, but I still know what 43 is. In fact, I can write any number up to 3,999 (that would be MMMCMXCIX, I do believe) in Roman numerals. (I don’t […]

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I am struck, today, by how far in the past my tenure with Gannett/MediaNews/L.A. News Group/San Bernardino Sun seems. It has been only nine months since those entities were huge in my life, but it seems like years. Probably because I’ve been through what seems to be a couple of major changes. Moving to Long […]

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I believe many Americans are puzzled as to why the National Football League isn’t embraced by the rest of the planet. That is,  when Americans consider the rest of the planet, which we don’t do as often as we should. Well, after three months of seeing lots of soccer and rugby … I can confirm […]

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So, it’s Sunday. I got out of bed and went to my cable TV and began trolling for the “random NFL game being televised in Hong Kong” … and found nothing. “Hmm,” I thought. “Maybe it’s because England is playing a World Cup qualifier. … Or maybe they chose the Boston-Tampa Bay ballgame, instead.” Only […]

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