TheLineup

Departments

4 Leading Off

12 Letters

14 Catching Up With ...

17 Air and Space

Yes, they're rich, but do sports stars treasure anything as much as their old Christmas toys? by Steve Rushin

18 Scorecard

• The Grinch stole hockey

• SI's exotic holiday gift guide

• Mia Hamm's farewell to the pitch

• The Show: Heisman vs. Heisman

34 Faces in the Crowd

37 Players

98 The Life of Reilly

Baghdad to the Big 12: an Aggie with a Purple Heart by Rick Reilly

Inside ...

84 The NFL

• Weis to juggle Patriots, Irish jobs

91 The NBA

• Carmelo Anthony's learning curve

95 College Football

• Will recruits flock to Spurrier?

97 College Basketball

• Hoosiers taking a hammering

PRO FOOTBALL

48 Passing Marks

The Colts' Peyton Manning is on the verge of breaking a hallowed record set by one of his quarterbacking idols

by Michael Silver

PRO BASKETBALL

56 Suspiciously Good

The surprising Sonics are off to a torrid start--and doubters are starting to believe

by Chris Ballard

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

60 Ready for Takeoff

Senior forward and newly licensed pilot Joey Graham is flying high for the unbeaten Oklahoma State Cowboys

by Grant Wahl

BASEBALL

66 He Gets $33 Million?

At the winter meetings teams spent fortunes on second-tier pitchers such as Russ Ortiz

by Tom Verducci

BASEBALL

72 Pride of Peabody

Jeff Allison, bound for big-league stardom, was nearly killed by drugs

by Michael Bamberger

Cover

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN BIEVER

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SI.com

• More college hoops scoop from Kelli Anderson, Seth Davis, Grant Wahl, Stewart Mandel and Luke Winn, plus scores, breaking news and rankings, at SI.com/basketball/ncaa.

COLOR PHOTO

BILL FRAKES (GRAHAM)

HE'S GOT HIS PROPS

Oklahoma State's Joey Graham is mad about hoops and planes (page 60).

COLOR PHOTO

JIM DALY/SALEM NEWS (ALLISON)