December 18, 2006 Table Of Contents
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THERE'S A FRESH TAKE ON GOLF EVERY DAY AT SI.COM/GOLF.
A 47-Year-Old Tour Virgin, Jim Rutledge Is The Oldest Rookie But with a well-traveled game, a loving, healthy family and a newfound confidence, Rutledge could be the first-year player who does the most damage in 2007
A gift-giver's guide to a trio of whopping volumes designed to break backs, bust budgets and bring a little golfing cheer to the holiday season
How the Tour would look without Woods
By Mike Purkey
PGA Tour Announces Stringent Drug-Testing Policy
SI recently drafted a press release trumpeting the PGA Tour's plans to penalize players who are caught usingperformance-enhancing drugs
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So your plan to build a playoff powerhouse didn't pan out, and you're thinking there's no sense in dwelling on the past. But as you look to next year, history is your best teacher
By Gene Menez
WE LIKE THE MATCHUP
By Adam Duerson
DON'T LIKE THE MATCHUP
By Chris Mannix
Air and Space
By Steve Rushin
SI Players
Its streak is broken, but a wrestling power stays on top
By E.M. Swift
Looking back at a surprising year that kept the high in high school sports
The Year in Sports Media 2006: MOVIES • DVDS • TELEVISION • BOOKS • INTERNET • VIDEO GAMES
The Year in Sports Media 2006
Standing out in a year of silly, slight and sentimental films, We Are Marshall tells the moving story of a team and a town struggling to get past a tragedy
He's thicker and slower in Rocky Balboa, but Stallone's punchy hero recaptures his youthful appeal in Round 6
It was a year for fresh insights on old heroes--and a watershed steroids exposé that damned many stars
By Tom Verducci
Changes on Sunday and Monday nights rocked the NFL's prime-time landscape
By Bill Syken
MLB's site is changing the way fans watch their teams
A revolutionary system gets gamers out of their seats
By Adam Duerson
Pro Football
In his native Houston, in front of friends and family, Titans rookie Vince Young gotpayback on the team that didn't want him--and showed the NFL the shape of things to come
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
The smashing debut of 7-foot Ohio State freshman Greg Oden has reshaped the college hoops landscape and made the Buckeyes the team to beat
By Grant Wahl
Baseball
Flush with cash, teams are lavishing eight-figure salaries on some of the most unlikely free agents (Gil Meche?). Good news for the '07 crop: Binge spending won't be a one-year phenomenon
By Tom Verducci
PRO FOOTBALL
Handsome, hardworking, underappreciated New York Giants running back Tiki Barber is about to hang up his cleats. But guess what? You'll be seeing even more of him once he's out of the game
Inside
By Luke Winn
By Peter King
Dr. Z's Forecast: Giants Grind Out a Victory
Life of Reilly
By Rick Reilly
Departments
The city loved him for embodying its blue-collar ideals—and winning a lot of basketball games—but now it's time for Allen Iverson to move on
Why young coaches are turning down high-profile jobs
By Phil Taylor
The 45-year-old actor (The Bad News Bears, Breaking Away) costars in Little Children
By Adam Duerson
What to watch and watch for
By Chris Mannix
The 50th Pop Warner Super Bowl in Orlando showed how far the game has come, and where it's going