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Backup Plans
With quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning and Derek Anderson missing time with injuries, backups have had a chance to prove their worth. This week SI.com writer Don Banks rates the NFL's second-string QBs, including Brady Quinn. Plus...
• News on roster cuts around the league
• Photo galleries of impact rookies
• Play Fantasy Football on Facebook
FOR FOOTBALL PREVIEWS AND ANALYSIS, CHECK OUT SI.COM/NFL.
FEATURED WRITERS
STEWART MANDEL
Inside College Football
Predicting the outcomes of this weekend's marquee matchups
SI.com/mandel
JON HEYMAN
Inside Baseball
The latest news and notes from around the majors
SI.com/heyman
TIM LAYDEN
Inside Olympics
My indelible Beijing memory: Liu Xiang pulling out of the 110 hurdles
SI.com/layden
FRANCHISE PLAYERS
The Start of Something Great
Hanley Ramirez or David Wright? If you were starting a baseball team and hoped to remain a contender for the long-term, which one would you choose? This week Baseball Prospectus senior writer Nate Silver uses his PECOTA system, which gives seven-year projections for each player based on his historical comparables, to rank the best players to build a team around.
> Check out SI.com's baseball photo galleries at SI.com/photos.
SI VAULT
YOUR LINK TO SPORTS HISTORY
FROM SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
SEPTEMBER 20, 1999
As a 17-year-old, Serena Williams won the U.S. Open and became the first African-American since Arthur Ashe in 1975 to earn a Grand Slam singles title. SI writer S.L. Price witnessed the historic victory, which was awkward for her older sister Venus who lost in the semis.
IT WAS almost like a death, that loss for Venus," Oracene [Williams] said. It was late last Saturday night, hours after [her daughter] Serena had made history and scored a massive upset by outmuscling and outthinking No. 1 Martina Hingis 6--3, 7--6. Her husband, who had stirred the pot before the Open by predicting a Williams-Williams final, baiting Hingis into saying he had a "big mouth" and sparking a dopily orchestrated hug between the two in the first week, had already boarded his flight home to West Palm Beach. "Venus didn't sleep, and I felt her emotion all night, so I couldn't sleep well either," Oracene said. "She thinks since she's the oldest, she should've been the first, that maybe she should've been tougher."
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MATTHEW EMMONS/US PRESSWIRE (QUINN)
BIG BROWN Quinn is one of the best second-stringers.
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HEINZ KLUETMEIER (RAMIREZ)
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MEL LEVINE (MANDEL)
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MEL LEVINE (HEYMAN)
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MARY SCHILPP/CLP (WILLIAMS)
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