Lineup

FEATURES

COLLEGEFOOTBALL
28 The Tide Is Turning
The big surprise on opening weekend was Alabama's dominance of Clemson
By Austin Murphy

BASEBALL

36 Amazin'
Looking at the upstart Rays, the '69 Mets see parallels with their own magicalrun
By Lee Jenkins

BASEBALL

40 In VinVeritas
Dodgers come and go, but Vin Scully remains the constant—and a nonpareil
By Richard Hoffer

ACTIVISM

44 ChoosingSides
More athletes are taking a stand on the issues than has happened in decades
By L. Jon Wertheim

The Next Step Isthe Hardest
The Browns just missed the playoffs in '07, then spent eight months working toensure it didn't happen in '08. An inside look at a team trying to jump fromalso-ran to contender
BY PETER KING
Page 50

Departments

6 Leading Off

12 Letters

14 Players
• A father aches for his son
• Olympic athletes in demand

22 Faces in theCrowd

27 Just My Typeby Dan Patrick
• Tiger's taking it easy
• The kid who throws too hard

70 Point After
• Fantasy madness returns (don't tell the wife) by Chris Ballard

Inside ...

62 The NFL
• Rethinking the schedule

66 Baseball
• The real deal of the summer

68 Tennis
• Time to merge the tours

PHOTO

BILL FRAKES

28 HAT'S OFF Appalachian State quarterback Armanti Edwards held on to the ball but lost his headgear on the tackle by safety Curtis Taylor in LSU's 41--13 win last Saturday in Baton Rouge. Among the unforeseen events in the opening week of the college season was Hurricane Gustav's bearing down on the Gulf Coast, causing LSU to move up its starting time six hours.

PHOTO

MICHAEL J. LEBRECHT II/1DEUCE3 PHOTOGRAPHY (BROWNS PLAYER)