December 28, 2009 Table Of Contents
LEADING OFF
THE DECADE IN SPORTS: 2000--2009
The Aughts: A decade hard to name also defies easy description. A swimmer awash in gold, a fallen golf star ... the years brought dizzying heights and depths—and glimpses of the decade to come
THE RUNNING BACK, THE CHEERLEADER and what came after the greatest college football game ever
PRO FOOTBALL
By Tim Layden
THE YEAR IN SPORTS 2009
From a right-leaning quarterback to a bass-playing power forward to a clotheshorse coach, the sports figures who died made marks that will last for ages—even those who passed away far before their primes
By Mark Bechtel
Point After
Departments
A Little Tooting For the Horns
Here's why Texas can knock off 'Bama in the BCS title game
Too many bowls to keep tabs on all of them? Here are the five most scintillating matchups
By Albert Chen
Hockey's New Year's Day game is generating serious heat
In her first stock car test, Danica Patrick got a passing grade
Edited by Elizabeth McGarr
An NAIA powerhouse eyes the next level
Strangest Stories of a Strange Year
Slugger centaurs and Queen's footmen and Saudi princesses, oh my!
By Kevin Kerr
By Dan Patrick
An odd decade's worth of apocalyptic signs and They Said Its