Super Bowl

Who won the Super Bowl this year?

Yeah, that's who...the New Orleans Saints!

I'm still thrilled!

Go New Orleans Saints!

Go, Saints, tomorrow. I'm nervous about the game: they're so close to the Super Bowl and a Super Bowl title, but yet they're also so FAR away. Here's hoping. If the Saints weren't in the run, I'd be for Brett Favre and the Vikings.

bright uniforms!

The Philadelphia Eagles' throw-back uniforms:

saline for spinal injuries?

SALINE HELPED INJURY?

An experimental procedure performed on Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett in the ambulance minutes after he sustained a spinal-cord injury during Sunday's game might have played a crucial role in what doctors say is his surprising progress. The quick infusion into a vein, via a catheter, of cold saline solution may have helped stabilize the injury, minimizing cell death and damaging inflammation, say doctors at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, where the procedure was developed. Everett's injury initially sparked fears he might never again walk, but his doctors said Wednesday that he is moving his arms and legs voluntarily and no longer requires the help of a ventilator to breathe. Miami Project neurosurgeon Barth Green, who has been consulting with Everett's doctors, said the procedure might have prevented paralysis. Mild therapeutic cooling is used in many hospitals to treat heart attacks and is being experimentally used at The Miami Project and elsewhere to treat spinal-cord and brain injury. But it needs to be initiated early, and its use with Everett is "the earliest ever recorded treatment," Green said. "It was within minutes of his injury. When I heard that, it was a big goose bump, because I knew he had a good chance of recovering because I knew the earlier you apply the hypothermia the more effective it is." The early treatment was possible because Everett's doctor, orthopedic surgeon Andrew Cappuccino, had attended a lecture where Miami Project researchers described the process. (Coincidentally, Bills owner Ralph Wilson is a major financial supporter of The Miami Project, Green said.) When Everett was injured Sunday, Cappuccino "was there on the field immediately and it just came to his mind." He phoned The Miami Project, Green said, "and he was able to get a very sophisticated piece of equipment that keeps the temperature very accurately controlled at about 92 degrees Fahrenheit. And he did that for 48 hours." W. Dalton Dietrich, scientific director at The Miami Project, part of the University of Miami School of Medicine, said scientists at the center have been researching it for 15 to 20 years. "We have shown that modest cooling (3 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit) is protective and improves outcome." But it needs to be given as early as possible, he said. "The window of opportunity to introduce hypothermia may be relatively short," he said. By Gary Mihoces and Anita Manning

new NFL logo

Which do you prefer?

Top 25 Football Players

of the last 25 years:

To commemorate USA TODAY's 25th anniversary, a panel of USA TODAY's NFL reporters and editors produced an anthology of the 25 best NFL players of the past 25 years.
PHOTOS: Meet the Top 25 | Complete voting results
Rank	Player	Story
1	Joe Montana	Montana's Super success raised the bar
2	Jerry Rice	Rice ran away from the field with grace
3	Walter Payton	Payton did sweet work as rushing king
4	Lawrence Taylor	The original L.T. brought QBs to their knees
5	Reggie White	White administered rare level of play
6	John Elway	Elway left NFL as a winner
7	Emmitt Smith	Emmitt Smith surpassed all runners
8	Ronnie Lott	Lott made waves with hard-hitting style
9	Tom Brady	Brady climbed fast to Super heights
10	Barry Sanders	Sanders left them wanting more
11	Dan Marino	Marino re-wrote the NFL passing records
12	Peyton Manning	Peyton's place secure in NFL annals
13	Anthony Munoz	Munoz set standard on the O-line
14	Brett Favre	Favre made Green Bay important again
15	Bruce Smith	Smith sacked his way to the top
16	Deion Sanders	Deion played his way into 'Prime Time'
17	Mike Singletary	Singletary renowned for intimidating presence
18	Ray Lewis	The ultimate defender — Ray Lewis
19	Marshall Faulk	Faulk brought double threat to new level
20	Troy Aikman	Aikman rescued 'America's Team'
21	LaDainian Tomlinson	Tomlinson still climbing list of NFL greats
22	Rod Woodson	Woodson set new standard in backfield
23	Terry Bradshaw	Playoff success carried Bradshaw into Hall
24	Steve Young	After wait, Young made lasting run into NFL history
25	Eric Dickerson	Dickerson blazed early path to NFL immortality

Saints vs. Bears

I had a dream last night about the NFC Division Title game this weekend: the final score was Saints 14 | Bears 7. I can only hope!

miscellaney

• I think a Rusty Nail drink (Scotch whisky and Drambuie liqueur) tastes awful when cold. Well, still drinkable, but weird.
• I know I'm old when I remember that my seventh-grade year (1977) was going to be the first year in Tennessee that women played full-court basketball, instead of the half-court basketball my mother played while growing up.
• Why is it that football teams, like the University of Southern Mississippi and the New Orleans Saints, do really well against tough teams, like Florida State and the Dallas Cowboys, but then crap out against less-successfull teams like Southeast Louisiana State University and the Washingston Redskins, for example?
  

Matilda's day 2

Matilda is the most guileless animal I've ever encountered! Hmm, but she doesn't like dill pickles, so so much for that as a potential snack for her. Matilda doesn't eat a lot, particularly, or beg for food, so I imagine she's gotten used to eating low-quality, high-calorie food. With better food and more exercise we're hoping to have her in fighting trim before too terribly long! A trim in the next couple of days to a local veterinarian will get her and us working together on whatever plan is necessary to make her elderly years as pleasant and comfortable as possible!

Hey, and the New Orleans Saints won the NFC South division. Way to go!

top-10 QB-coach combinations

From Sports Illustrated:

2. Otto Graham/Paul Brown:

"Going strictly by results, the pairing of Brown and Graham in Cleveland has no peers. They were together for 10 years in pro football (four in the AAFC, six in the NFL), and went to the championship game of their league every year, winning seven times (four in the AAFC, three in the NFL). Their 105-17-4 record in that decade seems unbreakable."

I don't think I knew of Graham and Brown.

Go Saints!

They're playing the San Francisco 49ers today.

nice-looking guy

A. J. Hawk, a rookie linebacker for the Green Bay Packers.