FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The rack of clothes on the far wall of the Patriots ProShop is a testament to Bill Belichick's famed passive-aggressive streak.

It may not be the equal of Belichick using a videotape scandal to make this NFL season about him and his ability to blitzkrieg the New England Patriots to a perfect season of run-up scores, but, then again, even that would seem more likely than BB becoming a fashion icon.

Here's the thing about Belichick, 55. He's a second-generation coaching lifer who through 33 seasons of all night training camp bull sessions and fourth-quarter pressure cookers pretty much knows everything there is to know about football.

SHOWDOWN IN INDY SUNDAY Cole: Pats blow out another foe Robinson: Let the hype begin TUESDAY Silver: Moss silencing critics Robinson: Vince Wilfork Q&A Video: Jeff Saturday interview WEDNESDAY Cole: Indy's offense the gold standard Carter: Pats displaying excellence THURSDAY Robinson: Rivalries of Super Bowl era Wetzel: Belichick acting

Tuesday afternoon, Lloyd Lake, ex-con, former aspiring sports marketer and worst nightmare for the University of Southern California football program, dropped a lawsuit in a San Diego County courthouse and a bomb on the Trojans.

While few of the allegations are new, the lawsuit, and Lake's scheduled meeting with NCAA investigators next week, changes the entire dynamic of the Reggie Bush case. It is the single

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The most dominant player in college football has virtually no chance of capturing the sport's dominant individual trophy.

This isn't all that unusual – the Heisman has long been a confounding award – but it does beg the question how football can be both our most popular, closely followed and heavily analyzed sport, while remaining so misunderstood.

"Any discussion of the best football players in the country, if it doesn't include Jake Long, then I think there is something missing in that discussion," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said.

Well, there are a lot of discussions that are missing something then, because not too many Heisman lists include Long. And at 6-foot-8 and 315-pounds, the Wolverines senior left tackle would seem difficult to miss – even to historically clueless voters.

Long hasn't given up a sack or been called for a penalty this season. As a run blocker, three different Michigan backs have posted 100 yard games running behind him.

The Wolverines have won

BOSTON – Just like his team, Matt Holliday was left sprawled out in the dirt, flat on his belly, flailing for safety that would never come. He was picked off, out by a mile in no-man's land off Fenway Park's first base.

His was another embarrassing mistake, another sorry bit of baseball, this time in a manner no one could miss, a little-league bumble in the big-league World Series.

Holliday had reached base in the eighth inning on an infield hit, a grounder near second that the Boston Red Sox's Dustin Pedroia just couldn't quite handle. For the Colorado Rockies' moribund offense, it was what passes for a rally, a chance with a man on first and two outs, trailing 2-1.

This was all they had, this was their hope. They'd managed a meager 11 hits and two runs in two games, arriving in the World Series on a torrid hot streak only to fade fast in the bright lights of prime time.

But Boston was beatable in Game 2 and Colorado needed it desperately. And there was Holliday, who represented the

BOSTON – If there is, indeed, a Red Sox Nation, then it is under attack from the outside.

On the national stage, Boston's famed baseball fans have gone from long-suffering and sympathetic to overbearing and unlikable. They've gotten ripped, especially in the New York media, told they are sell-outs and served as inspiration of a rallying of anti-Sox sentiment – and not just because of that crappy Drew Barrymore movie or ESPN overexposure.

Here in Fenway Park, and the streets, restaurants and bars surrounding it, the Nation is mostly blissfully unconcerned, focused on capturing a World Series – a first step taken with Wednesday's 13-1 shellacking of the Colorado Rockies. Or, as denizens of the region are apt to do, enjoying the opportunity to life lift a middle finger at everyone else, particularly down in Gotham.

"Yankees Suck," they kept chanting in the right field grandstands, just for the pure joy of it of all.

Hey, they are what they are. But are they what they once were?

Every Red

BOSTON – As late-inning runs kept scoring against the Cleveland corpse, a frenzied Fenway sang and swayed at a comeback so complete, so cutthroat, the most stunning thing happened: the Red Sox morphed into the Yankees.

After eight decades of chasing down their New York rival, they've now replaced them as the monsters of October. They trail significantly in championships won and excellence sustained, but they're presently a team as relentlessly powerful as confident and clutch.

Sunday it was an 11-2, Game 7 clubbing of the Indians, sending Boston back to the World Series to seek its second title in 89 – or four – years. Only this time the Sox enter with none of the baggage and few of the questions that always plagued this franchise.

Now they are the team with so much talent and tenacity that if you get them down you need to drive a stake through their heart. If not, they'll come back and break yours.

They'll do to you just what they did to Cleveland, blasting their way out of a 3-1

CLEVELAND – When you play for a team that hasn't won a World Series since 1948 in a town that hasn't won a major professional championship of any kind since 1964, in front of a fan base that has been through The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot and Jose Mesa, then things like curses and collapses matter.

Or at least it matters in the stands, where Cleveland came to rock Thursday night, watch the Indians wrap up the American League pennant and advance to the World Series. Fireworks blazed, towels waved and one of Josh Beckett's ex-girlfriends (there's plenty to choose from) sang the national anthem.

This was the night to finish off the Boston Red Sox. This was a night for the Indians to rise to the occasion.

Instead, they played tight. They made a key error. They took bad swings. They walked a run in. They left pitchers in too long. They lost 7-1 to the Red Sox, their series lead shrinking to 3-2. They looked even uglier than the score.

They left the city holding its breath at the thought of

No matter how many times the New York Yankees brain trust babbled on about their "respect" for Joe Torre, their "admiration" for Joe Torre or how Joe Torre is a "great, great person," they sure didn't want him managing their team next season.

They just lacked the stones to say it.

The Yankees have been emasculated.

The franchise whose principal owner, George Steinbrenner, became famous for his dictatorial decisions, iron-fisted leadership and back-page tabloid tantrums was busy Thursday trying to spin stories to win the PR battle against a beloved manager who just told them to take their job and shove it

Why the Yankees decided to offer Torre a contract they knew he'd never accept – a base pay cut and the inclusion of performance-based incentive clauses – is the question, and no matter the answer it doesn't bode well for the franchise.

They claimed it was an effort to "motivate" him, which would be insulting if you actually believed anything that was said during a Thursday afternoon