Best of '04: Famous names

In many ways, it's been the season of names. More than ever, personalities defied the notion that NFL football is the ultimate team sport. More than ever, the league felt the overwhelming relevance of individuals on its landscape.

We'll concede that teams – San Diego and Buffalo's rise from the rubble, or Pittsburgh and New England jockeying for dominance – give pro football its body. These are the fluid stories that keep us reading, watching and devouring the sport.

But while teams give the NFL a body, personalities create the dance.

Think of the names that commanded our attention this past season – made us scream at the television, shake our heads in disgust, or hold our breath in awe. Names like Ricky Williams, who demonstrated that most of the critics had him pegged all along. Or names like Drew Brees, who showed that predictions of his demise were far, far off. Between such polarized stories it's been an interesting, captivating season.

Then again, isn't it always?

Our 10 most memorable stories of 2004 …

10. Eli's power play
It will live forever as perhaps the most awkward jersey presentation in the history of the NFL draft. Even now, we can still see that pained, sour look on Eli Manning's face as he hoisted a San Diego Chargers jersey to his chest.

Manning wouldn't remain a Charger for long, though. He and his father, Archie, had long made it known he wasn't interested in going anywhere near San Diego, and less than two hours after he was drafted by the Chargers, Manning was sent packing to the New York Giants. That slam against San Diego, while seemingly sound at the time, still has the hilly California community throbbing in disgust at the mere mention of the Manning family.

Of course, the Chargers got the last laugh. The move indirectly left them with Drew Brees as their starter, and while the Chargers have blazed to the AFC West title, Manning has gotten his brains beaten out with a New York team on the verge of mutiny against coach Tom Coughlin.

9. Sunken ships
The iceberg had been coming toward Miami's Dave Wannstedt for a long time. Cleveland's Butch Davis, well, you at least thought he'd make it to the end of the season. Of course, neither did.

Browns owner Randy Lerner, like Miami's Wayne Huizenga, stood poised to fire his coach at the end of the 2004 season – but both coaches forced the issue, and essentially handed in forced resignations. Not that it was an absolute surprise, since both franchises had languished and fallen apart with Wannstedt and Davis at the wheel. Maybe the only shocker was that both men left without taking San Francisco's Dennis Erickson with them.

8. Gibbs and Parcells fall flat
They were the game's elder geniuses – contemporaries to Don Shula and Tom Landry – and nobody would have been surprised if both Bill Parcells and Joe Gibbs spent 2004 lording over the rest of the NFL. Instead, with Gibbs in Washington and Parcells in Dallas, both did the unexpected. They failed miserably.

Maybe it was their quarterbacks. Parcells jettisoned Cowboys starter Quincy Carter in the preseason, and Gibbs built around an aging Mark Brunell.

Maybe they have slowed, or the rest of the NFL has caught up. No matter – both endured the most trying seasons in their distinguished careers, and have hinted at retirement.

7. An unexpected Brees of success
Maybe we should have seen these San Diego Chargers coming. After all, someone was going to have to wear the NFL's cliché sash of Worst To First. But surely it couldn't be the franchise that finished 4-12 in 2003 and had a coach, Marty Schottenheimer, more likely to be fired in the middle of the season than he was to finish it. Not with Drew Brees, the starting quarterback nobody in the front office wanted.

How bad did this team look? So bad that some thought it could go 0-16, and its No. 1 draft choice, Eli Manning, looked like he would rather be taking Yoga classes with Ricky Williams.

Yet here we are. Manning is elsewhere and Brees has become the football version of the $1,000 bill you found in the couch cushions. Sprinkle in Antonio Gates, LaDainian Tomlinson and a sneaky good defense, and you have the AFC West champion and this season's dark-horse Super Bowl contender.

6. The T.O. effect
Terrell Owens said it all along: He was going to the Philadelphia Eagles to be the difference. And for 14 weeks, that's exactly what he was, single-handedly turning a tepid passing game into something to be feared.

But it was Owens' blunt attitude that made the real difference, giving the Eagles an edginess they had lacked. Owens gave Donovan McNabb a dominant weapon he'd never had, and was a lightening rod that took all the heat off his QB. In short, Owens became the precise shot of adrenaline Philadelphia needed to become intimidating. But in a twist, he suffered a season-ending ankle injury that will force the Eagles to muster Super Bowl bravado without him.

5. One steely rookie
While he was a senior at Miami of Ohio, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was the toast of the scouting circuit as the possessor of a big arm, a record of success and a quiet cockiness. But NFL geniuses are also chronic over-thinkers, and that's how Roethlisberger became the third quarterback taken in the 2004 draft.

Now he's the most successful rookie quarterback in NFL history and has won a mind-blowing 26 consecutive games as a starter, his last 13 in college and first 13 with the Pittsburgh Steelers. A lock to win Rookie of the Year, Roethlisberger had the good fortune to inherit superb parts all around – a fantastic defense, great offensive line and running game, and talented receivers. But it would be a disservice to say he hasn't been something special.

4. New England's march
It was a record that should have gotten more attention, if only New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick would have allowed it. Then again, it was Belichick's single-minded focus and lack of grandstanding that helped etch New England's 21-game winning streak into the record books.

Despite a generous number of injuries, a relative lack of superstars and a new-age NFL that prides itself on squashing dynasties, the Patriots managed to dominate one of the most volatile landscapes in professional sports for nearly 13 months. Now Belichick's ideology has become the blueprint others follow. Several teams are patterning themselves after New England's method of success, collecting interchangeable players that fit a system, retaining coaches and front-office personnel, and grooming young draft picks rather than maxing out the salary cap on free agents.

3. Peyton's pursuit
It will never live up to major league baseball's version of the single-season home run record, but considering the steroid issues swirling in that sport, Peyton Manning's record for touchdown passes in a season might be just as impressive.

Certainly the way he broke it will endure: waving his punt team off the field on fourth down at his own 26-yard line, then finishing off an 80-yard yard touchdown drive with a successful two-point conversion to send his Indianapolis Colts to overtime and an eventual win over surging San Diego. The record-setting score came in true Manning fashion, on a play called at the line of scrimmage, and to the third option on the field, wide receiver Brandon Stokley.

2. Runaway Ricky
We are fascinated by athletes who walk away from millions of dollars, but when Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams did it, he stayed true to his reputation as an oddity. Pat Tillman left for his country, Robert Smith left for a career in health care development and Barry Sanders left simply because he had lost his love for the game. Williams trumped them all, leaving in a haze of marijuana smoke.

At least a few things became clear when Ricky departed – that he never had a deep-rooted love for the NFL, that he had a drug problem that conflicted with his profession, and that nobody in the world thought Williams' reasoning was in the neighborhood of sanity.

1. The death of Reggie White
His career as a marauding defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers had long passed, but it was hard to find a player or fan associated with the NFL who wasn't shocked to hear of the future Hall of Famer's sudden death this past weekend. On a day when most were anticipating Peyton Manning breaking Dan Marino's record for touchdown passes, that feat became almost an afterthought in the wake of White's passing at the age of 43.

While the story of Ricky Williams was more enduring, and the records of Manning or the Patriots could be argued as more historic, White's death struck a very personal chord for countless people associated with professional football. Reggie White stood for the sweetest and most cherished contradiction in sports. He was a man universally feared and respected as a player – but overwhelmingly loved as a human being.