Paydirt

Cowher power. Bill Cowher more than anything did the nearly impossible, namely, replace a Hall of Fame coach like Chuck Noll, and have a Hall of Fame career right after. Off the top of my head: Tommy Lasorda for the Dodgers, Bill Russell (maybe?) for the Celtics and Tom Osborne at Nebraska maybe sorta equal what Cowher did. I'll have to do some more research on that. Shell game. Poor darned Art Shell. I feel I doomed him bysaying it was the best coaching hire of the year. But, more, I feel bad for him because I think he deserved another shot at an NFL head coaching job for years, and when he finally got it, he really laid an egg. You can win anywhere in the NFL, but that Raiders job would be the worst place to be a head coach in the league right now, if you ask me. Secret Leak. Chris Leak was the No. 1 player out of high school as a senior four years ago. Quarterback. Signed famously for Florida. Is Florida's all-time passing yardage leader. Starter as a freshman. Won the SEC title several times. Is playing for a National Championship Monday night. Andthe biggest name in the game? Troy Smith. Smith wins the Heisman. Smith will probably be a first-day pick in the NFL draft, maybe a first-rounder. I'll be interested to see if Leak is drafted, and if he is, where. [Todd McShay of ESPN has Chris Leak as the No. 7 QB in the draft, after Kevin Kolb of Houston. He also said that Leak merits some consideration as a second-day prospect.] And Smith wasn't not only not heralded coming out of high school, he wasn't the starter his sophomore year. It was Justin Zwick, also a sophomore and the big-name high school recruit QB for the Buckeyes. Remeber that when you hear about such-and-such a school winning the recruiting wars in football.