Outside the Beltway

It started September 1, with a 41-14 thumping of Michigan at Cowboys Stadium. Now, it all comes down to one game.

The most idiotic labor dispute in sports history appears to have ended.

For some reason, Pennsylvania’s Governor has chosen to reopen the wounds from the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

New York Jets quarterback Greg McElroy was experiencing post-concussion syndrome but hid it from the team for days.

FSU’s Jimbo Fisher offers interesting insights into the coaching profession.

Gabrielle Ludwig played college basketball as a man 25 years ago; now, she’s playing as a woman.

The title of most impressive Heisman winner of all time goes to Pete Dawkins, who won the award in 1958.

Another week, another innocent person killed by an NFL player.

Kobe Bryant is one of only five NBA players to score 30,000 points and the youngest to achieve the milestone.

In “Eyes on the Prize,” Chuck Culpepper looks at Saban’s first season as a head coach, with Toledo, way back in 1989-90. It seems that Nick Saban has been Nick Saban for a very long time.

Jovan Belcher, a linebacker with the Kansas City Chiefs, this morning murdered the mother of their 3-month-old baby before killing himself.

Alex Karras has died after a long illness. He was 77.

Some of the NFL’s heftier players do not appreciate the new form-fitting jerseys introduced this season.

Michael Lewis has a long feature in Vanity Fair titled “Obama’s Way,” based on six months with the president.

Shannon Eastin has become the first woman to officiate an NFL game, thanks to the lockout of the regular referees.

A rather egregious case of misplaced priorities in Texas.

Lance Armstrong joins a long line of the greatest athletes of his generation whose glory was fueled by performance enhancing drugs.

How dominant were America’s women in the London Olympics? They’d have come in fourth place in the medal count in the US sent separate men’s and women’s teams.

Eight of Cameroon’s 37 Olympians are “missing.”

Nick Delpopolo has been banned from the Olympics for testing positive for cannabis, which he claims came from unwittingly eating a marijuana-laced brownie.

Cover Girl model Marlen Esparza was the first American woman to win an Olympic boxing match.