By BERNIE LINCICOME, Scripps Howard News Service

The image that comes to mind is of Gen. George Custer, the last man standing, holding in one hand the reins of his horse -- or Bronco in this case -- and an empty pistol in the other hand.Except, it is assumed, Custer didn't shoot his own men as Broncos coach Mike Shanahan has done, now nearly out of others to blame.

I have only seen the previews of ''Leatherheads,'' the upcoming George Clooney movie about pro football in the good old days, the leather helmet days, those days when rules were rough suggestions rather than Senate inquiries.It looks like a whole lot of fun, as the NFL can still be anywhere that Terry Bradshaw is.

Very few, if any, athletes will have a national soul-bearing farewell as Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre did announcing his retirement Thursday.Favre may be the last true warrior, in the way that John Unitas was and Kobe Bryant has a chance to be, the individual transcending the team, at the end of no one's leash.

Spring arrives when baseball says it does. And according to my calendar it arrives within the week. It comes with the most treasured phrase in sports: pitchers and catchers report.There is no finer pairing of nouns in English than pitchers and catchers. Better than ladies and gentlemen, more promising than love and marriage, sweeter than milk and honey.

It will take a while for affection to catch up to Bob Knight's achievements, a sad circumstance for the winningest coach in college basketball history.The tributes will come if he allows them. Old indignities will fade. He will go from lout and boor to scoundrel and curmudgeon.Inevitably, Knight will be better liked at rest than ever he was at full roar.

It wasn't supposed to matter to me, not now, since it certainly did not then. And all these years later being on the periphery of perfection was merely a matter of coincidence and the calendar.I was young and new at this job, and so were they, too, though the Miami Dolphins had been in the Super Bowl a year earlier.

Clearly the Denver Nuggets could use Jason Kidd. Any team could, including the one Kidd plays for, New Jersey. The Nets used him to get to the NBA Finals twice.But it would seem that is pretty much over with, Kidd again insisting he deserves better and the Nets shrugging that they will do what they can.

To be honest, and just a little pleased with myself, I have not kept straight which supermodel -- would Patriots QB Tom Brady be involved with a non-supermodel, and another thought, does he assign them Roman numerals? -- has Brady's baby and which has his time, such as it is before another Super Bowl.

The next step for the Colorado Rockies is as unfamiliar as was the last step. Think of it as the stunned leading the astonished.By now the reality of the World Series seems more real. When it was actually happening it seemed surreal, and the Rox did play it as if in a dream, nice little sleepwalkers for the grand and moneyed Red Sox.

Quite a strange week in baseball. And there were not even any games.