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With the 2009 college football season quickly approaching, I find it hard to believe Tommy Bowden, Tommy Tuberville and Phil Fulmer won't be roaming sidelines this year.

Covering football in the South, those names, with 362 career victories among them, have been staples this decade and beyond.

Another week, another LPGA tournament vanishing into the ether.

Tuesday's news -- organizers of the Kapalua Classic on Maui bailed on the October event because they couldn't find a title sponsor -- was the latest blow for a tour grappling with the sluggish economy. The LPGA schedule already had shrunk from 33 events in 2008 to 29 this year.

Jesse Neal is wrestling for two.

Neal and his Navy roommate Marc Nieto were die-hard grappling fans. They religiously watched pro-wrestling telecasts together. They held parties for pay-per-view shows while at home on leave. They even toyed with the idea of becoming performers once their military service ended.

(A lesser man would have retreated by now. Perhaps not an outright retirement, but a slow fade into irrelevance. Credit Andy Roddick -- "the best bad tennis player of all time," as he jokingly calls himself -- for offering a remarkable study in perseverance.

In an era in which professional athletes act as though they are above the law -- mainly because in many cases that's how they're treated -- Roger Goodell stands above the crowd.

The legacy of the National Football League's commissioner won't be determined until long after he has retired, but already he has shown a willingness to make hard decisions.

I recently came across the Atlantic Coast Conference's Web site promoting its annual football championship game and couldn't help but chuckle. The site and campaign slogan is "Road to Tampa Bay."

It's pretty ironic considering very few people actually take to the streets to attend this title game.

There is a new route and a new drug-testing program, but the return of an old name is getting the most attention as the start of the Tour de France draws near.

Four years after retiring from professional cycling, Lance Armstrong will return with the Kazakhstan-based Astana team to try to pad his record of seven Tour victories when the 2009 race starts Saturday.

Adrian Peterson's handshake keeps orthopedists in business. Peterson squeezes your hand like he wants you to pull him back on the cliff. Squeezes the way he runs through NFL defenses; with ferocious purpose.

Peterson's grip on a fulfilling pro football career is not quite so strong.

Many of you may have never heard the name Lucas Glover until he won the United States Open championship last week at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y.

This tells you how equal the competition is getting on the PGA Tour. The fact of the matter is that everybody, not just Tiger Woods, is a good player and capable of winning at any time.

The students bring golf clubs to class.

They're wearing golf shirts and slacks. In their hands, pitching wedges, and on their backs, book bags.

It's just another day at the Golf Academy of America.