Occasionally, though, some of these anonymous athletes find a way to stand out from the crowd. Michael Phelps won eight gold medals, and became an international star. Apolo Ohno, now the all-time leading medal winner among Winter Olympians, with seven, gained national fame and attention after winning Dancing With The Stars.

Miller, though, clearly marches to the beat of a different drum. He burst onto the national scene back in 2002, when his skis carried him to two silver medals at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. But in the time since, we’ve come to know Miller more for his antics off the ski slopes than his success on them. In a television interview, Miller admitted to skiing drunk, and compared it to drunk driving, comments he later apologized for. He also broke away from the U.S. Ski Team for a time, a move he later would go back on, as well.

But it was his performance at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, that seemed like the thing that would define him. Miller went into the games as the biggest star – much like Lindsey Vonn was this year. Nike had an ad campaign built around him, called “Join Bode”. He gave interviews to 60 Minutes (where the drunk skiing comments came from) and Rolling Stone.

Unfortunately for Miller, though, his performance was nowhere near what he did in ‘02. He failed to medal in any event, and didn’t finish higher than sixth place. Pictures were snapped of him partying throughout the Games, and it became clear that he wasn’t putting his whole effort into the Games. At that point, it looked like Miller, despite his immense talent, would be remembered as a colossal disappointment.

But then Miller made this year’s Olympic team, and after the epic disappointment he delivered in 2006, came into this year’s games as just one of the competitors, part of the wake behind the Lindsey Vonn hype machine. Only this time, at the age of 32, Miller is actually producing in the way that he was expected to four years ago.

Things started off well in Vancouver for Miller, as he came away with the bronze medal in the downhill, and then followed that up with a silver in the Super-G. It was yesterday’s performance in the super combined, though, that allowed Miller to fully erase his past failings. He found himself in seventh place after the slalom portion of the competition. But after a blistering run in the downhill portion, he had a gold medal to show for it.

Finally, Bode Miller can be called an Olympic Champion. It may have come four years later than we all expected it would, but it’s happened nonetheless. And, not only that, Miller now can be considered one of the greatest skiers of all-time. He’s one of only 12 skiers to ever win three Olympic medals in a single Olympics, and is one of only two male skiers to win Olympic medals in four different events. He’s clearly staked his claim as the greatest American skier of all-time, as he now holds the record for most medals by an American skier.

In the space of a week, Bode Miller rewrote his legacy. He entered these Games as an unfulfilled talent, and will leave them as the greatest American skier of all-time. He hasn’t been the easiest person to root for over the course of his career, but that doesn’t matter now. All that matters, in the end, is what he’s done on the slopes in Whistler this week.

Miller’s done it his own way throughout his career, and now, after all of the trials and tribulations of the last eight years, he has finally come full-circle. No longer is Bode Miller a disappointment, or a failure.

Now he can be called something else: an Olympic Champion.

But because of his injury troubles, Hansbrough was free to come back to Chapel Hill to have his No. 50 raised to the rafters, becoming the eighth player to have his number retired. Hansbrough was a first-team All-American each of his four years at North Carolina, and swept every national player of the year award his senior year.

Above all, though, Hansbrough played every game like it was his last. He hustled. He dove on the ground. He fought for loose balls. He grabbed every rebound that he could. Tyler Hansbrough clearly enjoyed playing basketball, and played the way we all wish everyone who had the ability to play at that level would.

No one wishes that more than Roy Williams does today, because after the Tar Heels lost again last night, 64-54, it’s become clear that the reason his team is winning isn’t because of a lack of coaching, or a lack of talent.

North Carolina is losing because of a lack of heart.

Coming off last year’s national championship, the North Carolina Tar Heels entered the season as a Top 10 team in the nation. Led by a potential top-five pick in this summer’s draft, power forward Ed Davis, as well as a strong freshman class, the Tar Heels were supposed to be able to be a contender in the ACC this year despite losing players like Hansbrough, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington to the NBA Draft.

After a hot start to the season, including wins over Ohio State and Michigan State, it looked like the Tar Heels would live up to those lofty expectations. But last night’s game showed the massive cracks in North Carolina’s facade.

For a team with incredibly talented big men like Davis, John Henson and Deon Thompson, the way the Tar Heels attacked the glass last night – or, rather, watched Duke attack it – was inexcusable. Despite losing Lance Thomas to a leg injury early in the second half, the much smaller Blue Devils still managed to outrebound North Carolina, 44-40. Even more impressive was Duke’s offensive rebounding advantage, a 19-12 edge.

Davis and Thompson, North Carolina’s starting big men, combined for nine rebounds – and only three offensive boards – in 56 minutes. Meanwhile, Mason Plumlee, who had a big role for Duke once Thomas left the game, had nine rebounds himself – and six offensive boards – in 27 minutes.

How does that happen? How, in the biggest game of the season, does Ed Davis finish with four points and five rebounds in 28 minutes? I understand he injured his wrist at one point during the game, but that was in the final few minutes. He still had most of the game to put up stats against the likes of Thomas, Brian Zoubek and Mason and Miles Plumlee, and failed to do so.

And, really, offensive rebounding is a direct view at how much effort a team is putting in. Teams that generally win the offensive glass are playing harder than their opponents, and are willing to put in the work it takes to get the ball. Time after time last night, Duke would fire up a missed shot, the rebound would come into a mess of players from both teams. It seemed like every time, no matter how many players from each team were in there going after the ball, Duke came away with it every time.

The simplest way to sum it up, though, is that those rebounds, those loose balls, those were the kinds of plays that Tyler Hansbrough would make. Those are winning plays, effort plays, the kinds of plays that coaches love. Those are the kinds of plays that North Carolina is lacking this season, and it’s why the Tar Heels find themselves with a 13-7 record, at the bottom of the ACC with a 2-7 record and now wondering if they’ll even make the NIT, let alone the NCAA Tournament.

Roy Williams needs Tyler Hansbrough more than he ever did during his four years in Carolina blue. But Hansbrough could only sit and watch, just as helpless as his old coach, as the Tar Heels did everything they could to live up to their nickname.

Payton, the offensive genius who worked several places as an offensive coordinator, most recently with the Dallas Cowboys, before getting his first head coaching job with the New Orleans Saints in January 2006. His first move was to go after Drew Brees, whose contract had ended with the San Diego Chargers and had become a free agent.

Brees, much like Payton, had some tread worn off his tires before arriving in New Orleans. The only reason he was available was that, because of earlier struggles, the Chargers had chosen to draft another quarterback, Philip Rivers, in 2004, because they didn’t think Brees was going to be able to get the job done. But after two bounce-back years from the former second-round pick, Brees hit the open market with a great resume, but a right (throwing) shoulder that looked very risky.

When several teams, including the Miami Dolphins, passed on Brees, the Saints and Payton convinced Brees to come to New Orleans to ply his trade.

And with last night’s 31-17 win over the Colts, Payton and Brees proved they both belong at the very top of their respective professions.

Payton is a gambler, and he proved that at several different points in last night’s game. He went for it on fourth-and-1 from the Colts’ one-yard-line (his team didn’t get it). He went for an onside kick to start the second half, which his team did get, and completely stole momentum away from the Colts that they never really got back.

And that was the difference in the game – Sean Payton dominated his counterpart, Jim Caldwell, running circles around him throughout the game. On third-and-1 from his own 10-yard-line late in the first half, Caldwell took the ball out of Peyton Manning’s hands, and the ensuing run was stuffed short of the first down. Instead of entering the half up 10-3, instead the Colts were only up 10-6.

Then Caldwell, leading 17-16, chose to go for a 51-yard field goal with Matt Stover, a 42-year-old kicker whose days of kicking from that far away had long been over, on fourth-and-11 at the 34-yard-line. Instead of either letting Peyton Manning go for the first down or punting the ball away, pinning the Saints deep, Caldwell practically guaranteed they would get the ball near midfield. From there, the Saints quickly drove down the field, and soon took a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.

There are already few head coaches around the National Football League that can say they led a team to a championship. But the way that Sean Payton did it, with daring risks and savvy decisions, pushes him to a level that, until now, only Bill Belichick had resided in. Now, instead of Belichick and everyone else, it’s Belichick, Payton and everyone else.

As for Brees, he has been considered one of the best quarterbacks in the league for the past several years. But, entering this year’s playoffs, the quarterbacking pyramid in the NFL in the eyes of most people probably looked something like this:

Tier I: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning

Tier II: Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Kurt Warner, Brett Favre

Now, after his stellar performance in last night’s game (he tied Brady’s Super Bowl record for completions with 32), Brees lifts himself into that first tier, onto the same level as Brady and Manning. As good as Brees is, and as much respect as people had for him, entering this game if you had asked people which of these quarterbacks was going to make the mistake that would cost his team the game, few would have chosen Manning to make such a mistake.

Yet that’s exactly what happened, as Manning’s errant pass late in the fourth quarter as the Colts were trailing, 24-17, and were driving deep into New Orleans territory to try and tie the score was intercepted by Tracy Porter, who returned it for a touchdown and set off celebrations on Bourbon Street that could last for weeks and weeks.

As Porter ran down the field, as Saints fans began to realize all of this was possible and, more importantly, was really happening, all around the game of football, Sean Payton and Drew Brees were elevated to the very top of their professions.

Four years ago, Payton came to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the miserable 2005 season, which saw the team traveling around the country and the Superdome with holes in its roof. Soon after, he convinced Drew Brees to become his quarterback, to forge a partnership to lift the down-trodden Saints to heights they never before had reached.

Now, four years later, they have done just that. And with that success, have proven they rightfully be placed among the best of the best.

Manning deservedly took home his record fourth Most Valuable Player award this season. He shredded the Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets in the team’s two playoff games. The Colts seemed to have the better team, and everyone seemed to think they would win the game. Even Tony Dungy, the famously modest former coach of the team, said the Colts would win the game convincingly on Saturday.

Only they didn’t win the game. In fact, they lost thanks, in large part, to a critical late-game mistake by Manning, whose interception was returned 74 yards for a touchdown by Saints cornerback Tracy Porter with the Colts down seven, 24-17. Then the score was 31-17, and the game was all but over.

With a win in last night’s game, Manning could put himself into the conversation as the greatest quarterback of all-time. Now? That argument can’t be made now, at least not for awhile. Manning will have to try and reverse the feelings that this game will leave with people for a long time to come. He did throw for over 300 yards, but he also made the biggest mistake of the game, and single-handedly ended his team’s chances of winning. And that, rather than having a case for being the greatest quarterback of all-time, is what people remember Manning for now.

After turning their backs on a clear chance at history when they gave up the last two games of the season (after starting the year 14-0), the Colts had breezed through the first two rounds of the playoffs, dispatching the Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets with little trouble. And then, after they led 10-0 at the end of the first quarter, after Peyton Manning had shredded the Saints’ defense with a combination of Joseph Addai runs and pinpoint passes, it looked like it would be a coronation of the Colts and their legendary quarterback with the Super Bowl title that they said they could only win if they didn’t go undefeated.

But then karma, at long last, came back around. And for all of his powers, even Peyton Manning couldn’t overcome the karma that his head coach, Jim Caldwell, and his general manager, Bill Polian, placed on the team several weeks ago.

It’d be easy to say that the two things aren’t connected, the way the Colts lost their undefeated season in the season’s second-to-last week. They lost a game at home, against a team (the Jets) that most people would say with near certainty that they would beat if Caldwell and Polian hadn’t forced Manning and other starters halfway through the third quarter with a lead. The look on Manning’s face throughout the rest of that game, as he stood next to Caldwell on the sideline with his helmet on, visibly angry at the decision, was all anyone would need to see.

He didn’t agree with the decision.

But, in the end, that didn’t save Manning from the karmic rebound the Colts surely suffered from yesterday. Think about all of the different things that happened in last night’s game that didn’t go the Colts’ way.

- After something good happens (stop the Saints on the one-yard-line on fourth down), the Colts run the ball twice to set up third-and-1 at the Colts’ 10-yard-line. If the Colts get a first down, they end the half up 10-3. They don’t, and the Saints end up kicking a field goal and go into halftime down 10-6.

- The Saints attempt an onside kick at the start of the second half that goes straight at Colts backup wide receiver Hank Baskett. If Baskett catches the ball, the Colts have the ball at the Saints’ 45-yard-line, and are in prime position to drive down the field and get at least three points, if not a touchdown. Instead, the ball bounces off of Baskett’s helmet, and the Saints recover.

- Early in the game, Drew Brees had several passes bounce off of the hands of Colts defenders. If any one of those passes is picked off, with the Colts already in control of the game, Manning could have quickly put the game out of reach. But they never got one of those interceptions, and the Saints were able to hang on.

At each of these points, the Colts had opportunities to put the game out of reach. At each of those points, they failed to do so. Some of that, without question, was because of things the Saints did. But it’s hard not to think back to that enduring image of the Jets game in Indianapolis Week 16, with Manning standing next to his rookie head coach, someone whose voice no one outside of Indianapolis could recognize, glaring out at the disaster unfolding in front of him.

Maybe, deep down, Peyton Manning knew then what the higher-ups in his organization were doing. He would never admit it, but maybe Peyton Manning had a feeling this would happen all along.

Either way, the facts are there for all to see. The Colts had their chances in last night’s Super Bowl. They had their opportunities to prove that they made the right decision, that they didn’t need to worry about karma because they wouldn’t do anything different if they had the chance to do it over again. But the Colts squandered those chances, and wasted those opportunities. And their opponents, the Saints, took advantage of every break that came their way, and sprung one of the bigger upsets in recent history.

Once again, karma proved to be bigger than any individual, bigger than any team. Peyton Manning may be the greatest quarterback in the game today. He may be able to read any defense, make any throw, find any opening to put the ball into. But even he, the great Peyton Manning, couldn’t overcome karma. And, for that, the city of New Orleans is greatful.

But, at the same time, anyone who lives in New Orleans is also, more than likely, just as big a fan – if not bigger – for the LSU Tigers football team. And just three years ago, the Bayou Bengals won the national championship by dismantling Ohio State. Not only that, but the Tigers won the game in the Superdome in New Orleans. Really, how much better can it get than that?

The people of Buffalo, on the other hand, have had no such luck. Over the past 15 years, one woeful franchise after another has seen their fortunes take near 180-degree turns, as teams like the New England Patriots, St. Louis Rams, Arizona Cardinals and now the Saints have gone from being the league’s perennial doormats to having successive turns at the top of the sport.

Meanwhile, Buffalo has watched its football team suffer through 10 years without a playoff appearance, and, at one point, its hockey team was bankrupt and nearly left town entirely. Its a town in need of a change in luck, and soon. But will that change ever come?

One of my mother’s favorite stories to tell happened on January 3, 1993. As an eight-year-old, I was completely devoted to the Bills in the way only a kid of that age can be. Even after enduring two consecutive brutal Super Bowl losses (little did I know it would just get worse), I had unwavering optimism that this year would be different.

That day, the Bills hosted the Houston Oilers in the Wild-card playoffs, and watched Warren Moon lead Houston’s Run & Shoot offense up and down the field, giving the Oilers a 28-3 lead going into halftime. My grandfather, thinking I would obviously be devastated by this turn of events, called during the halftime break to give me a pep talk. The only thing was, I ended up giving the pep talk to him.

“Don’t worry, Grandpa,” I said. “The Bills will come back! You watch!”

Sure enough, they did. Some might chalck that up to youthful exuberance and enthusiasm and optimism, but that’s what it takes at times to be a Bills fan, to be from Buffalo, New York. It’s a wonderful city, but one that’s been hit by every kind of malady over the past 20 years. The failure of the steel industry drove thousands of jobs away. The loss of other factory jobs to overseas competition where wages are lower and benefits are nonexistent also took its toll.

And everyone knows about the weather.

Still, being from Buffalo is a prideful thing. Just like New Orleans has its own distinctive feel, the same can be said for Buffalo. The people there are bonded by the things they are forced to endure; the bitter weather, the increasing job losses, and the misery that comes with being a Bills fan.

These last 10 years have been tough ones for even fans of the Bills to take. One poor coach after another – from Gregg Williams to Mike Mularkey to Dick Jauron – has come and gone, while the front office has largely been made up of people who will do whatever the Bills 93-year-old owner, Ralph Wilson, wants them to do. The only time that wasn’t the case was when Wilson hired Tom Donahoe, formerly of the Steelers, to run the team, an experiment that totally backfired.

Now the Bills, after a decade of missing the playoffs, have turned to Chan Gailey, who hasn’t been an NFL head coach since the late 1990s, and 70-year-old Buddy Nix as the team’s general manager – a post he has never held in his lifetime in football.

When the Saints were hapless and flailing four years ago, after a brutal year in the wake of Katrina that saw them play more games on the road than at home and they finished with a 3-13 record, Saints owner Tom Benson handed his team over to a young, bright offensive mind in Sean Payton, who then took a chance on a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback, Drew Brees, who had some issues with his throwing shoulder that scared teams away. Since then, the Saints have been one of the league’s most exciting teams, offering a frenzied, high-scoring offense coupled with, at least this season, an opportunistic defense (ironically led by the aforementioned former Bills head coach Gregg Williams) that propelled the franchise into its first-ever Super Bowl.

Could Gailey and Nix resurrect the Bills in similar fashion? It’s always possible. There’s talk that they are thinking about drafting Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen; perhaps he can become Buffalo’s present-day Jim Kelly, and be the guy to lead the team back to respectability – or maybe the Bills will go sign Michael Vick, and at least make things interesting.

So as the Saints take the field Sunday, many neutral observers around the country will be cheering for something good to happen to the “Who Dat Nation.” But me? I’ll be thinking about what it would feel like for Buffalo Bills fans to have one more chance to feel that excitement, to see their team run out of that tunnel one more time on the big stage.

“Republicans buy sneakers, too.”

To Jordan, making any kind of political stand on controversial issues of the day only could serve to alienate people from the massive pool of customers buying his “Air Jordan” sneakers every year. In his mind, being as vanilla as possible has led to him earning hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars over the course of his career.

Of course, that wasn’t always the case. Back during the civil rights movement, in particular, many players were much more active socially than the ones today. Some of the most dominant athletes of their times, players like Jim Brown, Bill Russell and Muhammad Ali, among others, were willing to take controversial stands on major issues, as they were only interested in what was the right thing to do.

But in the years since, that idea has gone out the window, and now Jordan’s idea of the way to go about your business has become the standard operating procedure among the top athletes of today. You never see guys like Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, Derek Jeter or Roger Federer take a controversial stand – it’s just not good business.

And that’s why it is refreshing to see Tim Tebow take a stand on arguably this country’s most divisive issue: abortion.

There’s not a lot of middle ground when it comes to Tebow. You either love him, or you can’t stand the sight of him. But there is no denying that the now former Florida Gators quarterback put together one of the greatest careers in the history of college football.

He won a Heisman. He was a finalist for two others. He won two national championships. He set practically every record a quarterback can set in the Southeastern Conference, which is nearly unanimously considered the country’s deepest and best football conference.

And while Tebow was succeeding at such a ridiculously high level throughout his career, he was equally known for his deeply religious nature. He scribbled bible verses onto his eye black before every game. He went on missionary trips with his parents. He seemingly talked the talk and walked the walk, so to speak, on all matters of his faith.

Many people were turned off by all of his faith talk – myself included. We so often hear players bringing faith into play when most of us just want to hear about the games they are playing. But Tebow never shied away from his beliefs, no matter how controversial. But none of that came close to the decision Tebow and his family have made in recent weeks.

As he prepares to go to the combine, and overcome the many hurdles (his throwing motion, accuracy, ability to read defenses, etc.) that people think will keep him from his goal of becoming a starting quarterback in the National Football League, Tebow and his mother, Pam, shot an ad for “Focus on the Family”, a Christian non-profit at the head of the pro-life movement.

In the ad, both Tebow and his mother speak out against abortions, and Pam details how doctors had advised her to have an abortion late in her pregnancy because of the potential dangers of giving birth, and how the decision was made to go ahead with the pregnancy.

There has been plenty of criticism against the ad itself, as well as against CBS for taking the ad in the first place. But, with all of that set aside, there should be no criticism leveled against Tebow for his decision to be a part of it,  no matter where you stand on the issue.

For too long, we have longed for our famous athletes to speak out on issues that are important to them. We’ve wanted Woods and Jordan and Manning to put their two cents in, to tell us what they’re thinking, what makes them tick. Instead, we’ve only heard them tell us to buy a Buick, some Hanes and some Oreos.

Tebow very easily could have gone down the same route. I can only imagine how many companies would have enjoyed to have him selling their products if he had taken on the same blank-slate persona and guys like Jordan, Woods and Manning.

Instead, though, Tebow has spoken out for something he believes in. He’s decided to take a highly controversial, very public stand for something he truly believes in. It’s also something that certainly will cost him at least some dollars from companies as a sponsor, as taking such a public stand on such a divisive issue isn’t what sponsors are generally looking for. Instead, they’re looking for guys who can just sell their products without causing them much grief.

But for Tebow, it’s not about the money he could make from selling products. Instead, it’s about doing something he believes in, the same thing he’s been doing ever since he broke onto the national scene as a bulldozing freshman quarterback at Florida.

In all likelihood, Tebow will never succeed as an NFL quarterback. But no matter where his playing career goes from here, he will be remembered for being willing to stand up for what he believes in, on a topic that he’d be better served (financially, anyway) staying away from. But, instead, he has chosen to go at the issue head-on, like the countless defensive players he barreled over during his legendary career at Florida.

Tim Tebow could have gone the same route that Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning have, and start a foundation that does good works and then rake in as much advertising cash as possible by saying as little as possible about what you really think about the world. But, instead, Tebow’s decided to stand up for what he believes in, to try to make a difference.

And for that, no matter your stance on the issue, he deserves our respect.

Hedo Turkoglu, for all of his admirable qualities as a player, is not that kind of guy. Vince Carter is, and the fact that the Magic also acquired another sweet-shooting power forward, Ryan Anderson, from the Nets in the trade as well was just a bonus.

I thought that Vince was going to be the missing piece for Orlando, the guy that separated them from the pack and would allow them to take the final step and become NBA Champions. Only that hasn’t happened, at least so far this season. Instead, Vince has found himself becoming a role player, and one with a diminishing role, at that, as the Magic have spent the season struggling to find their identity.

There have always been claims that Vince Carter cares more about Vince than his teammates. Most would say that his career highlight – despite his incredible physical gifts – was his dunk over former New York Knicks first-round pick, 7-footer Fredric Weis, while playing in a tournament for Team USA. Then there was his controversial decision, while playing for Toronto, to go back to his alma mater, North Carolina, and accept his diploma on the morning of the Raptors’ monumental Game 7 against Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Carter would up missing a 3-pointer from the corner with two seconds remaining that would have won the game, and the Raptors went home.

Carter later forced himself out of Toronto, engineering a trade to the Nets, where his reputation didn’t change much. But the deal to Orlando last offseason gave him a chance to prove that he, in fact, could be a key contributor to a great team – something he had spent his entire career saying he was capable of doing, but spent little time actually doing it.

But instead, the exact opposite scenario has played out. Carter, instead of being the multi-dimensional scorer, has spent the season floating around the 3-point line, jacking up on three after another. He’s spent time injured with a sprained left shoulder, which has affected his shooting, and the Magic have never reached the same heights they did last year in over half a season with Carter on the team.

Things have gotten so bad with their new star that coach Stan Van Gundy brought in former Nets coach Lawrence Frank this week to work with Carter and to try and help the coaching staff figure out how to get him out of his season-long malaise.

But it’s not going to be Lawrence Frank or Stan Van Gundy, Dwight Howard or Rashard Lewis that can ultimately salvage this Magic season, and find a way to get through to Vince Carter. The only person who is going to be able to do that is Carter himself.

“Vinsanity” has spent his career driving people insane for wasting his considerable athletic gifts by being too focused on his own success, rather than doing what it took to win. But now that he is 33 years old, time may have run out for Carter to figure it out.

Carter has been an enigma his entire career. Van Gundy may be turning to Frank to try and unravel the mystery, but the man he should be looking at is Carter himself. It’s all there now for him, all laid out as much as any star could hope for. A good coach, talented supporting cast, a group that wants the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter to win them games and deliver them a championship.

It’s now or never for Vince Carter. He can step up and change the way he is viewed forever, or etch people’s current opinion of him into stone. It’s the dream scenario for any fading star – a last chance at greatness.

The only question now is if he is capable of taking advantage.

The amazing thing about Kurt Warner’s career isn’t even that he will almost certainly make the Hall of Fame – maybe even on the first ballot.

No, the amazing thing about Kurt Warner’s career is that it never should have happened.

Like so many other players, Warner was cut in his rookie training camp by the Green Bay Packers after a career at the University of Northern Iowa. For nearly everyone in that situation, that would mean the end of the dream, and a life in coaching or selling insurance or teaching or some other standard job.

But Kurt Warner was different.

He toiled in the Arena Football League for three years, and NFL Europe for one. There was the now-famous job stocking grocery shelves back in Iowa. And eventually, after tearing up each league, Dick Vermeil gave him a shot with the Rams in 1998, and Warner made the team as a backup to Trent Green.

But then Green tore up his knee in the preseason in 1999, and unknown Kurt Warner, at the tender age of 28 years old took over the team. Unbelievably, he went on to torch the rest of the National Football League for the next four years as the trigger man for “The Greatest Show On Turf”, an offense that featured talent like Marshall Faulk at running back and Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt at wide receiver. Warner won a Super Bowl, as well as a Super Bowl MVP, lost another to the Patriots and won two Most Valuable Player awards.

Yet, despite this incredible turn of events – going from being out of the league, stocking grocery shelves, to winning a Super Bowl, Super Bowl MVP and two Most Valuable Player awards within a five or six year span – it is after this point that Warner’s career really starts to become fascinating.

Warner spent the 2002 season dealing with several injuries, and then saw his career in St. Louis come to an end after suffering a concussion in the season-opener agains the New York Giants in 2003. At this point, teams questioned whether Warner, now entering his mid-30s, could deal with the physical punishment quarterbacks endure. He had trouble with fumbles, and he’d had concussion issues. For nearly everyone in that situation, that would mean the end of the dream, and a life in coaching or selling insurance or teaching or some other standard job.

But Kurt Warner was different.

Warner moved on to the Giants, where he signed as a free agent before the 2004 season. But nine games into that season, Warner was benched in order to begin Eli Manning’s maturation process. He then moved on to the Arizona Cardinals the next season, where he started occasionally, but was mostly seen as a veteran who could be a competent backup, as well as lend some advice to the Cardinals’ young starting quarterback – former Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart.

But like it did back in 1999, fate intervened on Warner’s behalf early in the 2007 season, when Leinart was placed on injured reserve. Warner then simply stepped into the lineup and began replicating the success he had with the Rams at the beginning of the decade.

Teaming up with his dynamic pair of wide receivers, Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, Warner again took the league by storm, and lifted the Cardinals – who previously had barely won anything at all in their history – to levels that the franchise never would have dreamed of aspiring to. That culminated in last year’s incredible run to the Super Bowl, in which Warner and the Cardinals came within seconds of defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers, only to have Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes connect on a brilliant pass to give Pittsburgh the win late in the fourth quarter.

But after another stellar season this year, this one ending in a blowout loss to the New Orleans Saints in the Divisional Playoffs, Warner decided that the time was right to leave the game.

Warner has been mocked, and somewhat deservedly so, for his openness about his faith, and for constantly saying how God has helped him in his life. But that shouldn’t detract from his greatness, and for the sheer audacity that it took for his career to get off the ground.

Warner’s career should have ended when the Packers chose not to keep him in training camp in 1995. His career should have ended during one of those next few years bouncing between the Arena Football League and NFL Europe. His career should have ended after the Rams ran him out of town after the 2003 season, or after he struggled for the Giants and Cardinals in 2004 and 2005.

But his career didn’t end because he willed it forward. He kept on fighting, kept on working hard, kept on believing in himself and his abilities and his faith. And, in the end, he proved all of us wrong.

As he walks away from the game, Kurt Warner should know his place in the history of football will forever be remembered and marveled at. His career was the one that never should have happened, that should have been grounded on so many occasions, yet somehow managed to keep moving forward.

If Trent Green doesn’t get hurt in 1999, he never gets a chance to step on the field. If Matt Leinart doesn’t get hurt in 2007, suddenly there is no chance at pushing his career to what now looks to surely be a Hall of Fame-caliber one.

But that’s what we’ll remember Kurt Warner for – his incredible accuracy, his gaudy numbers, and his determination to keep proving that he did belong on the field, and could do the job. And, unlike other quarterbacks who have flirted with retirement in recent years, we won’t be seeing him trotting back onto the field again next fall.

No, sadly, Kurt Warner’s career has finally come to an end. But the most amazing thing about that career is that it was Kurt Warner, and not someone else, who made that decision.

And that may be his most impressive accomplishment of all.

But whatever you think about Favre’s horrible interception in the dying moments of the fourth quarter, the fact that he and the Vikings never got a chance to have the ball again in overtime of that game was only unfair, and is something the NFL has to address before another season begins.

In baseball, both teams get a chance to bat in extra innings. In basketball, hockey and soccer, both teams get a chance to score in overtime. In college football, both teams get the ball in each overtime and have an equal chance to win the game.

In the NFL, however, that isn’t the case. Rather than giving both teams a legitimate shot at winning, the NFL chooses to go with its current sudden-death format. There are some who think this is a legitimate and fair way to go about determining a winner. Football is a game about both offense and defense, after all. If you can’t make one stop, in their minds, you don’t deserve to win the game.

That’s certainly one way to look at the situation. But for those people who feel that way, I have a question for you: where else in sports do we not give an equal opportunity to both teams to win a game? I can’t come up with another one.

Nowhere else in sports do we put so much weight on something as trivial as a coin flip. If teams win the coin flip, they have a much, much better chance of winning the game. Sure, there have been plenty of times that teams have lost the coin toss and still won in overtime. But if it wasn’t so important to win the coin toss, why do teams always take the ball? Why wouldn’t they play defense? Because they know that if they kick off, they will be at a severe disadvantage.

The NFL, more than any other sports league in America, has gone out of its way to ensure that all 32 of its teams have an equal opportunity to win. There is a hard salary cap that gives teams like the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars the ability to truly compete with teams like the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys. There is revenue sharing that enables those smaller market teams to have the necessary funds to spend up to the salary cap, as well.

It’s time for the league to ensure that its on-field product is fair in every way, as well. It’s time for the NFL to eliminate the sudden-death playoff, and give both teams a shot to win the game. It’s the fair way to do it. In a league that’s prided itself on being the fairest of all American sports, that is the only way to go.