IN MY OPINION

Dan Le Batard: Big McKinnie, Lil' Kim and 'dork' Me?

It is 3 a.m., and I'm standing outside the W hotel on South Beach with a couple of Super cartoons.

To my right, there is a giant partyer. Literally, a giant. He is 6-foot-8, 355 pounds. I can make the argument he is the biggest and most infamous partyer in our celeb-soaked town this week -- certainly the most infamous one in this section of the newspaper. It is hard for someone this large to vanish, but Bryant McKinnie somehow managed it as the only guy dismissed from this year's Pro Bowl because he kept missing obligations without officials knowing how or where to find him. He says, hurt and a little sad, that it was all a terrible misunderstanding.

IN MY OPINION

Dan Le Batard: Fans find religion on Bourbon Street

Do you believe in this religion? In the pure and holy power of Saints?

Stand here and bear witness, humbled servant, at the intersection of Bourbon Street and Canal, and listen to how joyful it sounds and feels when a desperate city finally has its prayer answered.

IN MY OPINION

For Super Bowl radio row, it's all-excess

The talking heads on radio and TV stations are congregated in the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center for their yearly gabfest for Super Bowl XLIV, and there is no telling what kinds of stories will be told.

IN MY OPINION

Dan Le Batard: NFL Canes never forget their first love

Did you see what they did? The very moment that the world's largest football party officially began in South Florida for the week? Here they were, at the Pro Bowl, the NFL all-star game, about to start player introductions in a sold-out stadium. This was a celebration. Of football. Of accomplishment. Of themselves. And, one by one, as they emerged from the tunnel to have the moment to themselves, to hear their family names echo at the top of their workplace before a national audience, the 11 University of Miami Hurricanes in the game -- 11! -- did something a bit unusual.

SUPER BOWL SCENES

Le Batard brothers tackle the big game

Columnist Dan Le Batard and his brother, David, an internationally acclaimed artist, chronicle Super Bowl week in South Florida.

IN MY OPINION

Words can't express what former Florida Marlin Andre Dawson feels

You know why so many people care about sports in a way that is unreasonable and fanatical? It's not just because of how good games can make us feel. It's because they make us feel, period. Up. Down. And all the spots of "alive" in between.

IN MY OPINION

What if 'hero' came clean, with no tears?

What if the confession came from Derek Jeter or Cal Ripken Jr.?

One of the beloved guys wrapped in the kind of myth we like to create and applaud, in other words. It could be Michael Jordan or Dwyane Wade or Dan Marino or Tom Brady, too, given how paramount healing is in sports and how prevalent medicine has been around our games the past quarter-century, but let's stick to baseball. And what if the press-conference confessional lacked tone and tears and excuses/rationalizations/lies and was just honest, logical and explanatory?

IN MY OPINION

Wizards' Gilbert Arenas was wrong, but so was suspension

Ihave some writing blind spots.

For example, I have a ``What's the big deal?'' attitude about most of the outrage surrounding our games. Manny Ramirez and Ochocinco and Ron Artest are always sources of joyful comedy for me, not indignation. This gets me called an apologist or a contrarian because I tend to laugh at behavior that upsets many of you, and it undermines my credibility because I too often sound like I'm defending the indefensible.

IN MY OPINION

Absolute rule of college coaches absolutely over

College sports are so very lopsided.

The famous coach, especially a winning one, has an inordinate amount of the power. He earns more than anyone else on campus. He has a higher profile and paycheck than even his bosses. And any helpless kid who has a complaint is voiceless because the kid's choices are to a) quit in a cave man culture that stigmatizes quitters, b) transfer to another school and sit out an entire year or c) be vocal and risk either being branded a whiner or punished for said whimpering, no matter how justified it might be.

Treatment of Bowden by FSU shameful

Grandpa, always classy and kind, deserved to leave us with more dignity. He requested just a touch of respect at the end. Pleaded for it, in his own humble way. The family fortune? He built that, from nothing. The family name? He not only made it matter but made it his life's work to represent it with uncommon grace.

A SOLDIER'S STORY

Tim James' journey from NBA to Iraq

Former Miami Heat player Tim James finds himself in the thick of war, not because he has to be there but because he wants to be there.

Speculation on role of Taylor's past

Y ou remember him wrapped in so much armor. Muscles. Helmet. Padding. Distrust. The late Sean Taylor was known as one of the most menacing hitters in a violent game. But when the news organizations started putting his fresh face on TV screens in recent days -- no helmet, no scowl, no aura -- you couldn't help but notice this: My God, he looked like such a baby-faced child.