The good, bad, ugly, stupid of the year

A sampling of the good, the bad, the ugly and the just plain stupid of the sports world in 2006.

GOOD: Coming soon to a theater near you — Jason McElwain, an autistic, 5-foot-6 manager for the Greece Athen (N.Y.) High basketball team, drains seven shots, six of them 3-pointers; Utah's Bill Schuffenhauer, who once lived on the streets in Salt Lake City and ate out of garbage cans, wins a silver medal in the bobsled. Hollywood has called on both.

BAD: ESPN routinely televises Madden video football games, complete with play-by-play commentary and interviews with the players. Almost makes you pine for Olympic curling.

UGLY: Rocky Balboa makes his sixth comeback. "It ain't over till it's over," the ads say. Trust us, it's over.

STUPID: Brent Musburger thinks he's hosting a talk show during the Las Vegas Bowl, complete with guests and props. Uh, Brent, the game, remember?

GOOD: Tiki Barber, the 33-year-old New York Giants running back, wisely decides to retire in his prime with his health intact. He wants to pursue a career in journalism (OK, so it wasn't a completely great decision).

BAD: Mitch Cozad, a backup punter at Northern Colorado, stabs the team's starting punter, Rafael Mendoza, apparently so he could have the starting job. Paging Tonya Harding ...

UGLY: Joe Mullen, a Minnesota Vikings assistant coach, pulls into a Wendy's drive-in, naked from the waist down. This is the part where numerous zingers would normally follow — but this is a family newspaper.

STUPID: Warren Sapp says he won't eat out on road trips because his food has been poisoned before road games. Has anybody talked to his backup?

GOOD: Boise State becomes the second team (besides Utah) to crack the BCS bowl monopoly, and USC loses its last game to UCLA to throw the bowl system into disarray and controversy again. The more trouble the BCS has, the better.