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They were stretched all around, as far as the eye could see, at the BCS National Championship Game last night in Miami. The Florida Gators, and game MVP Tim Tebow, beat the Oklahoma Sooners 24-14 to capture their second National Title in 3 years. Florida was also voted the AP National Champion in the poll released this morning.

Experts expected the game to be a shoot-out with two of the best offenses in the NCAA going head to head. Oklahoma did not score less than 35 points in any game this season en route to a 12-1 regular-season record and Big 12 championship. The Gators were also an offensive juggernaut, also finishing 12-1 and winning the SEC championship. It was Florida’s #4 ranked defense that made the difference.

Despite having the Heisman Trophy winner in Sam Bradford, Oklahoma was not able to put the points on the board that they are used to. They were stopped at the goal line twice in the first half, once on 4th down and once with an interception. Still, the game was neck and neck in the second half until Florida blocked an Oklahoma field goal attempt. After that play one could feel the momentum swing to Florida, and they ran away with the game. Tebow and Percy Harvin, who had missed a month with an injury and stayed in Florida over Christmas to rehab for the game, put the Sooners away.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, one of the world’s best midfielders, was charged with assault Tuesday in connection with a bar fight. His team expects him to remain a vital part of the club as it bids for its first English league title since 1990.

Gerrard was charged with two other men after spending 24 hours in custody following the disturbance in the seaside resort of Southport in Merseyside. The bar’s 34-year-old disc jockey, Marcus McGee, lost a tooth and was cut on his forehead. He was hospitalized and released.

“Steven has been an outstanding servant to Liverpool for the last 10 years and the club will give him all the support he needs at this time,” Liverpool said in a statement.

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez sees Gerrard as the key to his club’s success.

“He is now one of the big names of world football and 10 years in the same club and scoring (109) goals for a midfielder is amazing,” Benitez said this season.

Gerrard’s standing in world soccer was reinforced in October when international players named him to a team-of-the-year lineup. Gerrard has acknowledged that the plaudits have intensified his scrutiny.

Gerrard has played 70 matches for England and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II after leading Liverpool to the Champions League title in 2005.

“He is an example to everyone,” Benitez said. “He always trains hard and is a good professional. He is always committed on the pitch. It is a kind of leadership that all captains should aspire to.”

Thats why I love Britain so much, who cares that he beat the crap out of some DJ? He’s a damn good player. I feel America should adopt this complete sense of disregard.

Big Ten MVP Shonn Greene figures he’s ready for the next level.

The Iowa running back turned Thursday’s Outback Bowl into a farewell party, leading the Hawkeyes past South Carolina 31-10 and then announcing he intends to skip his senior season to enter the NFL draft.

“I don’t think there’s really a lot more I can do here,” Greene said. “People talk about the Heisman, but I think that’s a lot of politics. I don’t like getting caught up in all of that, so I just figure I’ll try my chances.”

“He’s been the same guy each and every week,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said, using words like “humble” and “modest” to describe the 235-pound junior, who worked at a furniture store and didn’t play football while attending community college to improve his grades.

Greene scored on a pair of 1-yard runs to help Iowa build a 21-0 halftime lead, then added an 11-yarder to make it 31-0 late in the third quarter. South Carolina scored on Chris Smelley’s 10-yard TD pass to Jared Cook and Ryan Succop’s 48-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.

It was the second coldest Bears home game in the past 50 years - the frozen condensation on my face-mask confirmed that it would be a chilly victory for the Chicago Bears. The Bears gradually came out of their hibernation to defeat the Packers (20-17) with a Robbie Gould field goal in overtime. Sadly, this was the final Monday Night Football game of the season. It was truly exciting: blood froze quickly after hitting the cold Chicago dirt.

Mason Crosby’s field goal blunder cost the Packers their win. Alex Brown appeared out of nowhere and deflected the end-zone rocket headed for the south end at the end of regulation. Earlier, Matt Forte blasted through to the end zone and delicately placed the ball in touchdown territory to tie the game at 17. Half his body was covered in Packer slime while his upper torso pushed the ball in for the TD.

Overtime possession went to the Bears with lucky George Washington facing the sky. Like the players on the field, Packers and Bears fans did not mesh well together. The ice made it doubly frustrating and Soldier Field’s total disregard for patron safety (not one single heater in the entire building) made the game difficult to bear. In the bathroom, with the frozen urine pipes, was one of the only areas of the stadium that was warm. The Chicago Park districts need to pay better attention to the safety of their users, especially when on such a big stage.

This weekend the Baltimore Ravens will travel to Dallas to play the Cowboys in the last ever regular season game at Texas Stadium. Both teams are fighting for a playoff berth and desperately need a win. The loser will probably end up on the outside of the NFL postseason, while the winner will be practically guaranteed a spot. Both teams have practiced and prepared all week as if this is a postseason game, but one Baltimore player has something on his mind besides football. Terrell Suggs cannot wait to see Jessica Simpson.

Simpson is the boyfriend of Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and can usually be found in a luxury box high above the stadium. She is regularly shown on TV and the stadium’s Jumbotron. There is also a little bit of Dallas superstition that says that her boyfriend does not play well when she is in attendance. Either he tries too hard to impress her or he can’t get her off his mind when his concentration is required to be elsewhere. Perhaps this is what Suggs is hoping for.

The Baltimore Ravens have always been known for their defense, and this season is no different. They are a tough, swarming defense with some of the best defensive players and athletes in the NFL. It is hard enough to react to their defense with a clear head, let alone with visions of your pop star girlfriend dancing in your head. There may or may not be anything to those superstitions, but Suggs will take what he can get, and, she’s not too bad to look at either.

Once again London Fletcher has been overlooked by the Pro Bowl, and will not be making the annual trip to Hawaii. In his 11 seasons, Fletcher has been an 8-time alternate. He has only been able to go if one of the two players picked ahead of him decides to pass up a free trip to Hawaii and five-figure bonus. Needless to say, he has not made the trip nearly as much as he would like.

Fletcher is considered the MVP of the Washington Redskins defense, the 4th ranked defense in the league. He is a great player, who regularly leads his team in tackles, but is quiet about his success. He does not dance when he makes a great play or cause controversy in the media. With a large percentage of Pro Bowl voting decided by the fans, this is probably what is holding him back. Most fans are of the Sportscenter variety; they see highlights and notice the biggest personalities. Players like Fletcher do not get noticed by these fans.

His being constantly overlooked for the Pro Bowl led Fletcher to compare himself with Susan Lucci. We all know her as the soap opera actress who was nominated for an Emmy 18 years in a row without winning. This is not a good comparison. While Fletcher is a good player, he has not been one of the best middle linebackers in the league during his time. He is not Hall of Fame worthy as he suggests. Susan Lucci is considered one of the legends of the genre, and unlike Fletcher, she eventually won.

Joe Paterno spent most of the past college football season coaching from high above the field. With a bum hip, he was unable to walk the sidelines and instead sat in the coaches box, talking to players and assistants through a headset or phone. The longest tenured coach in NCAA history’s future was in doubt. On November 23, a day after clinching the Big Ten title, Joe Pa underwent hip replacement surgery. Less than a month later he was rewarded with a contract extension.

Taking in to account his 16 years as an assistant coach, 2009 will be Paterno’s 60th season with Penn State. His 43 years as head coach is far and away the most in college football history. At 81 years old, he is also football’s all-time winningest coach. Even with such a resume, his 2007 salary was reported at $512,000, well off the $4 million Alabama’s Nick Saban makes a year. Terms of his new deal have not been disclosed, but the extension runs for 3 more years, through the 2011 season. With his rehab coming along nicely, Paterno will be back patrolling the sidelines in Happy Valley next season.

While many coaches have become victims of an inability to alter their game plan and strategy, Paterno’s coaching style has evolved with the game. It is rare for a coach to last 10 years in college football, let alone 4 decades. Some believed that if the game couldn’t get the best of him, his health would. A couple years back, in a game against Wisconsin, Paterno’s leg was broken after being taken out by a falling player. He was back coaching at the next practice.

While coaching from the skybox this past season it seemed coach was getting farther from the game, with the next logical step being retirement. Instead, the grizzled veteran has been put back together and will be returning to the scene of the action. Paterno will coach one more game from the box, the Rose Bowl against USC on New Year’s Day. Come next season though, expect to see Paterno lead his team out of the tunnel for the 44th straight year.

The Kansas City Chiefs have had an unfortunate couple of seasons. Actually, an unfortunate decade, plus. They have not come close to reclaiming the glory of their 1993 season when they reached the AFC Championship Game. They followed that season with a string of successful, winning campaigns, but recently have fallen to to the bottom of the barrel. Fed up over losing, Chiefs GM, President and CEO Carl Peterson has resigned, effective at the close of the season.

Carl Peterson started with the Chiefs in 1989 and immediately help build the team into a winner. He was able to get Joe Montana from the 49ers, who led the Chiefs to within one game of the super Bowl. After Montana departed the Chiefs continued to be in the mix in the AFC for several seasons. However, in an era dominated by the Cowboys, 49ers, and the Buffalo Bills, they were never able to get to the Super Bowl. Their luck then turned from bad to worse.

The Chiefs’ superstar, and best player, Derrick Thomas died from injuries due to an automobile accident. A few seasons later the Chefs’ Priest Holmes set the single season touchdown record, and two seasons later his career was ended by serious neck injuries. Shortly after, the Chiefs best quarterback since Montana, Trent Green, was knocked out of a game with a concussion and never came back. Fortune smiled on the Chiefs once more when 2,000 yard rusher Larry Johnson, from Penn State, fell to them in the draft. He quickly became the league’s best runner, but after a holdout and multiple brushes with the law, he has become forgotten.

The final straw before Peterson stepped down was a blown 18 point lead in a loss to the San Diego Chargers on Sunday. Who knows if his decision had been made before that game. It’s hard to believe that it wasn’t, but that loss proved that things are going to get even worse before they gets better.

When Michael Vick was arrested for dog fighting and related charges, the authorities promised that he would be treated like any other criminal. He wasn’t; in all reality he was treated more harshly than the average person and made an example of. Still, a 23 month sentence was not unreasonable for the types of atrocities he was found guilty of. Now, after only a year in prison and a little over 18 months of total incarceration he might be released to a halfway house.

Vick was the NFL’s golden boy before his world came crashing down around him. He was the league’s highest paid player and it’s most popular. Just a couple years ago he signed a $130 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons. Fans of football would watch his games, in person and on TV, just to see what amazing things he would do. From those highs to his present low is a punishment in itself, and some might argue more than enough of one for harming animals.

Unlike other criminals, however, Vick returns to the world with the promise of being an incredible athlete with a rags back to riches story. He will be signed to an NFL team, be applauded for turning his life around, and before too long be not too far from where he once was. While it is true that he has endured and lost a lot, he has a lot to look forward to. He was lucky to get a 23 month sentence. It would be a travesty to let him out of prison early. While some may argue that this crimes were overblown, or simply a product of his upbringing, he broke the law. The government decided to make an example of him and must not let him off the hook now. Keep him in prison, he will be back to the penthouse soon enough.