STICKY DOORKNOBS

The Masters: Those who are humble will be exalted

The contrasts at the 2010 Masters are too powerful and meaningful to ignore.

The drama of Tiger Woods -- whose return to the field of play was as chronicled as if it were the second coming -- was not the highlight of the hallowed Augusta National tournament.

Yet neither was it Phil Mickelson's birdie putt on 18 Sunday. Or his approach shot from behind a tree that announcers were quick to label the shot of his career (before he missed an eagle putt moments later), nor was it even the magical eagle-eagle-birdie run Saturday during which Lefty forged into contention amid all of his humility and grace.

The shot of the tournament came after play had ended, when a camera zoomed in and caught a tear running down Mick's face as he embraced his wife Amy, who somehow mustered the energy and courage necessary to emerge from weeks of bed rest long enough to congratulate her husband as he captured his third Green Jacket (and now the real race is on: Phil will have a chance to equal Woods' Green Jacket haul next year.)

That private yet oh-so-public moment of Mickelson's embrace with his cancer-stricken wife was so powerful in so many ways, but mostly because it came just 15 minutes after Tiger Woods walked off the 18th green. Alone. No one to greet him and embrace him that home viewers saw. No family. Only the loneliness that comes not with a fourth place finish but with the aftermath of what he has admitted doing to his wife and family with his assorted dalliances.

Tiger Woods didn't need to win the Masters. It'd be OK if he won something else down the road. The Fort Smith Classic or the Knoxville Open or maybe even the John Deere Classic. But not the Masters. It would have simply delivered the wrong message.

But the message that came home with Mick's victory Sunday was that there are good people still left in sports and they are winners both on and off the course. Had Tiger Woods been able to bound back into competition and win the Masters after months of hogging the media spotlight for all the wrong reasons would have simply been wrong. Good must be rewarded. Humility, love of family, common decency and simple good-heartedness -- it is alive today in the world of sports thanks to Sunday's outcome.

Watching Phil Mickelson -- win or lose -- is one of the joys of sport because he is the same -- win or lose. He is a testament to the decency and gentlemanly nature of the sport of golf and the reason it gives us such pleasure; an honorable person, a good family, living a right life and making golf look effortless -- characteristics hundreds of thousands of people strive for every day.

Thirty years ago last night, a guy from Austin shined brightest

A few observations and other unimportant stuff:

-- Thirty years before Beyonce strutted her way to six Grammy Awards, a quiet guy from Austin set the record for five Grammys in one night: Remember Christopher Cross. His year was 1980, and he won Record, Song and Album of the Year, as well as Best New Artist, and Arrangement, for "Sailing," the song that put him over. Wow, things change in 30 years don't they? I mean ... things ... have ... realllly ... changed.

-- Let me save you $15: Remember, also from 30 years back, when this new band came along named Klaatu? The buzz was they were really The Beatles and the Fab Four had come back and were recording, under the mysterious name, songs about outer space, including "Calling Occupants (Of Interplanetary Craft)" and other tunes that had us all wondering what if? Thanks to Forever Young, a retail treasure trove of old CDs in Grand Prairie, I found that Klaatu album. Umm, how do I put this: Klaatu was NOT The Beatles. Not even close. Easiest way to tell is to just listen to the quality of the songs 30 years later. What has stood the test of time and what hasn't?

-- Speaking of which, Ringo Starr's new CD, 'Y Not" ... not bad. Not bad at all. Ringo, of all people, has given us a good solo effort 40 years later.

-- I know I'm about 10 years late on this, but Meryl Streep's movie "Music of the Heart" is a really good, wonderfully inspirational movie. Rent it if you haven't ...

-- Lubbock fell in love with Mike Leach and became Raider Nation. So, if it falls in love with its new football coach, will they call the town Tubervilleville?

-- Tim Tebow gets raked over the coals for filming a pro-life ad that will run during the Super Bowl ... yet we will parade around nearly nude women in an assortment of demeaning beer ads throughout the game and no one will say anything that will be heard in the press. What's wrong with this picture? Kudos, by the way, to Tim Tebow. If there is a role-model in waiting what with the retirement of Kurt Warner, it's Tebow.

-- Speaking of class acts, Tim Duncan recently became only the 4th player in NBA history to score 20,000 points. No flash, no bling, no tantrums, no gunplay in the locker room. Just hard work from a guy who has year in and year out made it look almost effortless. Maybe the last of a dying breed.

-- And speaking of controversial ads, the one that should really be banned is the new print ad by Nike for Kobe Bryant and  Lebron James with the tagline: "I do what it takes to win. I don't leave anything in the chamber." Nice. The warped gang mentality makes another inroad into every day life.

-- Finally, when you hit 50, you realize one of the most blessed things in life is harder and harder to find: the pull-through parking space.

Turkey of the Week

Oklahoma's Ryan Broyles (85) makes what is apparently his first career touchdown to help the Sooners escape a day without 6. Well, except for the two field goals they had.

Dave Campbell's Texas Football: Nice guys can finish first -- for 50 straight years even

Three weeks after I first came to work at the Reporter-Telegram in 1988, I was invited to lunch with the editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald. The paper had an opening in their sports department and even though I had just been hired here I thought I'd go see what it was all about and what they had to offer. The job itself, a sports copy desk position, was not to my liking but the interview and lunch I've never forgotten.

Waiting at the table at that Waco restaurant along with the Trib sports editor was Dave Campbell. Any kid sports writer who'd ever even thought about covering a high school football game in Texas knew who Campbell was. His smile was accompanied by a demeanor to match and 21 years after that lunch I can still say safely he is the nicest man I ever met in the sports writing business in Texas, with the late Amarillo sports icon Putt Powell a close second.

Dave Campbell is a legend. When we had lunch that day, he was busy putting together what was the 29th edition of his Texas Football magazine -- the sport's undeniable Bible for fans in the state. (When June 1 comes every year, you know that Dave Campbell's Texas Football on newsstands isn't far behind.) Last month, the 50th anniversary commemorative edition of the magazine was released and it is a pleasure to see such a fine man have such great success for so long.

The content of the issue makes for a great read and includes personal reflections of Campbell's time as the magazine's editor as well as articles on the 50 most memorable moments, players, coaches, teams and games.

The magazine reads as a great history book of the sport in Texas ever published. If you haven't picked one up, do ... or tell someone you want it as a stocking stuffer. It's a great read for any football fan.

Congrats to Campbell and a big thanks to him as well for giving us such a quality and well researched publications year in and year out. It is a pleasure to see Campbell, now 84, close out one of his articles in the 50th edition by saying he remains in good health. Selfishly, that's great news for fans of his magazine to know that it will remain under his editorial direction and continue to have his name atop it.

Available Now! Four gently-worn "12th Man Massacre" Game Day T-Shirts

Bidding opens at $7.50 per shirt or $25 for the entire set! Call Now: 1 800 ARRRRRRRRR.

Such a humiliating loss sorta takes the excitement out of that old rallying cry, "Bring on Kansas, baby!"

Star-Telegram selects Top 50 All-time Cowboys

Fort Worth Star Telegram sportswriter Ray Buck used the occasion of the Dallas Cowboys' bye week Sunday to compile a list of the Top 50 Cowboys of All-time. No surprises (Tony Romo is NOT on the list, which is where he should be) but a few omissions of players who likely would be in the Next 50 list (Robert Newhouse, Butch Johnson, Tony Hill for starters) are notable.

I won't give away the entire list, but you can read it here ...

The Star-Telegram's Top 10 is:

10. Bob Hayes

9. Randy White

8. Rayfield Wright

7. Mel Renfro

6. Don Meredith

5. Emmitt Smith

4. Tony Dorsett

3. Troy Aikman

2. Bob Lilly

1. Roger Staubach

The only quibble I would have would be ranking Dorsett ahead of Emmitt. The romance and nostalgia of the 1970s Cowboy teams led me to refuse to consider that Smith was in fact the better back when he was playing but in hindsight, Emmitt clearly deserves to be ahead of T.D., as good as the latter was.

And was Staubach better than Aikman? Read the stats and probably no, Aikman is better. But those huge intangibles that Staubach possessed -- including being the Face of the Franchise -- will maybe forever put him at the top of any all-time Cowboy list.

Seems odd, too, that Danny Villanueva, a three-year placekicker in the 1960s, is No. 50 on the list.

Looking at the list it is obvious that the 1970s-era Cowboys are the teams by which all others should be measured. Twenty-three of the 50 players on the list enjoyed their best years during the Cowboys' decade of the 1970s. Seven on the list were at the height of their careers during the 1980s and seven more gained their famed during the 1990s.

DeMarcus Ware (No. 22) and Jason Witten (No. 32) are the only current members on the all-time team. Will anyone else ultimately be on the list that is on the current roster? At the rate we're going now, it seems unlikely.

Life of Reilly

I can't think of a better way to start off a new year than by recommending this piece to you. Rick Reilly, the former Sports Illustrated columnist recently re-emerged as a columnist for ESPN: The Magazine. This column is one of the most inspiring I've ever read. Pass it to someone you know who should read it.

Enjoy.

And Happy New Year.

Jerryland Update: Mecca nears completion

You thought the Stadium Club in the south end zone of Texas Stadium was spiffy? There are 12 Stadium Club-size watering holes in Jerryland. The players walk THROUGH one of those clubs to get from locker room to playing field. That'll be an easy little thing for the average family to afford and enjoy together, eh?

10 reasons college football is as good as it gets

I remember clearly as a kid following the Cowboys of the '70s with as much passion as an 11 or 12-year-old kid could possibly have. While the experience of watching huge figures like Staubach and Lilly, Landry and Dorsett will forever be in my memory banks, I was beginning to wonder if ever I'd have another opportunity to watch a sport with as much enthusiasm as I did with those old Cowboy Super Bowl teams. The Cowboys of the 1990s were fun, sure, and they were arguably the best Cowboy teams ever, but by then I was an adult and that boyish love for following athletes and their pursuits had diminished greatly.

That same fire with which I followed the '70s Cowboys has resurfaced during the miracle run on the South Plains of Lubbock. And sure, while some of it has to do with a personal connection to the town and Texas Tech, a lot of it simply has to do with college football's approach to the game. The NFL is no doubt the mega money machine of the 21st century sports world, far and away the professional sport of choice, easily outdistancing all others. So why is college football so much more fun to watch on a consistent basis?

Why?

10 Reasons College Football is more of a "must see" event than the NFL:

Mascots. Whether it's a lumbering bull chewing its cud and patrolling the Austin sidelines, a marauding rider atop a black horse, a sword-brandishing Trojan out west, a pony being driven furiously across the field in Dallas or Sooners in a wagon in Norman, mascots in the college game easily outdistance their professional counterparts.

Cheerleaders. College cheerleaders cheer for the team and the passion of the sport. NFL cheerleaders? Ummm, not quite so much.

Fans. Give me 10 shirtless screaming painted guys over 10 beer drinkers in  Romo jerseys any day of the week. Caveat: The cheeseheads and the guys that dress up like pigs in Washington ... those guys are great. But just check the faces  of the typical college fan versus the typical NFL fan. The passion in the college fan is unmistakable.

Game Day. Saturday afternoons in the fall are events. It's easy to find three or four games every Saturday where the intensity is thick and the results of the game can make or break an entire season. Every Saturday is a playoff game in college football.

Music. Pregame televised theme music on Saturdays sounds like a pep rally. Pre-game music on Sundays sounds like the apocalypse. Give me a pep rally over the end of the world anyday.

Announcers. Network announcers sound like they're having fun on Saturday; On Sunday, it's as if the weight of the world is in the balance of a single Peyton Manning pass, a Titans' loss of a Romo finger.

Players. There are no Ocho Cincos, T.O.'s or Plaxico Buresses in college football. And if there are, the coaches still have the backbone to keep them quiet. In college, it's still about the team.

Rivalry weekend. Check out the college football schedule for November 27-28. See how many rivalry games you can count. No way the NFL could ever offer anything close to this day. 

Bands. NFL games don't have bands. Except for once a year during the Super Bowl when old guys like Tom Petty and Mick Jagger are paraded out to promote their latest greatest hits package. Give me the Goin' Band from Raider Land running out of the tunnel, the Fighting Texas Aggie Band, the Longhorn Band (the Showband of the Southwest), the Sooner Band or the USC Marching Band any day.

Bowl "season". I used to think it was too long. Now, it's not long enough. This year, it starts with the Vegas Bowl on Dec. 20 and culminates with the National Championship game Janaury 7, 2009. Week in and week out, you can't beat the drama of the conference matchups during the regular season, but the bowl season is synonymous with the holidays and every game is a celebration of the achievements of the regular season.

Oh, and No. 11 ...

Texas Tech-OU. Saturday, 7 p.m., ABC. A game hasn't been this big for Lubbock fans since, well, since the Texas game. Win this one, and the pollsters and pundits will finally have to consider Tech a for-real, legitimate national contender.

Photo: Masked Rider from www.redraidernation.com.

Could Johnny Depp play Mike Leach?

In absence of what would no doubt be another thrilling game this weekend in Lubbock, we offer instead a little cinematic break for your entertainment ...