It was not that long ago when the accepted wisdom in football was that the running game had to be established - that was always the obligatory verb: established - before passes could become effective. My, we know how that has changed. Now the pass is established from the get-go, and running is an afterthought.

At all levels - with men and women - the 3-point shot has utterly transformed the way the game is played. More and more, the players are spread out, looking to pop behind the 3-point arc.

Owners own teams so that they might move them to another municipality with better luxury boxes.

I get very envious of my general news colleagues who are always being handed sexy new stuff like global warming, China, and Donald Trump, while my sports colleagues and I must be eternally satisfied with the same old home-court advantage, soccer, and momentum.

When Juan Antonio Samaranch said the Olympics are more important than the Catholic Church, I just couldn't believe it. I said to myself, 'Don't let your expression show that he has just made a total ass of himself. Be cool, and just keep right on talking.'

I think every time I can find a story that touches that human nerve, and even sometimes makes you cry, I think that I've found something that I'll like very much.

Because I lost a daughter, eight years old, to cystic fibrosis, I think that anytime that I'm dealing with people who, like Andrea Yeager, are trying to help those sick children, I identify very much with them.

The only thing we know for sure about superiority in sports in the United States of America in the 20th century is that Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics teams he led stand alone as the ultimate winners.

First and foremost, Howard Cosell is sports. There are all these people, these fans, who claim that when Cosell does a game on television, they turn off the sound on the TV and listen to the radio broadcast. Oh, sure. You probably know critics in your neighborhood who vow the same thing. Well, too bad for them.

Quickness and momentum. You take the whole last generation of sports, listening to them, even reading about them, watching the games, analyzing them, arguing about them, instant-replaying them, second-guessing them, and all you'll distill from them is quickness and momentum.

The stories that are most unfamiliar, the ones that seem to come out of the blue about people that aren't well known, usually come from producers that have really done a lot of homework and looked around. Other stories come from the correspondents.

People often lump radio and television together because they are both broadcast mediums. But radio, anyway, and the radio I do for NPR, is much closer to writing than it is to television.

It costs a lot of money to deliver newsprint. It's so much easier to do it through the air, Internet, radio, television. The second easiest thing is to do it through the mail. But when you have to take something heavy and put it on someone's doorstep, that costs a lot of money.

I can remember going to see the minor league Orioles. Until I was 15 years old, we'd go down with 3,000 people to watch them play the Syracuse Chiefs or the Jersey City Little Giants. That's what passed for Baltimore sports.

It's almost impossible to explain how little the NBA amounted to when I started covering it in 1963. It wasn't fair to call it bush, although everybody did. It was simply small - only nine teams - and insignificant.

Several NBA teams got their best gates every season when they scheduled a doubleheader and booked the Globetrotters and their stooges for the opening game.

The NBA Schedule was made up by one man, Eddie Gottlieb, who had owned the Philadelphia Warriors. Eddie had a Buddha-like body and a crinkly smile, and because he had also been an owner in baseball's old Negro leagues, he was known as the Mogul.

I had gone to work for 'Newsweek', left 'Newsweek' and went to work for 'Vanity Fair,' and then went back to 'Newsweek'. I came back to 'SI' as a contract writer.

Hard as it is to believe, there were three magazines fighting over me. 'Newsweek' wanted to keep me, 'ESPN The Magazine' was coming into existence and wanted me, and 'SI' wanted to bring me back. Isn't that amazing? I had a choice, like a free agent.

'SI' came to me and said, 'We want you to do a story on Russell as the greatest team player,' which I certainly agreed with.

We start 2016 with a command: that the subject of Pete Rose and the Hall of Fame is over, finis, kaput forever and ever. As sure as we will no longer discuss whether Lindsey Graham or George Pataki can be president.

I've been doubted my whole life, especially coming out of college with the injuries I had.

My first year playing Pop Warner football, my mom had to change my birth certificate because I was too young. I was 5, I think, and you were supposed to be 6.

When I see a guy on the football field huffing and puffing, I know I got an advantage over him.

I tried the Xenith helmet later in my career and immediately wished I had done it earlier. It was comfortable, secure, and allowed me to perform without distractions.

I want to make sure I'm not the last NFL player to come out of the Grove.

When something you love gets taken away, it hurts you.

You think about when I went to Miami. I played as a freshman, I go in and compete to be a starter, I tear my ACL. Come back, I start, I get off to a good couple of games and I get hurt again. You hear everybody saying, 'Oh, he's done.' I get drafted in the third round. People still said I got drafted too high, saying I'll only play three years.

I don't want to just be part of a team, I want to help a team, and I don't want anyone to say I rode the bench to get a ring.

I'm from Miami, you know, when you're a child, you always want to play in front of your hometown.

I just always told myself that I can never get big-headed if I become successful.

When you come from Miami, you're used to winning.

I know that every team likes a guy who's going to try their best and work very hard.

I'm going to be a Niner, you know, I've been there - that's who drafted me, gave me the opportunity to come into this league, to be a professional ball player, and I was there 10 years, man.

You can be talented, but having great talent isn't enough. You have to work every day or someone will pass you up.

I don't care what age I am. If I continue to train and feel good and enjoy the locker room and this organization wants me and I feel I can do it, I'm going to do it, no matter what my age.

I want to make an impact.

When I'm done, whenever I feel like I'm done, I'm going to come back and retire as a Niner.

My first time playing running back in a real game, I had eight touchdowns.

My neighborhood, Coconut Grove, we always played in the streets. It was corner against corner. We all had football teams. Different neighborhoods.

My mom, how she raised me, my brothers, my cousins, when I was a kid with one bedroom for 12 people... You think about all that, and God blessed me to get somewhere and do something I love and do something I've done since I was a kid. And blessed me with the talent to do it.

If I feel like I can't play ball anymore, I'll stop that day. I'm not a fool. I respect the game too much.

When you think about retiring, you're done. You already checked out.

I love when people tell me what I can't do.

My son going to college is a big milestone.

My coaches respect me - the way I come to work, practice and play.

But I look at Anquan Boldin the same. If you watch us, we're similar players. We're not the fastest, we're not the biggest, but we get it done. I think we're just football players.

Before I got injured, football was very easy, I didn't have to work out.

As long as I'm healthy and feeling good, I will compete with anybody.

I train with young guys in the offseason just to be honest and keep myself sure, to let myself know if I'm ready or will I be ready.