Check the depths of your Thursday paper for our eight-page NASCAR season section. Matt Mowery gets the credit for sharp design.

"Lombardi Gras" was the headline which graced our cover Monday. It wasn't the only idea, but just the final one that worked really well with the photo. Apparently, we we weren't the only publication who chose the headline, as Yahoo! Sports had the good sense to use the headline, and the same photo.
SportsDesigner.com also shared some other headlines.
Here are some others:

• Dat's Who (Matt Mowery)
• Aints no more (Paul Kampe)
• The Brees Knees (Paul Kampe)
• All Saints Day (Sporting News)
• First Time's a Charm: Aint They Great (ESPN)
• Who's Dat? True Dat (NFL.com)
• Super Saints! New Orleans wins firest Super Bowl (Detroit News)

The reason I like the Pro Bowl's move to one week before the Super Bowl is simple — I personally get so tired of hearing different story lines, the all-star game provides a buffer in the two "off" weeks. The reduction of material also benefits me at work, because we have fewer pages to fill than in years past, meaning we can get in meaningful copy about other sports a few days more.
Some of our frequent readers may have recognized this photo from Monday's sports front. I love this picture! I wanted to use it so badly that I sort of reworked the headlines to make the photo fit.
Let the story lines begin/continue!

The Associated Press failed to mention this in the B2 story we ran in Monday's edition, but Michigan, led by improbable Mr. Universe Tom Brady, had nearly as many former players on the NFL's All-Decade team as Miami University, no small feat.
Michigan had four, while the 'Canes placed five, led by Ray Lewis.
The accomplishment has to be attributed to the school's previous football regime, which of course was led by Lloyd Carr. The Wolverines have a long way to go if they plan on landing some players on the next team of the decade, but hey, they have 10 more years — that ought to be enough for Rich Rod to get the program back to respectability!
Michigan players on the team:

• Tom Brady, QB, New England
  
• Steve Hutchinson, G, Minnesota
  
• Ty Law, CB, Denver
  
• Charles Woodson, CB, Green Bay