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Byline: Drew Sharp, @drewsharp, USA TODAY Sports The Block M now stands for miscommunication. That has become the standard response for each succeeding public relations faux pas under Michigan athletics [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp Neither is the prettiest girl in the room anymore, no longer guaranteed the salivating suitors of their choice with a wink of the eye or a purse [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp Officiating hasn't gotten worse. Technology has gotten better. That's the problem. High-definition video now serves as judge and jury for football referees and baseball umpires. With more [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp The NFL should pass on Rush. Nobody's suggesting that Rush Limbaugh doesn't have the right to pursue an NFL franchise. They're his millions and he can spend [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp Twitter risks turning us all into twits if we're not more careful. I won't do it. My aversion isn't simply that it promotes what I consider defeatist [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp Now that the NFL has proven that good taste and good business are indeed mutually exclusive, why should it stop with customized Philadelphia Eagles dog jerseys attached [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp Southern California basketball gasps for breath, steadily hemorrhaging players and credibility. The program has become a crime scene with a search for telling clues as to the [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp We're a forgiving people, just not a forgetful one. There will never be a clean slate for Michael Vick, nor should there be. His apologists equate his [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp EAST LANSING, Mich. -- It's only a basketball game. It's not a magic wand. Michigan State's 90-minute bus ride to its Final Four destiny in downtown Detroit [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp The perfect solution nonetheless begins with an imperfect premise -- finding the most deserving 65 teams for the NCAA men's basketball tournament. March Madness isn't without its [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp Golf awakens from its eight-month hibernation from relevance this afternoon when Tiger Woods returns to the PGA Tour after reconstructive knee surgery, the sport's most eagerly anticipated [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp The most influential man of color in America is not LeBron James, Kobe Bryant or Tiger Woods. As of noon Tuesday, the man who holds that honor [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp Winning breeds amnesia. All sins are instantly washed away. A 7-0 record and No.3 national ranking magically cleanse perception, turning troublesome, pampered athletes who believe the laws [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp The irate demand a sacrificial head on a platter when blaming someone else is easier than blaming their beloved team. Enter Ed Hochuli. The NFL referee is [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp The ubiquitous block M now stands for Mystery. That doesn't sit easily among the conventional Old Blues adamant that Michigan football remains a trusted heirloom, passed down [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- The Americans become a better Ryder Cup team without Tiger Woods. The idea of addition through the subtraction of the world's best player [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp The 'flip-flop' isn't necessarily a character flaw. Changing one's mind gets a bad rap sometimes because we've become conditioned into believing that it reflects internal weakness. Staying [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp I assume that upon the conclusion of these Finals, the NBA will cease to exist. How can it possibly survive? Should the growing fraternity of conspiracy mavens [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp LAKELAND, Fla. _ Devastated from earlier false alarms, Ugueth Urbina kept any sighs of relief on hold when his younger brother, Ulmer, phoned him Friday at a [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ Mike Ilitch pondered the question. He has three Stanley Cups, a place in hockey's Hall of Fame, and his Red Wings are hockey's gold standard. [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ Brilliant. It's a word we haven't associated much with the Tigers in the past 15 years, but it applies in the second successful courtship of [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DURHAM, N.C. _ Mike Krzyzewski had the NCAA exactly where he wanted it on the Fourth of July. The Los Angeles Lakers had dangled an offer of [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ We're going to take a moment to talk about _ shush _ race. Not too loud. You can discuss it only in hushed tones because [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ Maybe Barry Sanders had the right idea all along? Leaving them panting for more is the ultimate act of showmanship. Perfecting the proper exit strategy [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp Nobody listened to Ken Caminiti when he was alive, and, sadly, nobody will pay attention to his message from the grave. The combustible demons within the 1996 [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. _ Sometimes style comes out when inhibition takes a walk. The Euros get it. 'What others think of as flamboyant,' said Ian Poulter, 'I [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp TROON, Scotland _ The top American contenders were disappointed that they didn't take full advantage of Thursday's favorable scoring conditions at Royal Troon. At least Tiger Woods [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp They were square pegs uncomfortably squeezed into circular confinements. And within the ground rules of perception, a failure to conform easily morphs into an inability to succeed. [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp AUBURN HILLS, Mich. _ Play was abruptly halted after someone sustained a cut lip, and the referees called what's officially referred to as a 30-second 'infectious disease [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp AUBURN HILLS, Mich. _ The leading shot-blocker was the rim, as lazy turnover begat lame decision. This was a 35-and-over weekend pickup game masquerading as a center [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ Are we done with the sappy sentimentality? Another premature playoff demise by the Red Wings has taken the tone of a perverse memorial service _ [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp MILWAUKEE _ The risks, thought to be nonexistent when the trade went down two months ago, have attained an increasing clarity. The high-impact acquisition of Rasheed Wallace [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ It only seems that Chauncey Billups has been in the NBA forever. 'I was talking to somebody about that a little while ago,' Billups said, [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ What's the best way to silence an overly talkative goalie? Lodge a puck in his mouth. The consequences of foolishly taunting a sleeping bear is [...]

DETROIT - As you would with any endangered species, you approach Emeka Okafor with a degree of awe and wonderment. The elite athlete is also an exceptional student. It's not [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ Is anyone ready to claim the Wings' No. 1 playoff goalie title as his own? The potential for controversy has morphed into concern, as Curtis [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ Curtis Joseph isn't owed a starting job come playoff time. His lone entitlement is the opportunity to rise or fall on his merits in the [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp Dusty Baker was right. This is McCarthyism _ Charlie McCarthy-ism. Major league baseball players are empty wooden souls that come to life only through the manipulation of [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ Robert Lang, whom the Detroit Red Wings acquired Friday from the Washington Capitals, is tied for the NHL lead in scoring. The Wings got him [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. _ The aroma of scorched rubber and burned oil brings tears to the eyes of those racing devotees who view garage access in the [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ Sports and politics aren't necessarily the strange bedfellows some might suggest. Neither enterprise at its highest levels has much of an ethical compass. In these [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ For a moment in the days leading up to the Sugar Bowl, Nick Saban offered a morsel of clarity amid the rehearsed and recycled responses. [...]

PASADENA, Calif. - A sign carried by a Southern Cal fan conveyed the Trojans' mission statement for the past month. It read: 'Hey BCS, Gigabyte This!' Another fan wearing thick, [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Those who wagered the mortgage on the Lions winning a road game before the U.S. military captured Saddam Hussein were last heard sobbing [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp GREEN BAY, Wis. _ Somewhere behind the dull gray skies overhead Sunday smiled the patron saint of the National Football League. Vince Lombardi loved this one. This [...]

Byline: Drew Sharp DETROIT _ He seemed like a typical starving-for-attention, craving-for-identity teenager engaging in his generation's most cherished pastime _ spending an afternoon cruising the suburban mall. A do-rag [...]