Justice is served: 3 up and 3 down ...

THREE UP ... 1. No mistakes this time. Notre Dame seems to have it right, even if school officials aren't holding a broad search that would be more inclusive than this one was. But the ready candidate the Irish and their faithful thought they had (Urban Meyer) before hiring Charlie Weis is there for the taking this time, and if Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly is their man, the football program will be better for it. While I'm not somebody who cheers for the Fighting Irish (not even when they play Michigan), I know that college football is always better when Notre Dame is good, not bad.

2. Where have you gone, Tiger? Once the TV face of cars and razor blades, Tiger Woods has disappeared from the airwaves in the wake of stories about his promiscuous lifestyle. He's bedded more cocktail waitresses than the late Wilt Chamberlain -- or so it seems. The last time one of Tiger's ads appeared on TV was Nov. 29, Bloomberg News reported. And if the self-righteous, petty, whiny and immoral golf star doesn't appear ever again, TV viewers will not miss him. Good riddance to Tiger-mania -- finally! Please give us Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer back.

3. The reigning king of home runs -- or is he the king of steroids abuse? -- is hanging up his maple bat. Good riddance! See you later, Barry Bonds? Don't book a hotel room in Cooperstown anytime this century. Between you, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, nobody did more damage to the game's integrity on the field than they did. Now off the field, commissioner Bud Selig's behind all the trouble there.

THREE DOWN ... 1. So, the authorities in New York don't want to give inmate Plaxico Burress, the former New York Giants star, a break, eh? I guess I understand their position in denying him work release, which one assistant district attorney said would send "a very bad message." But what's such a bad message about letting a non-violent offender out of an overcrowded jail early? Burress' real crime is stupidity, and stupidity shouldn't merit two years in prison, should it? His is a punishment that simply doesn't fit the crime.

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3 up and 3 down of the world of sports ...

THREE UP ...

1. Not that Tony Dungy's criticism of the NCAA had a bearing on it, but let's applaud Louisville for its decision to hire Florida defensive coordinate Charlie Strong as its head coach. Strong had played a central role in Urban Meyer's success with the Gators, and he should have been a candidate to run a program long before now. He's got a challenge ahead of him at Louisville, but the Cardinals have been a winning program in years past. Strong could have easily been offered, oh, a program with no chance of winning -- in this century or the next.

2. Not sure why the Tigers are trying to unload Curtis Granderson, but I have to admit it will be a wonderful deal for the Yankees, if not an outright betrayal to Tigers fans. Now, I'm not Yankees fan, no matter how much I try to understand the organization. You can't but salute a team for not wanting to stand pat. Bold teams like the Yankees make bold moves, and this was, if it goes through, a bold move that will make the Yankees younger, faster and better. Can anybody say World Series champs, 2010?

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Brian Kelly: Are Irish eyes smiling on UC coach?

He might be the best candidate Notre Dame can take a serious look at, because in Brian Kelly, the university has a possible hire with the makings of a blue-chip coach.

All the people who have met Kelly, who has created so much buzz around Ohio that a person might think he's coaching the Buckeyes, say the same thing: He's bright, innovative and personable, a trio of traits that neither of the university's past two coaches had all of.

It would be no hard task to deconstruct those two coaches, Ty Willingham and Charlie Weis, and say why they failed. Cut to the core, and what emerges when poring over the disassembled parts are personalities that never fit the Irish image.

Willingham's cool detachment endeared him to few of the Irish faithful, and Weis' unbridled arrogance created friction inside and outside the ivy walls of college football's most storied program.

Had Willingham and Weis won more often, their shortcomings might have been glossed over. Nobody can complain too loudly about a coach's smugness when his record stands at 12-0 and he's preparing for a BCS berth.

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Rush to print hurts daily sports journalism

The crawler across the bottom of the ESPN broadcast Saturday claimed Notre Dame was going to announce its next football coach today.

The report had its roots in The Chicago Sun-Times, and football fans figured the newspaper got the story straight.

I didn't.

I harbor no ill-will toward The Sun-Times; I have had many friends who have worked there. It's a good newspaper -- one with a storied past, a daily with a reputation for excellence, a staple in the Windy City media history.

In hearing the Notre Dame report, I sensed immediately that The Sun-Times had followed the lead of so many newspapers today: It rushed to publish.

I have no way of knowing who the unnamed source of its Notre Dame story was -- not that the source's name mattered. What does matter is that the newspaper reported a story on its website without having all the pieces together, which explains why it later pulled the story.

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Pacman vs. Pretty Boy: Is their fight on?

You can almost see Manny Pacquiao’s smile.

Check it out.

There his smile is in front of you -- a toothy grin that turns the Pacman’s features into a cartoonist's rendering, a wide and exaggerated visage that indicates he’s comfortable with his circumstances.

Did you see it?

You won't have to search hard for reasons behind Pacquiao's smiling. He has millions of reasons.

Fresh from his demolition last month of Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao learned his performance didn’t scare off “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather Jr., an unbeaten fighter who has to be smiling broadly himself. He got Mayweather's people to agree in principle on a contract; he did so without all the posturing that often attaches itself to Mayweather like Velcro.

Oh, his people had been floating hints that to make this mega-fight happen, they would insist Mayweather earns the lion’s share of a princely purse. They tried to convince everybody that he was the top draw for PPV subscribers, not the pint-sized Pacquiao.

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Best word for King James: Classless

On the floor in the middle of the locker room, a Cavs trainer pulled and bent and rubbed to loosen King James' muscles. While the trainer worked on his body, the King, a set of gold-colored headphones atop his head, sang.

Ignoring the crush of journalists in the room, the King -- aka LeBron James -- engrossed himself in the music. He was in no hurry to hold court.

So as the media waited, the King rapped aloud. He proved no candidate for "American Idol," but he never claimed his greatness extended beyond business and basketball. He's crafted an image like Mike's: of class and of sophisticated cool.

But isn't class a constant? Shouldn't class be something a star athlete guards jealously?

I wish I could use the word class to describe any part of the King's five-minute rendition Wednesday night of a profane rap song. I don't know whose work the King sang; I do know he picked the wrong venue to perform it.

Yes, the King was in his domain, and the locker room has always been the province of the players and not the media. You hang out in locker rooms long enough and you'll hear sexist, homophobic and rude comments flow like the waters in the Amazon. Vulgarity has no place there. It should not be the language of a sophisticated man.

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Bowden era: Did it have to end like this?

I needed a full day to sift through the mixed feelings I had about what happened Monday to Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. In my lifetime, few coaches have been as tied to a football program as Bowden had been to Florida State.

Say Florida State, and the person whose face stood as a symbol of that great institution was his. For Bowden, a man with 388 wins on his coaching resume, was to Florida State what Joe Paterno is to Penn State, to what Bear Bryant was to Alabama and to what Woody Hayes was to Ohio State.

And as an OSU alum, I understood well what a man like Bowden meant. I also knew that his 34-year marriage wasn't intended to last forever -- a point JoePa might want to keep fresh in his mind. For living legends do have a shelf-life, and it's a lot shorter than they might like.

Still, it's never easy for a legend to bid adieu. I remembered how hard it was from my undergraduate years at Ohio State, because I mourned its decision to fire Hayes.

In hindsight, its decision was the right one.

But men like Hayes and Bowden -- and, yes, Paterno -- deserve more than a parting gift and a brick building on campus with their name on it. What made Hayes and Bowden so special was what became their undoing: a stubborn refusal to change or to quit.

They'd rather jump into a tar pit naked before stepping down, and in Bowden's coach, FSU officials realized as much.

To their credit, they did give Bowden a choice. Yet was it more a Hobson's choice than anything else: quit or they'd fire him.

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