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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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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