The lingering, messy lockout has thrown doubt that training camp and the regular season will start on time. These loosely organized team activities without any input or supervision from the coaching staff are as close as the Sixers can get to a training camp without traveling to Philadelphia. Brand's weekly, upbeat offseason texts from coach Doug Collins have vanished from his BlackBerry.Football increasingly is embracing the advantage that can be gained from using analytics. More than half of the NFL had representatives at this year's MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, cofounded by Rockets general manager . More NFL teams have analytics departments that analyze everything from player injuries to personnel decisions to game planning.

He wanted to be an Army man. While on patrol in Iraq, McGinnis and his men had a freak thing happen to them. From the balcony of a building in the town they were driving through, a hand grenade was thrown through the open hatch of the Humv