IOWA CITY -- Corn-shucking cynics have insisted all season that the passwords at Kinnick Stadium have been ''lucky'' and ''charmed.''

They're not the Cardiac Kids just yet, but the Bulls are making a habit of comeback victories at home.

Stan Bowman will attend his first NHL general managers meeting this week in Toronto as the Blackhawks' GM. The groundwork for trades often is created at the meeting, but after the Hawks went 8-4-1 in October, it didn't seem Bowman would be very interested in tweaking his roster.

MINNEAPOLIS -- As defensive end Clay Nurse rumbled off the field, he shouted it out loud. Almost snarled it.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame's Fiesta Bowl bid and Jimmy Clausen's Heisman Trophy hopes were sunk with a 23-21 loss Saturday to Navy.

Cuauhtemoc Blanco's days with the Fire aren't done yet. He has at least one more game.

So I just got back to Los Angeles, which is where I live -- well, you don't really ''live'' in L.A. so much as you float through a surreal strip-mall-and-freeway-exit life -- and there is talk, once again, of the NFL coming back to town within a year or two or 200.