Supersized Stories

With most sports observers convinced that Super Bowl XXXV would dissolve into a defensive standoff with few offensive highlights, the buzz in Tampa Bay last week was the ongoing controversy over the Super Bowl MVP, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. Considered the best defensive player in football, Lewis made news of the wrong sort after last year's Super Bowl when he and his buddies left two men bleeding to death on an Atlanta street corner. Baltimore's head coach Brian Billick and star tight end Shannon Sharpe harangued the media, telling it to leave Lewis alone. Which, of course, only made the story even bigger.

Meanwhile, New York Giants quarterback Kerry Collins' comeback from alcoholism, from a reputation as a quitter, and even a racist, has gone nearly unnoticed. Collins' numbers are a story in itself. Completing his best performance as a pro, Collins finished the year with 381 yards and five touchdowns in New York's 41-0 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game. Collins wasn't the star of the Super Bowl that Lewis was, but his is a bigger story--a more human story--than the improbable rise of St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner from grocery clerk to last year's MVP.

Coming out of Penn State, the very first player drafted by the Carolina Panthers, Collins seemed to be a star in the making. Instead, alcohol soon reduced him to an accident waiting to happen. Collins admits that he drank to lose control. He didn't drink every day, but when he started he never stopped at one beer. "I used alcohol as a rebellious tool," he says. "I really had problems with the public attention, living in the public eye. I adopted the adage of 'I'll show you.'"

Continued on page 2: »