Bad timing

Colts running back Dominic Rhodes picked the wrong time to display contract leverage.

With the Super Bowl trophy still shining in Colts headquarters, Rhodes decided to throw back a few. Now, that isn't uncommon. Heck the Associated Press ran pictures of everyone's all-american quarterback Peyton Manning sucking on a stogie in New Orleans a week after the Super Bowl.

However, Rhodes has added some flair to just drinking. Whether it was too much Heineken or Kristal, he got cranked.

Then he drove.

But a simple DUI isn't where this platoon running back's story ends. Once the police took him into custody, he proceeded to piss himself, turning the entire Colts Nation red with embarrassment.

I'm not sure how Rhodes is going to be able to deal with heckling next year. If he thinks the verbal barbs are bad now, just imagine what it's going to be like when Indy travels to Jacksonville.

But for Jags fans, at least that game will be family friendly. It's not often that a team has a Pampers giveaway.

Gotta love parents

They shower their kids with an overabundance of love, shower them with too much praise and are always there to stick up for them.

However parents are the bane of every coach.

Just ask Colorado coach Dan Hawkins.

He recently received an unsigned letter asking why the kids can't have more vacation time before they begin camp in the summer. During a recent press conference, he went nuts.

He screamed, "This is Division I football. This is the Big XII. It's not intramurals."

And I wholeheartedly agree. If you can't get up to play in Boulder and go up against Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, then you don't belong on the field. Apparently, that hasn't gotten through to the kids, who slugged through a disastrous 2-10 season last year.

And it's not Hawkins' fault. This is a guy that has won four WAC titles while coaching in Boise State. If he can win in the coaching abyss that is known more for its "Smurf Turf" than for its play, there is no reason he shouldn't win in CU.

Hawkins knows the pressure is on. Last December, he inked a five-year $900,000 deal with incentives to pay him more than $1.5 million. The wins are expected to come now, as a way of forgetting how Gary Barnett brothelized Boulder recruits.

Last year was the first time in Hawkins' six-year coaching career that saw a sub-.500 team. And that includes the embarrassing 19-10 loss to Division I-AA Montana State at home to open the season.

I appplaud Hawkins for mouthing off. It's high time that parents learn to keep their mouths shut and let the coaches coach. It's a different story when a parent gives a little league coach the business, but it's truly unacceptable to do it to a proven leader. And how gutless not to sign your name, to ensure that your son doesn't lose any precious playing time.

Without parents, sports would be a much better place.

Now that's heart

I just saw the best example of heart and determination. Last night, the Fox Cities Stars boys' hockey team snapped their 12-game losing streak. They've got a 3-16 record, but they continue to smile.

They could've packed it in right after they got their last win Dec. 28, but they kept plugging on and showed how much a second-year team can improve.

They probably won't do anything in the playoffs, but this team has already done plenty.

He did it

He did it. The only antidote to flushing problems away is by winning.

Consider Peyton Manning's troubles completely flushed away.

The moment he hoisted the Lombardi trophy high atop his head, you could almost see the nine-year pro getting lighter. The weight of Indianapolis, his father for not even getting to the playoffs and football fans had been bearing down on the modest quarterback.

He had been viewed as a stat man, something of a Dan Marino hybrid that can't come through when it matters. The advertising dynamo was 3-6 coming into this season's playoffs, including bowing out to the Patriots in back-to-back seasons in 2003 and 2004.

But something changed this year. The Colts, like always, breezed through the early portion of their schedule before losing three of four, including a 44-17 pasting at Jacksonville.

And if that wasn't enough ammo, Indy lost a heartbreaker on a 60-yard field goal to the lowly Texans the second-to-last game of the season.

Peyton had to rally the troops. But this time he was in an awkward position. His defense was ranked last in rushing during the regular season. And, oddly enough, the Colts had to take on Larry Johnson and the Chiefs in the first round.

Indy stepped up and held Johnson scoreless and Peyton answered again the next week by dressing down the Baltimore Ravens defense. After the game, the expressive Peyton told reporters that it's not a Peyton win or Peyton loss. It's a Colts win and a Colts loss.

With that, Indy went out and produced the largest comeback in AFC championship history by bringing back his troops from 18 down to beat his nemesis: New England.

The Super Bowl was just another sampling of what Peyton does. He's a robot with a laser arm. He won't take unnecessary chances and he knows every possible scenario before the ball is even snapped.

If everything happens for a reason, 2006 was Peyton's time.