Rick Pedone

Sports Editor
We planned to end this weekly folly last week, but darned if Auburn defensive back T’Sharvan Bell didn’t drag us back for one more rodeo.

How about T-Bell, anyway? He’s a BCS national champion!

The former OHS quarterback/defensive back, who graduated in 2008, played safety Monday when the Tigers edged Oregon, 22-19.

Bell had five solo tackles in the championship game, continuing a late-season run that saw him make several huge plays for the Tigers. He sacked Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy, knocking him out of the game, in Auburn’s 28-24 come-from-behind win in the Iron Bowl, and he pulled off a pick-six in the SEC championship game against South Carolina.

How does T-Bell feel today?

“It’s unbelievable, you can’t even describe the feeling,” he said Thursday by phone from Auburn.

You have to feel good for T-Bell, and his family, especially after the way his high school career ended on a nippy night in Jacksonville three years ago.

That’s when he suffered a knee injury in the state semifinal game at Bartram Trail that required surgery. It knocked Bell out of the state title game against St. Thomas Aquinas.

Does anyone to this day wearing Blue and Gold doubt that the Kowboys would have won the 2007 state title with a healthy T-Bell?

Bell is the second Osceola County player to win a BCS championship after another former Kowboy, FSU offensive lineman Brett Williams, in 1999.

Two more former Kowboys hold Super Bowl rings: 1984 graduate Markus Paul has four of them, all as a conditioning coach, for New England and the New York Giants.

Tito Paul, a 1991 Kowboys grad, got one in 1998 as a defensive back with the Denver Broncos.

We’ll have a story on T-Bell and his Auburn adventures next week.

Meanwhile, we turn our somewhat limited attention span to this weekend’s NFL divisional playoffs.

First, our Special Playoffs Edition Mighty News-Gazette Top 13:

No. 1: Belichick’s Boys. No. 1A: War Eagle! No. 3: The Stillers. No. 4: Ray Lewis. No. 5: Atlanta. No. 6: The Pack. No. 7: J-E-T-S. No. 8: Da Bears. No. 9: Wind chill. No. 10: The Seabirds. No. 11: The Ducks. No. 12: TCU. No. 13: T-Bell!

Slobberknocker time:

Baltimore at Pittsburgh (-3): Thousands of years ago, on a starry night in a forest clearing, ringed by a few scruffy onlookers holding torches, two brutes entered the ring and proceeded to beat one another with clubs mercilessly for a couple of hours until one of them finally couldn’t get up. Neither one of those guys would be dumb enough to play in this football game today. Stillers by 2.

Green Bay at Atlanta (-2.5): The Pack is the trendy pick to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. That would be a lot easier if this game was at the frozen tundra rather than at the frozen Georgia Dome. Black Birds by 3.

Seattle at Chicago (-10): Are we through with all the hand-wringing about a 7-9 team reaching the playoffs? Haven’t a few 8-8 teams qualified, and then lost in the first round? That would make them 8-9, just like Seattle. Big Bad Bears by a Snowy 6.

N.Y. Jets at New England (-8.5): We keep hearing how this game is going to be a lot closer than the last one. If the Jets lose by five touchdowns, it will be a lot closer than the last one. Pats by only three TDs.

Next week: Pats over Steelers by 10; Falcons over Bears by 11.

Brian “Big Man” McBride’s Super Sniffer Upset Special (he hit last week with the Jets): Ravens by 1.

Young Jackson says: Steelers by 9, Bears by 13, Pack by 3 in “Who Needs A Tundra” Upset, Pats by 3 feet. Next week: Pats by 7, Pack by 1.

Last week: Scintillating Senior (5-1, 103-71) eclipsed Evaporated Eagle (3-3, 102-72).