The National Football League's 2004 season was undoubtedly The Year of Peyton.
Peyton Manning, the Indianapolis Colts' sublime quarterback, enjoyed a season for the ages and, by setting the all-time record for touchdowns thrown in one year, triggered debates about his place among the all-time greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
There is no question that Manning will win the league's Most Valuable Player award - perhaps unanimously - but there is a much more important question that remains.
Can he finally take the next critical step and win the one trophy that truly matters to him, the Vince Lombardi Trophy, awarded to the Super Bowl champions?
Manning faltered in the play-offs early in his career, losing his first three post-season games, but has won two of his last three in the play-offs and was one win away from the Super Bowl last January before losing the AFC title game to New England in icy conditions.
Unfortunately for Manning, whose style is so perfectly suited to the domed stadium where he plays his home games, the Colts will have to travel to New England and then most likely to Pittsburgh if he is to reach the Super Bowl.
The chance of at least one of those being another 'weather game' with ice on the ground or snow in the air is highly probable, and despite Manning's mastery this season, winning back-to-back road games against the Steelers and Patriots in January would be shocking.
Instead, count on the two AFC heavyweights, the Patriots and Steelers, to meet in Pittsburgh for the right to go to the Super Bowl.
The Steelers are riding a win streak of epic proportions, but the calm of Tom Brady and his veteran Patriot team-mates trumps the inexperience of rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers.
Just as the Patriots have forged a dynasty in the age of free agency, when pundits had deemed it impossible, a similarly unlikely scenario has played out in the other corner of the nation.
As the University of Southern California football team was putting the finishing touches on its 55-19 rout of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl to win college football's National Championship, whispers of the D-word could be heard around the country.
In an era when scholarship limits and players' early departures for the NFL were thought to make the creation of a dynasty impossible, the USC Trojans appear to have done just that.
The Trojans have won two consecutive national titles and, with most of their players returning next year, have a strong chance to make it three on the trot.
Obstacles stand in their way, of course. Coach Pete Carroll has already received calls from NFL teams trying to lure him away from USC.
Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Matt Leinart may skip his senior year to enter the NFL draft. But if the right breaks fall the Trojans' way, college football could have its first true dynasty in a long, long time.
Bad news, hockey fans.
No more dependable a source than Wayne Gretzky has said the National Hockey League could keep its doors closed for as many as two more years.
Gretzky, the NHL's best-ever player who is now part of the group that owns the Phoenix Coyotes, admitted the current lockout could drag on for one and a half or maybe even two years.
As that comes from a man who sees both sides of the argument, it should be a very ominous sign for both the players and owners.
One can only hope that for a sport whose hold on the American public has always been a bit shaky, the extended work stoppage will not be a death knell.
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