Saturday Morning Quarterback

While Peyton Manning was getting blown off by Bill Belichick in the afternath of the Colts' AFC championship game victory last Sunday, workers were busy grabbing boxes of championship hats and T-shirts saluting the Colts as AFC champs.
Needless to say, those weren't manufactured in the time between the final gun and the first postgame commercial. They were printed in advance. That means there was also apparel saluting the 2006 AFC champion Patriots.
So while Peyton and Tony Dungy were wearing their new champion Colts shirts and hats, where were the threads which had been destined for Belichick and Tom Brady?
Good question. I checked the Internet and found a year-old article in Slate Magazine [whatever that is] which said, depending on the league, the runner's up apparel is shipped off for charity, usually to one or more third-world countries.
That means someone somewhere on this planet thinks the Titans won Super Bowl XXXIV. That is, if he can read English.
There's probably a child, now an adult, in some war-torn country who grew up thinking the Buffalo Bills won four straight Super Bowls. Of course, in those types of environments, they probably don't understand the alleged magnitude of the big game or even care. They have more dire predicaments to think about.
When USC beat Oklahoma in the BCS Championship Game a few years ago, the Sooners' championship garb was shipped to Haiti. Don't know where the Ohio State 2006 national champions gear was sent.
It may have been shredded. Some of the collegiate garb is destroyed if it hasn't left the manufacturing plant. Major League Baseball's unused apparel also goes through the shredder. In other words, there's no Detroit Tigers 2006 World Series champion T-shirts out there. There's also only one set of Braves title memorabilia – from 1995 – and not from the years they lost the Series.
It may give you an idea what happened to the Tennessee Vols' Outback Bowl championship shirts.

Digging up the Lady Bear numbers
When Mt. Juliet won the girl's basketball state championship two years ago, we knew it coincided with Coach Chris Fryer's 200th career victory. But no one seemed to know how many losses he had.
No one still knew this week as he neared his 250th triumph.
So with some research through the dusty bound volumes of the Democrat , I found, going into last night's game at LaVergne, Fryer's Lady Bear teams have accumulated 249 wins against 45 losses in nine seasons. It includes two state quarterfinal appearances, a semifinal finish and the championship with this year's ending still pending.
The other key number pertaining to the Lady Bears right now is 60 – the number of consecutive homecourt wins they have put together. Their last loss in what is now called Tommy Martin Gym/The Cave came to Beech 57-53 on Jan. 4, 2002. It was during the worst season of Fryer's tenure as an injury-wrecked team finished 19-11 [the only time he hasn't won at least 25 games and the only season with more than eight losses].
In that game, the Lady Bears allowed 25 points to a post player named Kari Maddox, the same Kari Maddox who is now a 5-8 junior backup guard for Cumberland University.
Sports Editor Andy Reed can be reached at 444-3952 ext. 17 or by e-mail at andy.reed@leb