Editor’s Note: Due to chronic lower back pain, or at least a complaint of chronic lower back pain, our sports columnist has been ensconced for the past 10 days in the recliner in his den. Due to the discomfort and the numbing effect of medicinal beverages, he says he has been unable to organize his thoughts into a coherent article. Instead, he has submitted some observations on the World Series and college and NFL football. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

By now, it seems that everyone is acknowledging what some of us Media Geniuses have been saying all along: The Most Valuable Titan so far has to be Derrick Mason, the man who has brought the team so many happy returns.

All season, Mason has provided the Titans (or the “Titians,” as ABC’s on-screen graphics labeled them on Monday night) with the favorable field position their ball-control offense needs. He returns punts—sometimes, as the befuddled Redskins’ special teamers learned on Monday, for scores. When called upon, he catches passes (also sometimes for scores).

But perhaps his most electrifying play was one in the very first game that ultimately went for naught. After Buffalo booted a field goal to take the lead with only seconds remaining, Mason came within one defender of returning the kickoff for a touchdown. Though he was finally tackled and Tennessee lost, Titans’ fans still smile at the prospect of their Buffalo counterparts flinging themselves en masse over Niagara Falls following a second Miracle.

Defensively, the MVT might be safety Blaine Bishop—not because of spectacular play but just the opposite: he’s the glue that holds the Titans defense together. He also may be the player whose playing style most resembles that of his head coach, who also was a smart, punishing DB back in the day.

Samari Rolle’s interception return for a TD just before halftime at Washington contained a quintessential Bishop moment. Around the five-yard-line, he bowled over a Redskin lineman who outweighed him by at least 80 pounds. The block allowed Rolle to reach the end zone, and the Titans never looked back.

And perhaps it’s no coincidence that Bishop and Mason are guys who find ways to win. In that sense, they’re the prototypical Titans, MVPs on a team full of VPs. Tennessee has won this year without Steve McNair, Carl Pickens, Kevin Dyson, and Yancey Thigpen. They beat Baltimore without Eddie George. They’ve won with their offense, with their defense and, this week, with their special teams. Curious, isn’t it, that the one contest in which they had almost everyone healthy—against Buffalo—they lost.

NY, NY, nyah-nyah-nyah

We don’t know whether the 1998-2000 New York Yankees rank as the greatest baseball team of all time. Unfortunately, neither do any of the Media Geniuses who’ve been pontificating to that effect but never saw some of the other contenders—the 1927 Yanks, the 1928-31 Athletics, or the 1949-54 Yankees—play.

We are, however, prepared to anoint the 2000 Yankees as the most perfectly American team in major league history. Do the ciphering for yourself. They’re ridiculously, obscenely affluent; they can buy anything they need (or want); they’re hated almost everywhere they go as visitors; and they don’t give two hoots about what anyone else thinks of them. So instead of despising them or tuning them out, as much of the TV-viewing public seems to have done, I say we celebrate the Yankees as American heroes.

Besides, we owe the Yanks a debt of gratitude for ending the Series in only five games, thereby sparing us any more “Luv New Yawk” moments. And thanks to Roger Clemens, their ace pitcher who seems to have launched a personal jihad against the Mets’ Mike Piazza, there’ll be plenty of fat for baseball fans to chew on throughout the long winter. When interleague play resumes in June, Clemens eventually will have to bat against his crosstown rivals. We’re taking bets now on where the Mets will bean him. In the head? Too obvious, though it would even the score for Piazza. In the thigh? Not punishment enough for Clemens. We suspect Bobby Valentine will order his pitchers to aim for the wrist—which would enable the Mets to break Roger’s bones while maintaining plausible deniability. We can’t wait for spring.

How it looks from the La-Z-Boy

Titans 19, Steelers 10

One of these weekends, the Titans are going to lose. We just can’t figure out when.

Sports Illustrated thought it would happen when Jacksonville sashayed into town. Instead, the Jags went home in a world of hurt.

Then the Ravens appeared to be a good bet to lay an L on Tennessee. It didn’t happen. On Monday, the Redskins even outplayed the Titans. They lost, too.

Now, the Steelers all of a sudden are looking rather formidable. Their defense hasn’t surrendered a touchdown in four weeks. The Titans are due for a letdown. But somehow they’ll have to postpone it at least one more time.

Florida 38, Vanderbilt 17

It happens at some point in the life of every modern Vanderbilt football coach. With George MacIntyre, the last in his line to post a winning season, the turn came late in his tenure. The glazed-over look struck Watson Brown early.

That old sense of frustration and futility finally overtook the seemingly indefatigable Gerry DiNardo, too, after he realized that, despite his workaholic ways, his tireless efforts at recruiting and admissions, and his steely resolve, he couldn’t manage to bring six wins to Vandyland. Rod Dowhower appeared catatonic from Day One.

And, now, it’s even happening to the chronically chipper Woody Widenhofer, who has begun to scratch his head and wonder aloud why his team can’t win more often. He had been doing so many things right. He had recruited better athletes than even DiNardo. He had built a defense that could smack around the SEC’s best offenses. Last year, he came within a couple of plays of the first winning season since 1982. With almost the whole cast back and more experienced, this was the year toward which Woody had been building.

Instead, the Commodores are staring down the maw of a 2-9 season, and they have the dispirited look of a loser. The media not only have continued what has become an annual tradition—noting with each loss the increasingly improbable number of wins Vandy must achieve the rest of the way to avoid yet another losing campaign—but have begun to speculate for the first time whether Woody (or anyone) can roll the boulder up the hill.

Seasons like this one, in which expectations finally rise high enough to be dashed, are usually the turning points in coaching careers at Vanderbilt. Not by a long shot should fans give up on Widenhofer. But don’t look for his long-shot team to stay close to Florida, as they have in years past. It may be ugly, but it probably won’t be close.

Tennessee 23, Memphis 10

Despite their middling record, the Vols are probably the most dangerous team in the SEC right now. This, in turn, is a dangerous weekend for them, against a Memphis team with a strong defense, a home field advantage and something to prove. A Tennessee letdown and a Tiger win wouldn’t surprise, but our crystal ball still shows orange.

LSU 20, Alabama 17

Mississippi State 24, Kentucky 17

Ole Miss 26, Arkansas 20

Florida State 31, Clemson 20

Miami 30, Virginia Tech 24

Northwestern 23, Michigan 21

Ravens 20, Bengals 3

Giants 27, Browns 10

Raiders 26, Chiefs 20