The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 103

SPORTS latimes.com/sports SUNDAY PREVIEW By Sam Farmer Times Staff Writer FOXBORO, Mass. The golf cart rolled quietly through the darkness under Gillette Stadium. Quarterback Tom Brady was riding shotgun. Around the corner, about 100 New England Patriot fans were standing in a roped-off area, unfazed by the drizzle, unaware of which player had been chosen to sign autographs that day. The shrieks came when Brady turned the corner.

The 100sounded like 1,000. Brady, wearing a five-day beard and a wool cap, smiled sheepishly before climbing out of the cart and walking over to the crowd. really embarrasses he said later of getting the rock-star treatment. think I enjoy that. not my personality.

I just like to be one of the guys. On the field a different story; you expect the quarterback to lead. But when off the field, I think of myself differently than I did when I was a 12-year-old If that sounds too humble to be true, it probably is. There are definite advantages to being a star quarterback who has led his team to victories in two of the lastthree Super Bowls. Two years ago, he took a coast-to-coast trip aboard Hugh jet, was a judge for the Miss Universe pageant and was chosenone of People Beautiful This off-season, he hobnobbed with President Bush and had a private audience at the Vatican with the Pope.

His dating life is breathlessly covered in the Boston gossip pages, and this summer the buzz had on the verge of marrying actress girlfriend Bridget Moynahan. sir, no Brady insisted last week. plans to get In many ways, though, the quarterback with Associated Press AWINNING SMILE: New England quarterback Tom Brady will have more autonomy to make decisions at the line of scrimmage after picking up his second Super Bowl most valuable player award. EADER OFTHE ATS Quarterback Tom Brady is a star who understands how quickly fame and success can unravel See Brady, Page D4 By Bill Christine Times Staff Writer DEL MAR Plainly stated, the Pacific Classic is a sinkhole for shippers. Cigar, unbeaten for 22 months, was paying 10 cents on the dollar when he withstand trainer Richard two-horse stratagem in 1996.

Halo, the second betting choice, took one step out of the gate and lost his jockey as well as the race in 1992. In 1991, the first year Del $1-million race was run, Unbridled came in as a Kentucky Derby and Cup Classic winner. He finished third and never won another race. Pacific Classic winners come from Belmont Park or Saratoga or Churchill Downs, those Valhallas back east. Nine of the previous winners ran their prep races 100 miles from here, at Hollywood Park.

Three more had a race over the track before they conquered Del Mar. And Bertrando, the 1993 win- nerwhose race line shows Monmouth Park in New Jersey as his prep for Del Mar, was as California as a pair of sunglasses. Seventeen of his 24 races were run in the state where he was born. He lost all sevenraces outside California, but on Pacific Classic day he had game. All of this having been said, trainers Murray Johnson and Walter Bindner Jr.

either know something nobody else knows, or in league with loons. Either way, Joe Harper, who runs Del Mar, is happy to have Pacific Classic Cruel to Outsiders Del $1-million race produced success for many out-of-state horses, which could prove to be a factor once again. See Del Mar, Page D7 and proud to be part of the resurgence. so great to be a part of it, and with Coach Carroll, to bring back the prominence and the dynasty-type level of Leinart said. way been playing the last two years kind of brings back the glory days of the when we used to win national championships and be good all the The Trojans wrapped up a share of the 2003 national title with a 28-14 Rose Bowl victory over Michigan.

Carroll has a29-9 record at USC, including 27-4 after a 2-5 start his first year. so great to be standing in front of you representing what this university has always been about: winning championships, national Carroll told a crowd of several hundred From Associated Press The last time USC football was this good, the school was being called Tailback running Student Body Right and pumping out Heisman Trophy winners. recent success has conjured up memories of Billy Cannon dashing through Death Valley and the Chinese Bandits smothering opponents on defense. USC and LSU, two schools rich in tradition and surrounded by a wealth of talent, have gone from dormant to dominant. Under Coach Pete Carroll, the Trojans are again one of Los glamour teams.

Meanwhile, Nick Saban has restored Baton Rouge as one the college football capitals. After slogging through a string of mostly forgettable seasons, both the Trojans and Tigers finished the 2003 season as national champions. USC was first in The Associated Press voting and LSU won the Bowl Championship Series title. USC quarterback Matt Leinart even born the last time the Trojans won a national championship, but well aware of the history Tradition Is Fashionable Again at USC and LSU Robert Caplin Los Angeles Times NICE JOB: Pete Carroll has a 29-9 record since taking over at USC. Associated Press THE ANSWER: Nick Saban has compiled a 39-13 record at LSU.

The long dormant college football powerhouses have risen again under the leadership of Carroll and Saban. See Football, Page D3 ATHENS 2004 From Associated Press MARATHON, Greece Runners in the first Olympic marathon in 1896 spent the night in this single inn and downed a couple of beers before the race. Competitors today can stay at Club Med and pick up a Coke at the drive-thru. The dirt track the first runners followed has been replaced with a four-lane highway. Pine forests and olive groves have given way to strip malls and urban sprawl.

Villagers have traded traditional foustanella costumes for T-shirts and low-rise jeans. The marathon is returning home to its namesake village northeast of Athens, the starting point of a race that ends in the capital at the same, marble Panathinaiko Stadium where the first modern games were held 108 years ago. The rest of the 26.2-mile route is unrecognizable. And yet one thing has remained unchanged: love affair with the long-distance race, which began in 1896 when a farmer named Spyridon Louis pulled away from the 16 Race Returns Home to a Different Greece starting point will be its namesake village northeast of Athens, and end in the capital. The rest of the 26.2-mile route is unrecognizable.

See Marathon, Page D3 From Associated Press MARATHON, Greece From dusty coffee shops to shiny KFCs, from high-rise apartments to rustic vineyards, it seems everyone along the route of the marathon has a story about the first champion. Passed along for decades by word of mouth, the tales are the stuff of legend, chronicling the triumph of first Olympic hero in 1896. Little of it appears to be true, but that make it any worse for the telling. History tells us this: Spyridon Louis was a farmer finishing his military service when he signed up for the race at the last minute. He woke up after a night of drinking, downed milk and two beers and lined up to run.

Louis paused at least twice along the route to fortify himself with wine, surging from five men back at the halfway mark to win in 2:58:50. But as townspeople tell it, there is so much more to the story. Lefteris Mavrikos, a 70- year-old retired farmer in the town of Nea Makri, said he heard Louis never even signed up for the race. know much, but the story is he was a shepherd with his sheep and he started running and beat he said. Yannis Politis, an 87-year- old farmer in Marathon, said he has heard the stories I was a young has it that when he reached the finish line, they asked him, do you and he said, want you to re- Associated Press TALL TALE? Yannis Politis, 87, says he met the first marathon winner.

In Greece, Everyone Has a Spyro Story See Greece, Page D3.