It was my third week of motherhood and, as I sat watching TV one afternoon, I had a thought so odd and stupid that only sleep deprivation could be to blame:

"Wow, many of the soap opera characters I followed in college are still alive!"

	Gruden's saga was straight from the soap opera archives.

Within days, I was addicted once again. Forsaking my mom's advice to "nap when the baby naps," I tuned in to my guilty pleasure. And soon my daily routine of simultaneously watching soaps and reading the sports pages forced me to ask myself a tough question.

Have sports merely been fulfilling my addiction to cheap drama during my years of soap opera sobriety?

It's not a stretch. In fact, the two art forms are alarmingly similar.

Taking a three-month break from the SportsCenter anchor desk and the statistics and dry data that cloud my view, I was reminded why we love sports and athletes -- the games' outcomes are unpredictable and the characters are unlike anyone we meet in real life.

Like the soaps, sports offer dramatic confrontations (Jon Gruden vs. Al Davis); he said/she said arguments (Jim Harrick and Tony Cole); swift ascents and falls (Steve Mariucci's witnessed both); and, rightly or wrongly, the sports world harshly defines good guys (Michael Jordan) and bad boys (Allen Iverson). In short, sports and soaps are the fast foods of the entertainment world. We remember most scores and stats for a day ... but the silliest stories and personalities live forever.

Now, don't misunderstand me. Kobe Bryant's scoring streak or the UConn women's winning streak (may it rest in peace) aren't just stats that I ignored. Those numbers represent unbelievable stories unto themselves. But, honestly, I wanted to hear more from Shaquille O'Neal on Bryant's MVP run. "The Young and the Restless" would never build a storyline around Jack Abbott without Victor Newman's presence. And with the exception of wife swapping, the ageless "Y & R" rivalry has nothing on LA's saga.

Speaking of MVP runs, how is ... super-model-Tyra-Banks-dating Chris Webber pulling off his season mere months away from trial and possibly the clink? And when booster/chief witness for the prosecution Ed Martin suddenly died, didn't you wonder, Where's Jimmy King and Ray Jackson? Webber defined Michigan's Fab Five to the New York Times: "That, was brotherhood." So I ask, how far does a brother go for another?

	The cast of the Bold and the Beautiful isn't much different from your favorite team.

I know "The Bold and the Beautiful"'s Ridge and Thorne Forrester wouldn't let federal prosecution come between them either. Brooke Logan, of course, is another story. And along those lines, Macy Alexander Forrester's resurrection from a deadly car crash was something else. "B & B" took a play right out of Cowboys' coach Bill Parcells' book. Remember young viewers, a dynamic character and career aren't officially dead until there's a corpse.

The Super Bowl or, more to the point, Gruden's story was a top rate soap. The son returns home to a place where his father toiled as an assistant and wins a championship in his first season. The expressive, golden-haired Gruden defeating his old team, the evil empire Raiders, is akin to Holden Snyder on "As the World Turns" winning Lucinda Walsh's most cherished and beloved possession, her daughter, Lily Walsh Mason Snyder Grimaldi Snyder. (Yeah, it's a soap and she's been married a few times.)

By the way, when I say Lucinda Walsh, Martha Burk immediately comes to mind.

Much the same, Victor Newman -- although previously compared to Shaq -- is Michael Jordan. For starters, both defy age. Jordan's 40-plus point effort as he turned the big 40 was a heck of a story. But his defiant and direct synopsis of his extra marital affair and subsequent shakedown is Newman-esque, complete with the suffering wife and beautiful children living in a suburban mansion -- though "Y & R" added a play even Jordan couldn't have imagined when Newman's sperm was stolen, and so, unbeknownst to him, he's the father of Ashley Abbott Carlton's daughter, Abby Carlton.

Long lost children ... hmm, maybe that's the real story behind George Steinbrenner's devotion to David Wells and impatience with Derek Jeter. Although Jeter hit .297 last season -- a stat to remember as it was noticeably below his career average -- it's far less damaging than a tell-all book that soils the reputation of the entire franchise. And yet The Boss had nothing good to say about Jeter ... and nothing at all to say about the budding young author Wells.

But when it comes to a damaged franchise, I'll most remember watching Carolina's painful winter. The Heels 40-point loss to Maryland late last month convinced me that Matt Doherty was handed the keys to the kingdom a bit too early, the late-season upset of hated archrival Duke notwithstanding. Remember when young Rick ran the Forrester fashion house on "B & B"? Nothing good came of that, and it'll take years for the faithful to return to the fashionable label. Likewise, a few terrible seasons and Carolina's popularity will take a terrible hit. Powder blue will fall out of fashion, if it hasn't already.

	Lucky for Anna, she will live to love again, and again, and again.

Finally, Anna Kounikova and Sergei Fedorov were married after all! Albeit briefly, as if that makes any difference. Like on all soaps, all marriages last a week and everyone's divorced for the first time before age 20. Possibly, like young Bridget Forrester Sharpe, Anna will discover her brother isn't really her brother, and she'll fall in love, again (this time forever ... wink, wink), at age 21! We can only hope.

So although I once again say goodbye to the Newman, Abbott, Forrester and Spectra families, I'm as excited to follow March Madness and the NBA playoffs as I am the dramatic developments surrounding Ken Griffey Jr. and Cincinnati's attempts to dump him, Dusty Baker's debut in Chicago, LeBron James' arrival and possibly Pete Rose's return to baseball. (Isn't Rose a guy after "ATWT"'s James Stenbeck's heart?)

I'll end by trying to get my mind around one last tough question: When people say, "I can't believe you follow that televised garbage," are they talking about my soaps or my job?

Hmm. What do you think?

SportsCenter anchor Chris McKendry is a regular columnist for Page 2.