By the time I reached high school, the "Tonight" show struck me as somehow too phoney, too Establishment. My ardour had cooled. But as a child, I loved it, not just for Carson, but also for the version of New York it signified: glamorous, witty, grownup and, especially, nocturnal (even after I knew it was taped around sundown)..Las Vegas does a better job at buffing the image of the league than NFL executives. They won't allow a Vegas promo, but the mighty will let their NFL TV partners show this malefantasy Miller Lite commercial: in a hot debate over "tastes great" or "less filling," two wild women start mud wrestling. If you're an ESPN devotee, you get to hear the uncut version, ending with the brunette rising from the mud and saying to the blonde, "Let's make out." (See what a beer buzz will do?).

In 2009, six retired pro football stars filed a class action against the National Football League in federal court in Minneapolis, cla