Tony Dungy is saying he will make a decision on his future with the team by next Monday. Meanwhile, the players are still in shock and are aware they might have lost more than just a playoff game.

“You kinda wake up, think you are going back to work and so it’s a little bittersweet to comeback here and see everyone packing up their locker,” said tight end Ben Utecht.

“When you come and clean out your locker and do the exit physical it starts to sink in,” said kicker Adam Vintieri.

This wasn’t the way the defending Super Bowl champs wanted to end their season. The Colts just weren’t themselves in Sunday’s divisional playoff game against the Chargers. They had too many turnovers, dropped balls, and penalties. Additionally, their defense, which was solid in the regular season, broke down.

“Good regular season, but not a good enough post season. That’s all that really matters at this point in time so you go to get to the postseason and get to the Super Bowl and that’s what we are trying to do and we didn’t get it down,” said safety Antoine Bethea.

“This is the rough part, the off season, the beginning of it, especially when you don’t finish like you want to,” said Jeff Saturday.

While the players are trying to deal with their abrupt end to their season, they are also left wondering if coach Tony Dungy has coached his last game.

“He’s a great coach, the best I’ve ever had so I’d hate to lose him,” said Jeff Saturday.

“I want to be back, I want to be with you guys and the only reason I won’t is if I don’t feel I can give you what you deserve,” Dungy said to the players.

With or without Coach Dungy, the Colts aren’t sure what to do.

“You expect to be playing in February. Like I said, I cleared out my itinerary for the next couple of weeks. Right now, I don’t know, I’m open, any suggestions? Any vacation plans? I’m open.” said linebacker Gary Brackett.

MySpace and the state of Indiana have come to an agreement that could make the Internet a little bit safer for kids.

The biggest change will be the development of new software making it harder for users to fake their identities and ages. The state says the goal is to make it more difficult for sexual predators to contact children on one of the hottest sites on the Internet.

“MySpace is the number one thing to do right now. You get home from school and get on MySpace,” said MySpace user, Ryan Yarrell.

Adults can use the social networking site too, but the state says some are using it for the wrong reasons.

“The Internet is being used more and more by sexual predators to contact children,” said Staci Schneider of the attorney general’s office.

“As a parent, you’re very concerned about it because they are out there and stalking. You never know who you’re talking to,” said parent, Dennis McGuire.

But now MySpace has made an agreement with every state but Texas to better protect kids who use the site. Parents will be able to prevent their kids from signing up by putting the child’s email address on a special list. It’ll also be harder for sexual predators to access a minor’s profile.

Right now users have to manually mark their profile as private. Under the new agreement, all users under 18 will automatically have their profile set to private so strangers can’t view it.

MySpace has also agreed to develop stronger identity verification software to help prevent adults from posing as minors.

“You never know when it’s going to happen to you anyone can just make up something fake,” said MySpace user, Janelle Lantz.

“You can make a site and say you’re 14 and be 38. You never really know,” added Yarrell.

Right now only MySpace has agreed to boost protections for kids but the state is hoping other social networking sites like Facebook and Friendster will also hop on board.

BISHOP T.D. JAKES offers practical spiritual advice to help close out 2007 and step boldly into 2008

Simply being alive as another year closes and a new one opens to us is a gift from God. Out of sheer gratitude for God’s amazing grace, we are obligated to approach this folding of one season into another with hope. No matter what—or who—came and went during the past 12 months, no matter what transpired, we’re still here, moving and breathing. We must not overlook that fact, even as we are hemmed in by the demands of the season.

The holidays’ overemphasis on finances and family ties can cause some to fall into depression. Many of us have come to another year’s end feeling loss and lack. Some are without that significant other, though we had convinced ourselves he was going to show up in shining armor in 2007. Somebody’s child is overseas fighting a war. Maybe you’re succumbing to the temptation to buy a gift for every Jill, Jack and Jane while also trying to figure out how to pay the heating bill. All these pressures can make you go into a cocoon at the very time you are expected to marvel at the magic and miracle of what God does in this season—and every season.

God is the great architect, designating the periods in nature and the passages in our lives. And God has decreed that our spiritual liberation should not be a solitary venture. During a holy season that this culture, sadly, has reduced to a frenzy of acquisition, we must devote ourselves to something bigger and bolder than our individual selves or even our intimate circle. My own prayer is that we, as a people, begin to really tackle the ills of our communities, of the whole diaspora, because the holy season ought to be about repairing what’s broken.

We need to recognize those suffering with AIDS as our brothers and sisters and make sure they are comfortable. We have an obligation to go out and vote and be thoroughly informed on the issues, relying not on what candidates say but on what they’ve done. We have to look hard at the housing crisis and predatory lending. None of us can rest in our nice, neat McMansions until families battered and tossed by Katrina are out of those trailers and into healthy, clean homes of their own. We cannot rest until the Jena Six get due justice, and incarcerated African-Americans win the right to vote. And we must think globally about environmental crises, worldwide poverty and all else that affects God’s creation. We need to walk into this next year with a checklist of items crucial to our individual and communal uplift, just as we walk into a grocery store with a wish list of delicious things to fill up on.

Yes, it’s all right at year’s end to mourn unmet goals and dreams. But don’t dare get stuck on the 20 pounds you swore you would lose but haven’t, the wrinkle that’s more visible each time you look in the mirror, the money you didn’t manage to save. It’s important to be aware that flaws and failures have their own distinctive beauty. When I was a little boy, one Christmas I put a suede jacket on layaway for my mother. I cut grass and, from my earnings, paid on that jacket $5 at a time. I remember it had a tag that read, “The imperfections of this garment enhance its beauty. The imperfections are a natural part of the product.” The imperfections are what made that jacket pretty. God wants us to remember that our own imperfections add to our beauty. As the year closes, without punishing ourselves, we should embrace what has been, even as we rethink habits, relationships and objectives for the coming year. Meeting the new year with calm acceptance of what is—and excitement for what can be—is a wonderful thing, because our perfect God loves imperfect people and does His best work right there inside of them.

Sony Pictures Television’s Judge Hatchett is going out of original production after this year, the company confirmed Wednesday.
Judge Hatchett

That said, Sony hopes to keep the show on the air. The studio is pitching TV stations “theme weeks” — around such topics as divorce or interventions — comprised of repeats. Judge Hatchett, featuring Judge Glenda Hatchett, is in its eighth season, giving the studio plenty of episodes to choose from. The studio also doesn’t expect to repeat any episodes during each 52-week TV season.

Daytime is so fragmented these days that it is unlikely that viewers have watched every episode of any given first-run show. As a result, studios have cut back on the number of original episodes they produce every year, and repeats appear more frequently — a model that has proved economical for cable networks.

In the week ending Dec. 16 — the most recent week for which national ratings are available — Judge Hatchett averaged a 1.3 live-plus-same-day national household rating, tying for seventh place with Twentieth Television’s Cristina’s Court, which was renewed for a third season.

1. George Lucas

May 24

$200 million*

Light sabers and Jedi action figures have been very good to George Lucas. In 1997, Hasbro, the world’s second largest toymaker, awarded George Lucas $170 million worth of warrants for Hasbro stock to sweeten its Star Wars toy license renewal deal. In May, Hasbro paid Lucas $200 million to buy back those warrants.

*Does not factor in capital gains and other taxes.

2. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson

June 7

$100 million*

In 2004 drug dealer-turned-rapper 50 Cent became a pitchman for Glacéau, makers of the trendy Vitaminwater beverage line, in exchange for a less-than-5% slice of equity in the company. Vitaminwater even concocted a “Formula 50″ flavor in honor of its new hardcore endorser. This summer Coca-Cola bought Glacéau for $4.1 billion. The deal netted 50 Cent $100 million and inspired a slew of celebrities to ply their endorsement services in exchange for shares.

*Does not factor in capital gains and other taxes.

3. Howard Stern

Jan. 9

$82 million

Early in the year, Sirius rewarded its star shock jock a stock bonus valued at $82 million for helping goose subscriptions from 700,000 when he joined in 2005 to nearly 8 million today. (That’s still 4 million or so listeners shy of his audience on terrestrial radio.) The bonus is in top of his five-year, $500 million contract.

4. Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter

April 2

$82 million*

The hip-hop kingpin, who co-founded urban fashion outfit Rocawear in 1995, unloaded the label to Iconix Brand Group for $204 million last spring. Jay Z’s cut: $82 million. The chief executive of Def Jam Recordings managed to squeeze in a new album release this year–his tenth–inspired by the film American Gangster. That effort topped the U.S. pop charts, rivaling Elvis Presley’s record for most No. 1 albums. (Both tie for second; only the Beatles logged more chart-topping records.)

*Does not factor in capital gains and other taxes.

5. Sammy Hagar

May 7

$80 million*

Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar started tequila company Cabo Wabo in 1996, the same year he left the band. (The name apparently originated after Hagar saw a man “wobbling” down the beach of Cabo San Lucas.) In May, Gruppo Campari, maker of Campari and SKYY vodka, bought 80% of the company for $80 million, with an option to buy the remaining 20% from Hagar over the next five to eight years.

*Does not factor in capital gains and other taxes.

6. Oprah Winfrey

Nov. 20

$74 million*

With a string of high-profile partners like Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the Queen of all Media launched Oxygen Media, a women’s oriented TV channel, in 1998. Though the network reached 74 million subscribers, it never fulfilled its promise of revolutionizing TV programming. NBC scooped up the network in November for $925 million. Oprah’s less-than-10% stake is believed to be worth $74 million. Don’t count it entirely as profit, though. Though her original investment is unknown, Oprah is believed to have just broken even on the venture.

*Does not factor in capital gains and other taxes.

7. Oscar De La Hoya

May 5

$55 million

On May 5 this year, The MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas hosted a record-breaking fight between “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya and “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather for the super welterweight title. A controversial split decision gave the 12-round fight to Mayweather. No matter: De La Hoya still walks away with $55 million (roughly double Mayweather’s take), winning the largest purse in boxing history.

8. Madonna

Oct. 10

$43 million

Some 25 years after she emerged as pop music’s most bankable provocateur, the 49-year-old mother of three shocked her fans again by dumping her longtime record label Warner Music in favor of a 10-year, $120 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation. Madonna pocketed an $18 million signing bonus, plus another $25 million in stock. She’ll score $17 million advances for each of her next three albums under Live Nation. (She owes Warner one more studio album and a greatest hits collection before she bails.)

9. David Geffen

May 2

$37.5 million

The Los Angeles-based billionaire music and movie mogul sold his Fifth Avenue duplex penthouse in Manhattan for $37.5 million, before broker fees and taxes. (Not bad considering he bought the unit a year earlier for some $31 million.) The 3-bedroom, 4-bath prewar duplex was formerly owned by Nelson Rockefeller and neighbored by Richard Nixon. The buyer: private equity’s newest billionaire, Blackstone founder Peter Peterson.

10. Vera Wang

Oct. 14

$35 million

Proving again that New York City transcends the rest of the country’s housing woes, designer Vera Wang unloaded her six-bedroom, 5.5-bath Park Ave. apartment in October for $35 million (absent broker fees and taxes). Just two blocks from Central Park, the space included two maids’ quarters and three fireplaces. Maintenance fees: $10,717 a month. Rumor has it the buyer was a daughter of billionaire Ira Rennert. Wang and her brood moved to her late father’s larger spread just a stone’s throw away. Price: $23.1 million.

11. Dwight Freeney

July 13

$30 million

In July, the 27-year-old became the highest paid defensive player in football with a six-year, $72 million contract with the Indianapolis Colts, of which $30 million was paid upfront. Good thing, since he suffered a fracture in his left foot four months later that relegated him to the injured list. As of publication, he was still sidelined by his injuries.

12. Courtney Cox & David Arquette

July 31

$27 million

Last summer, the other knockout Friend and her actor husband sold their beachfront Malibu spread for $27 million (absent broker fees and taxes). The four-bedroom, 5,500-square-foot home, designed by Frank Lautner, a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright, boasted a view of the Pacific from virtually every room. (The couple reportedly bought the home in 2001 for $10 million.) The buyer: Jamie McCourt, vice chairman and president of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

13. Tommy Hilfiger

Dec. 4

$26.5 million

Sometimes fashionistas are as fickle as their buyers. In December, preppy clothier Tommy Hilfiger sold his Hamptons manse for $26.5 million, only one year after he bought it, reportedly for $17 million. The five-bedroom, 5.5-bath residence was purchased as is, replete with its Balinese-inspired furnishings. (Last summer Mariah Carey rented the spread for $350,000.)

14. Floyd Mayweather

May 5 and Dec. 8

$25 million (each day)

Mayweather won a 12-round fight against “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya by split decision in May. Despite winning the fight and super welterweight title, Mayweather walked away with only $25 million, nearly half De La Hoya’s take. Seven months later, he enjoyed another huge payday when he defeated Ricky Hatton with a 10th round TKO. (Hatton is believed to have walked away with less than half Mayweather’s take.)

15. Donald Trump

Aug. 20

$25 million

In what could only be called cosmic comeuppance, The Donald’s lethargic reality show the Apprentice was nearly canned by NBC in May, though not before he quit. But by the summer, NBC and Trump reconciled, with Trump scoring $25 million upfront to revive the moribund franchise. The seventh season features B-list celebrities including former model Carol Alt, Kiss rocker Gene Simmons, and the reviled former Apprentice contender Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth.

16. Hugh Grant

Nov. 14

$23.5 million

Capitalizing on the record-setting auction prices for Andy Warhol pieces, the British actor sold his Warhol painting of Elizabeth Taylor for $23.5 million through Christies. Though the work was expected to fetch over $25 million, Grant still profited handsomely. He bought the painting in 2001 for just under $4 million.

17. Mel Gibson

June 21

$23 million

The controversial actor-director unloaded his five-bedroom, seven-bath beachfront house in Malibu in June for $23 million–roughly comparable to what he paid for the spread in 2005. Little is known about the home, though press reports suggested he had grown fed up with the constant fleet of paparazzi since Britney Spears moved to the neighborhood.

18. Mario Lemieux

Oct. 19

$21 million

When the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins announced it would file for bankruptcy in 1998, the second such filing in the franchise’s history, the team owed player Mario Lemieux $32 million in pay. He forgave $7 million of that and exchanged the remainder for a controlling stake in the team, thereby saving it from dissolution. In October, he finally saw a payout from that investment when the team restructured its debt obligations, scoring Lemieux $21 million.

19. Don Imus

Aug. 14

$20 million

In April, CBS famously dismissed the loose-lipped radio shock jock for calling the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy headed hos.” Imus sued; CBS settled in August for an estimated $20 million. Imus returned to radio in October, securing a gig on Citadel Communication’s WABC station.

20. Wayne Gretzky

Aug. 29

$18.5 million

Hockey’s “Great One” sold his three-year-old, 6-bedroom home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., in August to former New York Met Lenny Dystra. Gretzky still has his place in Arizona where he coaches the Phoenix Coyotes, but is believed to be devoting time on a new business partnership with Creekside Estate Winery in Niagara Falls.

LOS ANGELES - For the last man on Earth, Will Smith sure has a lot of friends. The Warner Bros. tale “I Am Legend,” starring Smith as a plague survivor who may be the last living human, debuted with $76.5 million, the biggest December opening ever and a personal best for one of Hollywood’s top box-office champs, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“It’s no wonder Will Smith feels so lonely. Everyone else on Earth is in the movie theater,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

The 20th Century Fox family flick “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” starring Jason Lee in a big-screen take on the cartoon critters, opened a strong No. 2 with $45 million. The two films combined to give Hollywood a year-end surge after a drowsy fall season.

“Forty-five million acorns,” said Chris Aronson, senior vice president for distribution at 20th Century Fox. “Chipmunks are diurnal animals and they do hibernate, but not right now.”

Overall business soared, with the top 12 movies taking in $153.6 million, up 39 percent from the same weekend a year earlier, when Smith also was No. 1 with a $26.5 million debut for “The Pursuit of Happyness.”

The previous No. 1 movie, New Line Cinema’s fantasy “The Golden Compass,” nose-dived in its second weekend, coming in third with $9 million, down a dismal 65 percent from its less-than-expected $25.8 million debut a week earlier.

“The Golden Compass,” which cost $180 million to produce, has done $90 million so far overseas but has proven a dud domestically with just $41 million.

On the other hand, “I Am Legend” smashed Smith’s personal debut record, easily exceeding the $52.1 million opening weekends of “I, Robot” and “Men in Black II,” his previous bests. “I Am Legend” outdid the $72.6 million premiere of 2003’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” the previous best December opening.

“It’s nice to be in the Will Smith business,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros. “He is just the No. 1 box-office star in the world today.”

Based on the Richard Matheson novel filmed twice before as Vincent Price’s “The Last Man on Earth” and Charlton Heston’s “The Omega Man,” “I Am Legend” casts Smith as a scientist trying to find a cure and fighting off the vestiges of humanity, people transformed by the plague into vampire-like creatures.

Two Golden Globe nominees just hitting theaters did well in their second weekends.

Focus Features’ “Atonement” — a tragic romance that led the Globes with seven nominations, including best drama and acting honors for Keira Knightley and James McAvoy — pulled in $1.85 million in 117 theaters. That gave “Atonement” a strong average of $15,835 a theater, compared to $21,224 in 3,606 cinemas for “I Am Legend.”

Fox Searchlight’s “Juno,” a teen-pregnancy comedy whose three nominations included best comedy or musical and an acting honor for Ellen Page, grossed $1.44 million in 40 theaters for a $36,018 average.

“Atonement” and “Juno” expand into nationwide release over the next three weekends.

Another Golden Globe nominee, the Paramount Classics-DreamWorks foreign-language contender “The Kite Runner,” debuted strongly with $450,970 in 35 theaters for a $12,885 average. Spanning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to modern times, the film follows an emigrant to America who returns home to rescue the son of a childhood friend.

Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in 10 years, “Youth Without Youth” from Sony Pictures Classics, had a so-so debut of $27,815 in six theaters, averaging $4,636. The film stars Tim Roth as an elderly language scholar whose youth is restored by a lightning strike.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “I Am Legend,” $76.5 million.

2. “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” $45 million.

3. “The Golden Compass,” $9 million.

4. “Enchanted,” $6 million.

5. “No Country for Old Men,” $3 million.

6. “The Perfect Holiday,” $2.97 million.

7. “Fred Claus,” $2.3 million.

8. “This Christmas,” $2.3 million.

9. “Atonement,” $1.85 million.

10. “August Rush,” $1.8 million.

___

On the Net:

http://www.mediabynumbers.com

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Campero USA, the U.S. arm of the Latin American Pollo Campero restaurant chain, announced plans Wednesday to open restaurants inside Wal-Mart stores.

The move is expected to help the retailing giant boost its appeal to Latino consumers and to allow Pollo Campero, which has its U.S. headquarters in Dallas, to expand by spending less than freestanding sites would cost.

The chain specializing in chicken served fried or grilled was launched in Guatemala in 1971, and it has 260 restaurants worldwide, the company said. All but one of its 36 U.S. locations are owned by franchisees, according to the company.

Two restaurants s are scheduled to open next year inside Chicago-area Wal-Mart stores. Another Pollo Campero is set to open later in the year at a store about 15 minutes from Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., said Rodolfo Jimenez, executive vice president of Campero USA.

He said there have been no discussions yet about the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and he gave no estimate of how many restaurants eventually will be located within Wal-Mart walls.

Most of the 2,300 supercenters operated by Wal-Mart in the U.S. contain restaurants.

“They have a successful formula, and we believe our customers would very much embrace offerings from this company,” Linda Brown Blakley, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said about the Pollo Campero deal.

Mr. Jimenez said most of the restaurants opening in Wal-Marts are likely to be owned by Campero USA, not franchisees.

The Wal-Mart restaurants will be smaller than normal, with less staff, and will not need a big marketing campaign to attract customers, he said.

The Subway sandwich chain and McDonald’s also have sites in Wal-Marts, which provides a pool of customers, many of them Latino. In addition, about 12 percent of Wal-Mart’s 1.3 million U.S. workers are Latino, Ms. Brown Blakley said.

“They want to have Pollo Campero in their stores,” Mr. Jimenez said. “They have a lot of Hispanic customers. They believe that having a Latin American concept in the stores would be good for the brand.”

Overall, Pollo Campero hopes to open 500 restaurants in the U.S. by 2012, not counting the Wal-Mart locations.

Former chairwoman of Chicago State University ’s English department died Saturday, reportedly from surgery complications.

Donda West, the mother of Kanye West and former chairwoman of Chicago State University ’s English department, passed away Saturday, according to a spokesman for the family. She was 58.

According to multiple sources, West was in Los Angeles and her death may have been the result of complications from a surgical procedure; Patricia Green, Dr. West’s publicist, told CNN on Monday (November 12) that the surgery was cosmetic but did not provide further details.

Although widely known as the mother of Kanye, Dr. West was a noted scholar and an active college professor for 31 years; she left the profession in 2004 to assist with Kanye’s career, according to her biography on the Web site of the Kanye West Foundation, an educational nonprofit of which she was chair. She was also chief executive of West Brands, the parent company of her son’s businesses.

She began her teaching career in the early 1970s at Morris Brown College in Atlanta and began working at Chicago State University in 1980, according to the site; she was also a Fulbright Scholar, among other awards. Dr. West raised Kanye in the Chicago area along with her husband, from whom she separated when Kanye was 3.

She also recently published a book dedicated to her son titled “Raising Kanye: Life Lessons From the Mother of a Hip-Hop Star.” The book and subsequent interviews have left little question about the source of Kanye’s outspoken nature.

The importance and influence Dr. West had in her son’s life is profound. When Kanye appeared on MTV News’ “You Hear It First” in 2003, one of his first rhymes was about his mother — he dropped to his knees during the performance to get his point across. Those rhymes later turned up in a full-blown dedication to her, Late Registration’s “Hey Mama.”

“Hey Mama, I wanna scream so loud for you/ ‘Cause I’m so proud of you/ Let me tell you what I’m about to do … I appreciate what you allowed for me, I just want you to be proud of me.”

Kanye has dropped references to his mom on all of his albums.

Kanye’s love for his mom was undoubtedly reciprocated tenfold, not only did Dr. West act as in part as a co-manager, she was also his biggest cheerleader, appearing at many events throughout his career. At the Video Music Awards in September, she was in Kanye’s suite at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, joining in the party and wearing the white shades celebrating his show. She also attended his 30th birthday party in New York last summer and his appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”