STATELINE, Nev. — Through some sort of good fortune, I drew the assignment of tracking down NFL players at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. It’s my first trip to Lake Tahoe, and I’m impressed, to say the least.

I bumped into a lot of current and former ballers on arrival day, including Dan Marino, the original L.T. (Lawrence Taylor), Ronde Barber, Vinny Testaverde and an old friend from my NBA days, Alonzo Mourning.

Marino had just come off the course from playing a round with L.T., and jokingly said he has seen too much of him lately because he just spent the past few days with Taylor filming NutriSystem commercials. It looks like the weight-loss program is working for both Hall of Famers, by the way.

Neither has lost his competitive edge, either. Both spent a great deal of time on the driving range refining things before the weekend tournament.

Barber light-heartedly talked about the changes down in Tampa and how, at 34, he is the old man of the team. He said he is looking forward to seeing which young players step up and to see if any of them evolve into leaders the way longtime Buccaneers LB Derrick Brooks did early in his career.

– Steve Wyche