DENVER -- Weighing just 153 pounds, former Air Force option quarterback Dee Dowis wasnt the most intimidating presence. That is, until he got the ball in his hands.Dowis, who finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1989, died in a car accident outside Atlanta on Monday morning, police in Gwinnett County, Georgia, confirmed. He was 48.As a lanky sophomore in 1987, Dowis began running coach Fisher DeBerrys triple-option offense. He was an instant hit.Dowis graduated as the academys career leading rusher and had the highest finish ever for an Air Force player in the Heisman voting. During that `89 season, Dowis rushed for 1,286 yards and 18 touchdowns while throwing for 1,285 yards and seven touchdowns. He led the Falcons to an 8-4-1 record and an appearance in the Liberty Bowl.Pound for pound, without a doubt, the greatest, most gifted and talented player to maybe ever play the college game, DeBerry said in a phone interview Tuesday. He proved you dont have to be a physical giant to be a quarterback in the triple-option offense.As a tribute to Dowis, the Falcons rush-ordered helmet decals for their season opener Saturday against Abilene Christian. Other honors are in the works, too.I think anybody who has ever met him will tell you he was quite kind, respectful, humble -- a guy that loved his family immensely, current Falcons coach Troy Calhoun said. Somebody you always felt like was a real quality, quality friend.DeBerry searched his memory for his favorite Dowis highlight. He couldnt come up with just one because, he had a lot of great performances.Like the time he rushed for 249 yards and scored six TDs against San Diego State in 1989. Or when he had 377 yards of total offense versus Northwestern in 1988. He also went 11 for 11 through the air in that contest.Dowis was inducted into the academys athletic Hall of Fame in 2009.He was terrific at anticipating and seeing things happening, DeBerry said. If we wouldve been more of a passing team, he would still have been a great quarterback. He was a complete player, not just a runner. He was like a coach on the field.Not to mention one of DeBerrys dearest friends. He once asked Dowis to serve as an assistant coach, but Dowis wanted to stay close to family. The two talked all the time.I admired him so much, DeBerry said. Its a very sad, sad day for Falcon football. For as great of player as he was, he was an even greater friend. ... He leaves a great legacy for us all.According to a news release from the Gwinnett County police, Dowis was going south in the northbound lanes of I-85 early Monday when he pulled his 2014 BMW into the center median. As he backed up, Dowis was hit in the drivers side door by a 2015 Subaru driven by a 22-year-old from North Carolina. The other driver was transported to a nearby hospital.The police said Dowis wasnt wearing a seat belt and died at the scene.It is still not clear what caused Dowis to travel down the interstate in the wrong direction. Speed does not appear to be a contributing factor, the release said.Dowis was working as a sales manager for a pharmaceutical company in South Carolina. He is survived by his wife, Tracie, and two children.People all over the nation always say to me, `That was a great quarterback you had at Air Force. Whats his name again? DeBerry recounted. Im always like, `You must be talking about Dee. Theyd tell me how much they enjoyed watching him play and execute so well. I told them, `If you weighed 153 pounds, youd be running for your life also. I used to say thats why he was so successful.---AP Sports Writer Arnie Stapleton contributed.---AP college football site: http://collegefootball.ap.orgMitchell Trubisky Jersey Authentic .C. -- Charlotte Bobcats coach Steve Clifford said after all of these years in the NBA hes still amazed at some of the things LeBron James does. Trey Burton Bears Jersey . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR. http://www.chicagobearsshoponline.com/chase-daniel-bears-jersey.html . The showiest items on Calgarys lot were forwards Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer. William Perry Chicago Bears Jersey . Supported by three-run homers from Jayson Werth and Wilson Ramos, the young right-hander went seven strong innings in the Washington Nationals 8-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night. Custom Chicago Bears Jersey .S District Court against Major League Baseball, the Office of the Commissioner and his own union, the MLBPA.What are riches untold in a life without compassion? For theres no winter as cold As a life without compassion. Theres no prescription thats sold That can heal you like compassion. As any regular readers of this columns unabashedly indulgent ramblings may have detected, music is my first love and it will be my last (although plugging John Miles philosophy is not something I do with much enthusiasm). Graeme Wright, the estimable erstwhile editor of Wisden, even went so far as to dub me the first rock n roll cricket writer, a badge I wear with unseemly pride. Even so, my hero Todd Rundgrens plea for compassion has been falling on ever stonier ground of late - most troublingly, I readily confess, in the case of Mohammad Amir.As some of you might conceivably have noticed, my tolerance of match-/spot-fixing is approximately nine degrees below zero. Indeed, to attempt to predetermine even the merest millisecond of a sporting contest is, quite frankly, almost as despicable as racism. Dick Pound, the admirable Canadian lawyer who until recently spearheaded the drive to eliminate performance-enhancing drugs with impressively extreme prejudice, told a conference in Denmark last year that corruption was now the most dastardly enemy of fair and credible competition.To plot a result, or even a no-ball, deprives the competitive arts of their very essence: uncertainty, suspense and drama. Thats why it holds us in such a vice-like grip; and thats why my compassion for Amir has waxed and waned with such shameful frequency. As for those who have no compunction in persuading others to defraud spectators and subscribers, such as H***** C***** and S***** B***, I cannot even bring myself to type their names, much less - in the case of the former - mourn their passing.There is no need to remind you of the events of 2010, Amirs tender age, or the vast gulf in privilege between him and B***, the scruple-free captain who took such deplorable advantage of his insecurity. That both served the same time in jail and the same five-year ICC suspension only reinforces the rank, perverse injustice of it all.So how do I feel about Amirs return to NW8? Roughly as equivocal as I do about the prospect of a female prime minister whose home contains a shrine to that accursed Thatcher woman: delighted that someone without an Adams apple is going to take up residence at 10 Downing Street, utterly and profoundly depressed that Theresa May should offer our troubled nation so little by way of goodness, direction or relief.On the one hand, as Amirs precocious performances here half a dozen summers ago so sumptuously ddemonstrated, he has it in him to match - or perhaps even exceed - the fabulous feats of his countryman Wasim Akram, the greatest of all brisk left-arm ball-benders.dddddddddddd On the other, his return to centre stage accentuates my despair at the alacrity with which sport is descending into fraudulent farce. For centuries boxing and horse racing were the prime culprits. Nor should it ever be forgotten that the laws of our trivial pursuit were drawn up expressly to combat corruption, nor that the earliest MCC tours of Australia were bedevilled by premeditated outcomes. Nor that baseballs formative years were consistently polluted by such dastardly deeds. Now even tennis has been poisoned by those to whom money means more than merit. As for that hardy perennial wrestling, home to such tough-as-nails troubadours as Mick McManus and Big Daddy, lets just remind ourselves what WWE stands for: not World Wrestling Endeavour or World Wrestling Effort but World Wrestling Entertainment.The best bit of blindingly obvious advice I could give myself, therefore, would be to steer clear of St Johns Wood for the next few days. The problem with that, however, is that it is also home to Harry Ms, which, according to Matthew Engel and myself, is indubitably the planets finest purveyor of chopped liver, salt beef, cold fried haddock, potato latkes, blintzes and lockshen pudding.That Amir deserves every ounce of compassion we can muster is beyond dispute, but can a case not be made with equal conviction that cricket would make an infinitely more important statement by withholding it, by being mercilessly ruthless?After all, the eight members of the Chicago White Sox team who conspired to throw the 1919 World Series were all banned sine die; even Buck Weaver, whose only crime was to be aware of the original negotiations with Abe Rothsteins henchmen, and Shoeless Joe Jackson, the illiterate farmboy whose displays against the Cincinnati Reds - bar some fumbles in the field - were never less than inspirational (hence his rebirth in Field of Dreams). Can it be entirely coincidental that match-fixing has never subsequently darkened the doors of Major League Baseball? Do bees sting?Having endured problems with trust in recent years I recently decided to purge myself of anger by forgiving those responsible. And thats why I will be urging Amir on rather than banging on about why not everyone deserves a second chance. And if cricket stands for anything, it is second chances. ' ' '