07/26 — I was prepared to get a little misty-eyed today on the occasion of Curtis Martin's retirement. I'm a sports romantic, and after covering somebody so good for so long, and being around as long as I have, it hurts to have to say goodbye. Especially in football, retirement is too much like losing a loved one.

But Curtis made it easy, to paraphrase Bill Parcells, to hold a parade instead of a funeral. For one thing, he looked GQ mah-velous as always. Charcoal suit, subtly patterned off-white monogramed shirt, dark brown and magenta tie — and some stunning silver black-widow-spider cufflinks.

"There's no meaning to me wearing them today," Martin said, ever smiling. "I just like them."

And he seemed so at peace, even energized by today's 11-stop goodbye tour around New York. Whether it was talking about playing chess again with the great Jim Brown recently — "He beat me this time, 2 games to 1" — or holding court with the beatwriters and columnists and photographers who covered him for his eight Jets seasons, or doing a short standup interview on "The Early Show" or a more expansive interview on ESPN-AM's Mike & Mike Show (sans Mike), Martin seemed, well, happy that it was over.

"I don't see this as a sad time," he said. "Someone just asked me if any moment sticks out for me as the best moment of my career. I told him this is it, right now."

How can you cry in your microbrew over a guy with an outlook like that?

Of course, it helps that Martin is still a pretty good showman in his own right. He always had a few changeups and eye-opening moves on the field, and he brought a change-of-pace topic with him for today's tour: the somewhat surprising information that for a while he has been seeking to become an owner of an NFL team.

"I never wanted to talk about it and I didn't talk about it as a player because I thought it was inappropriate," he said. "But now that I'm retired, I can say my dream is ownership.

"I've been touted as being one of the most low-profile superstars, but there's always been a rhyme to my reason. Everybody's looked at me as a low-profile player. I've always seen myself as a high-profile owner."

As to which owners he's been talking to, whether he's part of a group or alone, seeking minority or majority share, Martin wouldn't give me or any of the other writers a sniff. But he said several times that his talks were so close to coming to fruition that he was anticipating unveiling his plans for his new team during today's tour. 

There will be speculation about which team Martin is talking to, but for now it should be stimulating for football fans to know that Martin isn't done talking optimistically, dreaming big and trying to help his fellow human beings in the process. Someone asked him if it was painful that he had never won a particular piece of jewelry, not spider-shaped but rather diamond-encrusted.

"I can't describe it as a pain. I can describe it as an unfulfilled desire," he said about that elusive Super Bowl ring. "Now my goal becomes to win one as an owner."