TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — I placed the football on the grass and held it upright with one finger. The goalpost was 34 yards away. I asked Gerry Thomas whether he could make it now, and he said, “Oh, yeah.”
He measured off the steps. He looked at his toes and exhaled. Then he rushed into the ball and thudded his foot against the leather.
The crazy thing about football is that it can take you to places you never dreamed of. One minute you’re dancing in the end zone; the next, you’re surrounded by doctors asking whether you have any feeling in your legs.
There were two touchdowns scored within two minutes of Sunday’s game at the Silverdome. Both were pass plays. Both were worth six points to the Lions. Both involved guys named Mike.
The similarity ends there. For Mike Farr, it was a play he’d been waiting for his whole life, the beginning, he hopes, of great things to come.
In his home state, the land of his birth, they were counting the hatred, one vote at a time. “I’ve got a few people who will call me tonight,” Joe Dumars said. “I’ll find out what’s going on, maybe even at halftime of the game.”
Dumars is a professional basketball player, but at this moment, this Saturday morning in his home, life was not about sports, it was about politics and hate in the place where he grew up, the state of Louisiana. A man there was running for governor. A white man. A handsome man. A man who, in college, used to sleep under a Nazi swastika blanket.
And now it’s time to treat everyone like Earvin (Magic) Johnson. That’s the real lesson of these terrible last few days. The eruption of love, support and sympathy for the stricken NBA star was a wonderful thing to see. But when you think about it, of all the patients in the world with the AIDS virus, Magic may need this the least. He is extremely wealthy, can get the finest doctors, and will be honored and loved no matter how sick, heaven forbid, he gets.
What about the rest?
Who loves them today?
* LIONS 19, BUCCANEERS 10: The Bucs ain’t the Bears.
* WASHINGTON 20, ATLANTA 10: Sorry, Falcons. That “Hail Mary” stuff only works once every 30 years.
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