Personally Speaking . . . Mcmahon Is What He Has
“You fooled ’em all, Chief. Damn! You fooled ’em all!”
IT’S SUPER SHOW-AND-TELL, BUT FRYAR ISN’T TALKING
NEW ORLEANS — He is a peek at the dark side. A dip in muddy water at this otherwise storybook lagoon of a sporting event. Irving Fryar never figured to get this kind of attention at the Super Bowl. But that is the way it is.”Will you talk about it?”...
A Bowlful Of Newcomers Can Be Super Confusing
NEW ORLEANS — It is all familiar. I have been here before. NFL banners hang from the rafters, and Dixieland music plays all day long. Fans are swarming through the lobby. Someone wants to sell me a T-shirt for $20. I say no, and head for the house phone. I have been here before.
“Can I help you?” the hotel operator says.
“Don Shula’s room, please.”
“I’m sorry,” she says, “we have no Don Shula listed here.”
I am patient. These things happen. Especially on Super Bowl week. I have been here before.
“Please check again,” I say.
I wait.
Mahorn Tries To Be Good At Being ‘Bad’ For Pistons
“Sometimes bad is bad”
— Huey Lewis
Ricky Mahorn is alone, sitting in front of his locker, eating pistachio nuts.
“Do you have a minute?” he is asked.
“Gotta sauna, then leave,” he mumbles.
“Um . . . is that a no?”
“You can take it as a no,” he says, sneering, “or you can take it as a maybe.”
The visitor says he’ll take it as a no, and leaves.
The New Rule Ignores An Old Ncaa Problem
Try to read this column, and try to understand it, because there are young men out there who can do neither. College students. At least that’s what they’re called. They’re really just football and basketball players dressed in school colors.
For four years, they’re squeezed like a tube of toothpaste. And then they’re left on the sink.
Education is an accident. If it happens at all.
FRIEDER’S RECRUITING GAME STARTS WITH SEE AND BE SEEN
The bleachers are full of high school kids, screaming and stomping their feet. They are waiting for their basketball team to come out.Bill Frieder is waiting, too, leaning against a wall outside the locker room door.”Why here?” he is asked.”I want to...
MOVE OVER, KARNAK — THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE
The answer is: “What’s left?”The question is: How many more things can go wrong with the Red Wings.**The answer is: “John Dillinger, Al Capone and The Purple Gang.”The question is: Name 10 people who made out better than Tom Brookens did...
PATS MAKE DOLPHINS FEEL LIKE FISH OUT OF WATER
MIAMI — It was Sunday, it was raining and it was getting dark. A perfect setting for a funeral.So the New England Patriots held one, and they buried the past.Sing a song of sadness for orange-colored jinxes, for Don Shula’s magic, and for that unwritten...
DOLPHIN’S DAY-A-WEEK JOB COMES WITH FULL-TIME PAIN
MIAMI — The third quarter will be the hardest time today for Jon Giesler. That’s when the pain killers they inject into his knee start to wear off. There’s no way to give him more at halftime, either, because his leg is taped from the thigh to the...
‘The Taking Of Gibson’: The Day Free Agency Died
We could make it a movie. It might work. Call it “The Natural II: The Kirk Gibson Story.” Redford plays the lead. Or maybe Don Johnson — he’s already got the whiskers. We open with flashbacks. Gibson as a child. Hitting a Wiffle ball. Breaking a window. Kissing a pretty girl. Gibson at college. Smacking home runs. Running with a football. Kissing a pretty girl. Gibson as a Detroit Tiger. Swinging a mean bat. Stealing bases. Leading the club to the 1984 World Series, where — we need slow motion for this — he hits a dramatic home run in the final game and leaps for joy. Music swells.
Stay Connected
The only newsletter dedicated to updates, exclusive content, and giveaways of Mitch's books!