A half-hour before kickoff, a heavyset man in a T-shirt walked down the Ford Field steps, holding hands with his 8-year-old son. They were wide-eyed at the sight of the gathering crowd, so many clad in blue and silver.The Lions were not their football team, but they were today. Sterling Adams and his son, Eric, had escaped the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, had driven up in a stuffed vehicle from New Orleans, and now, thanks to the kindness of the Lions' public relations staff, father and son had tickets for the opener. The long wait for a day of fun was over.
You are a man in a storm. The storm is rising, blowing your way. Your neighbor, Earl, is saying, "Come on, man, we can go to Detroit. We'll be safe there."Detroit, you think? You live in New Orleans. You're not going to Detroit. Besides, you've seen hurricanes before. Water comes up. Water goes down.But your wife, this time, she's worried. Earl is going crazy on Detroit. He says, "I'm gonna empty the washers and dryers" and next thing you know he has a big bag of quarters and guess what? That's your gas money.
So after all that, it falls back on Joey Harrington anyhow. All the Sturm und Drang about Jeff Garcia, riding into town, eyeing Joey's job, with his Pro Bowl history and his proud declaration that he was not coming to be a backup and here we are, two days from the season opener, and Garcia was right, he is not a backup, he's a scratch. The backup is now an untested kid barely out of college. And the offense, the season - and, let's face it, the national face of the Detroit Lions - is once again perched on the shoulders of Your Pal Joey, old No. 3. This is your quarterback, folks.
Look, I was a kid once, and I still think like a kid, so the kid in me - and the adult in me - needs to say this right now:School starts in September.Not August. Not July.Certainly not July 22, which is when certain school districts in Georgia began "fall" classes this year. July 22? You're still getting your lemonade stand set up by July 22! You're not in SCHOOL on July 22!This is insane. I've been following this trend of pushing the school year back earlier and earlier, and it's time for the kid in all of us to say, and you can quote me here, "Yuck."
Like a lot of people, I admire Brian Wilson, the soul of the Beach Boys. Over the years, I've had chances to speak with him. When he releases a new CD or comes through town, we'll do an interview. We did one just recently, for radio. Now, I know Wilson's music backward. I have memorized the lush harmonies of "In My Room," the ahead-of-its-time variations of "Good Vibrations," the seemingly million things that are going on in the background of "Wouldn't It Be Nice." Armed with such loving research, I figured I could draw something new and special out of Wilson. I was wrong.
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.
