Here's the thing about the human heart: You can't legislate it. You can't make laws requiring people to like broccoli. You can't force people into theaters to see "Gigli."And it's the reason the NFL's minority hiring policy is seriously flawed.The Detroit Lions know this now, after team president Matt Millen was fined $200,000 by the league. His crime? He failed to interview a minority candidate before hiring Steve Mariucci, a white man, as his head coach. Under the NFL policy, you must interview at least one minority or face punishment.
My ears are for sale. Left. Right. For the right price, you may have them both. Or, I should say, rent them. Your message here. On my ears. I am joining the 21st Century. I am becoming a billboard.Hey. Why should I -- JUST DO IT! -- miss out -- FLY THE FRIENDLY SKIES! -- on the trend? -- THINK FORD FIRST!After all, things you never thought of as advertising space are now becoming -- OBEY YOUR THIRST! -- advertising space. Like police cars.
THE SPARTANS left for the Final Four on Wednesday night, most of them thinking glory and championships. One of them was thinking about the bus ride. And the plane ride. And the locker room.And it makes him nearly as happy as hitting a winning jumper."I may run home and get my camcorder, just to film all the little stuff," he says.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The uniforms will not do it. No one is impressed. The Michigan State Spartans may be defending national champions, but no opponent is going to fall over at the sight of them.The names will not do it. No one is impressed. Never mind that Charlie Bell, Andre Hutson and Jason Richardson were part of a title run last year. No opponent will quake in its boots, swallow air, go all goose-bumpy when they take the floor.
Ionce wrote a book about five young basketball players, all of whom were black. The book was purchased by Hollywood. They wanted to make a movie.I flew out for a meeting, and over shared bottles of Evian water, one of the female executives began gushing over the story, the way Hollywood executives often do."There's just one little thing," she said. "Do you think we could make one of the players white?"I was tempted to say, "Sure, just tell me which one, so I can warn his mother when the film comes out."But I resisted. Some ideas are too dumb to bother with.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- A few days from now, when the Pistons are packing for their summer vacations, this will be a night that will haunt them. Right now they have reasons, justifications, they have moments they can point to, cliches they can fall back on. And they have at least one more game to play.
From this tech columnist's mailbag . . .I'm a regular reader. I had to stop and drop a note. Wish I had the e-mail(s) you sent to me when the iPod first came out. You wrote a Freep column saying it was cool, but doubted if it would be a success due to the price. I sent an e-mail pointing out what I thought was wrong with your opinion, you shot back with "it won't fly." My, how times have changed!Brian Bukantis
By the end, even the Pistons looked tired of this series. It was like trying to put a swing set together with the wrong tools. At some point, you just plop down, exasperated, and say: "This is never gonna work."
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.
