PHILADELPHIA -- Darryl Rogers woke up with his face in a textbook. His eyes were bloodshot. Empty coffee cups crowded his desk. The dorm room was half-buried in playbooks, film, and stacks of paper filled with little X's and O's.He glanced over at the alarm clock. Friday, 7:30 a.m. Oh, Lord.The pre-season study period was over.The final exam was just minutes away.He pulled on an NFL sweatshirt, and fixed the freshman beanie on his head. "Gosh, I hope I crammed enough," he thought. "This summer semester went by so darn fast."
"You look like a piece of crud. The people watching say, 'Man, what a geek.' "-- Mike Black, on his muffed punt in the Lions' 31-7 loss to Dallas. It doesn't take much. Punters and placekickers are forever this close to being cut, anyhow. In the NFL pet shop, they are like litter boxes; most people don't notice them until they stink, and then they get dumped.
If Herschel Walker, whose talents still did not lead to a single victory for the Dallas Cowboys this season, was worth 12 players, a new house, a Mercedes and an extra $1.5 million cash above his salary, just think what other NFL stars might fetch:* Eric Dickerson: 15 players, three condominiums, $2 million cash and a lifetime supply of goggles.* Randall Cunningham: 23 players, apartment complex, $3 million and a Coca-Cola bottling plant. * Joe Montana: 45 players, most of Bloomfield Hills, $8 million and General Motors.
NEW YORK -- I'm sorry, but it's a question whose time has come.Why are Swedish tennis players so dull?This has become a major issue here at the U.S. Open, after three Swedes made the men's quarterfinals and they had to pass out No-Doz. Personally, the idea has intrigued me since the day a sports writer fell asleep on my shoulder during a Mats Wilander press conference. And he hadn't even been drinking.
WIMBLEDON, England -- I am sitting with a yellow pad in the shade at an empty tennis court. I am trying to figure out where I went wrong as a child."Kindergarten?" I ask myself, nibbling at the pencil. "If I had only cut out kindergarten. Or bedtime stories. . . . "I have just finished watching Michael Chang play at Wimbledon. I have just finished listening to Chang conduct a post-match press conference. I have been watching Chang for days here at Wimbledon. This is my overriding impression: How old is this kid?
WASHINGTON -- Adrian Dantley took a hard right, steering his Mercedes through the streets of his old neighborhood. It is a hurting section of the District of Columbia, where wooden chairs sit on porches, and the corner store is spray-painted and looks closed. Dantley studied the place, as if for the first time.Begin again."Used to get in a lot of fights right here," he said, pointing to the corner of Sherman and Columbia."That schoolyard? Used to hang around there a lot . . . "
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The ball was coming down from the darkening sky, there were two men around him, the angry crowd roaring like certain death, he was on the goal line, he bent his legs and he leapt in the air and all he could think of was . . . practice.
The small comeback story sits inside the big comeback story. Frank Tanana was throwing so badly two weeks ago Sparky Anderson took the ball away from him. No one knew when he would pitch again. Yet, there he was Tuesday night, pitching again, pitching well, allowing just three hits in eight innings. And winning -- his first win in seven weeks. Seven weeks? Bad to good. The small comeback story.
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.
