Alonzo Jackson plunked down $34 and bought two new shirts from an Eddie Bauer warehouse. One was green-and-white plaid, a lumberjack-looking thing, and he wore it the next day. After school, he and two teenage friends went back to the warehouse to shop again.It should have been just another breezy afternoon in a high schooler's life. Instead, it became something more. An off-duty cop working as a temporary security guard came up to Jackson and asked him about the crisp new shirt. The suggestion was that Jackson might have shoplifted it.
MEMO TO: Bobby RossFROM: William Clay Ford, OwnerEureka, Bobby! I think you've found it.Remember that team you talked about when I hired you? The kind of team you wanted to build here, the kind that hits and makes plays and beats teams it's not supposed to beat? Freeze it right there, Bobby, my boy. Freeze it on this victory against the Packers. You're onto something here. As my granddaddy said, "I think they'll buy this model."
Set 'em up. Pull the trigger. Knock 'em down. Start over.It sure feels like ducks in a penny arcade, this business of watching celebrities tumble. Marv Albert is the latest. Finished now. A good sportscaster, a pioneer in many ways, gone, history, see ya. And while I have no doubt, after a week's worth of kinky stories and gasping courtroom revelations, that Albert is, as they say in the sex biz, a freak, I'm still not exactly sure what he's guilty of.
They may be good, bad, glorious or depressing. But you have to admit, the Michigan-Notre Dame game will always give you memories.Gary Moeller has memories. Five memories from five autumn afternoons when it seemed like the whole world was watching. Moeller was head coach of U-M from 1990 to 1994, which was the last time the Wolverines and Irish met.A lot has changed since then. Neither Moeller nor Lou Holtz is in charge of those teams anymore. Neither man left under happy circumstances. Both will be working other jobs when the two football teams reunite Saturday.
Down on the bayou, they have this tradition: When their football team stinks, they wear bags over their heads.Grab a bag, Lions fans.Cut out one eye to see the gaping holes of the Lions' defensive line Sunday. Cut another out to see Scott Mitchell throwing the ball to the wrong team. Cut a mouth so you can scream "NOT AGAIN!" when a New Orleans never-heard-of-him waltzes into the end zone.Then pull that sack over your head so no one can identify you.
By the time you read this, I will be home. At least I should be home. On a book tour, you never know. I might be stuck in a St. Louis radio station, between Oasis records.Which is not an exaggeration. There I was, out on tour for "Tuesdays With Morrie" -- which is a small, inspirational book about an old man who is dying talking to a young man about what's really important in life -- so naturally I was ushered into an FM alternative rock station, where a disc jockey introduced me by fading down the volume on -- I'm not kidding here -- the new Oasis single.
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.
