* NY GIANTS 20, PHOENIX 17: So Lawrence Taylor says he'll retire at the end of the season? The way the Giants were playing, I thought he retired last year.* MIAMI 23, ATLANTA 13: The only undefeated team in the AFC against the only team that has to wonder if its kick returner will get a hit in the baseball playoffs on Sunday.
So when does hockey season start?If that was the last best playoff chance for our football team -- and some people think it was -- we might as well get real, grab our coats, shut the photo album. Not that Sunday afternoon's finish was much to remember: Rodney Peete, chased like a criminal, sacked like potatoes. Willie Green, diving in the turf for a ball that was 10 feet away. The crowd leaving, booing, as Scott Conover, an offensive lineman, is called for yet another Detroit false start . . .False start?
If you wanted help with your love life, would you ask an ex-homeless person who had once been a drug user and, in between, spent time in transcendental meditation, celibacy, and a marriage that collapsed after two years?Of course you would. At least, many of us are. Check out the book sales for "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus." People are gobbling it up in a frenzied rush, hoping to solve their relationship woes.This, by the way, is a very American thing to do. When in doubt, buy a book.
I find them in the basement, right were I left them, on a dusty shelf, squeezed together, like cold cuts in a sandwich. Janis Joplin. The Beach Boys. The King and I. Did I always have this many? "Long time, no see," I say.My albums say nothing.Are they mad? It has been a while. Ever since that birthday, seven years ago, when the CD player arrived. It was black and shiny, with cool new gadgets and a little drawer that opened and closed.
The room was full of shoulda-been heroes. Mel Gray, who took a kickoff and burst like a gazelle through the guts of the Tampa Bay defense, an out-of-your-seat touchdown that had teammates on hands and knees thanking God for his presence. Gray shoulda been the hero. But now he tucked in his shirt and pulled on his belt. "It would've been nice," was all he would say.
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.
