NFL Quiz: Name the top ten scorers, all time. [Of course I’ll
give you some help. Two have first names beginning with ‘N’
and one has the initials M.S.] Answer below.
A Little AFL History
Like all of you I’ve been swept up in the images from the Gulf
Coast. I am extremely upset about many different facets of this
disaster as I’ve just begun to spell out in my “Week in Review”
column. And I urge you to check out my next WIR on 9/10,
where I will have my take on gangs in America….next to the
threat of a large-scale terror attack easily our biggest problem,
yet one few of our public officials care to address. [Or in the
case of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, simply slough off…it’s
“exaggerated,” said the fake minister this week.]
But for now, I present the following without commentary, except
to say it’s a testament to the football players of the early AFL as
well as an indictment of many in the city of New Orleans. There
are two sides to every story.
From Michael MacCambridge’s book, “America’s Game: The
Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation.” The year is
1965.
“Not just in style of play but also in its social fabric, the culture
of the new league (the AFL) was distinct from that of the NFL,
particularly in race relations. The AFL was hardly an idealistic
utopia of racial equality, but the topic was more contemplated,
more easily confronted, and better understood than in the NFL.
“The new league had been more integrated from the start, and the
issue of racial justice had been explicit since January of 1965
when eighty AFL players traveled to New Orleans for the AFL
All-Star Game. The twenty-one black players confronted, from
the moment they arrived at the airport and tried to get taxi
service, a steady stream of frank, unrepentant racism. That
Saturday, January 9, many of the players were already in town,
but from Bourbon Street to the French Quarter, black players
were denied cab service and entrance into many of the clubs, and
subjected to routine verbal abuse. At one club where the players
were denied entrance, a bouncer pulled a gun on Ernie Ladd. In
the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel, the Chargers’ Earl Faison heard
two locals discussing him, wondering whether he was Ladd.
‘No,’ concluded one man, within Faison’s earshot. ‘Ernie
Ladd’s a bigger nigger than that. That Ladd is a big nigger.’
[Ed. note: Ernie Ladd was indeed big…a 6’9” defensive end who
starred for San Diego, Houston and Kansas City, and later went
on to fame as a professional wrestler.]
“The repeated epithets and slights prompted a meeting among
black players, in which they voted to boycott the game. That, in
turn, prompted a hastily assembled meeting with New Orleans
civic leaders, trying to quell the damage. A young black lawyer,
Ernest N. ‘Dutch’ Morial (who would later become New
Orleans’ first black mayor),….[Ed. note: The Morial Convention
Center was named after Dutch and his son has been seen on TV
the last few days, a former mayor himself.]…got up in front of
the players and began defending New Orleans’ civil rights
record, arguing that the players were overreacting, and should go
ahead and play the game. Morial, an exceedingly light-skinned
African-American, proved less than convincing. While he was
speaking to the nonplussed players, the Jets’ Winston Hill leaned
over to a teammate and asked, ‘Who’s this honky?’
“A day later, Commissioner Joe Foss announced that the AFL
supported the black players and that the game would be moved to
Houston. It marked one of the first instances of professional
athletes working together to make a social statement, and seemed
to foreshadow a more open discussion of race for many of the
teams. The Chief’s white linebacker Jim Lynch recalled how
struck he was by the response of his black teammates in the wake
of Martin Luther King’s assassination in April 1968. At the Jets’
training camp that same year, the team’s player association
representative, linebacker Larry Grantham, stood up in front of
his teammates during a players-only meeting. ‘Listen, I’m
prejudiced,’ he said. ‘I know it. I was brought up that way. My
grandmother was brought up that way, my kids, everyone else.
I’m hoping to change. I’m trying to. But as far as being your
player rep…I’ll represent all of you the same, no matter what his
color is.’
“The changed attitudes could be witnessed on the field as well,
where the Chiefs installed Willie Lanier as the pro game’s first
starting black middle linebacker in 1968. That same year, Marlin
Briscoe earned a starting quarterback job for the Denver
Broncos. In the winter of 1969, the Raiders made Eldridge
Dickey of Tennessee State the first black quarterback selected in
the first round of a pro draft. Later that year, the rookie
quarterback James Harris became the first black to start the pro
season at the position, leading the Buffalo Bills into action.
Harris’s experience spoke not just of the distance traveled but the
distance remaining. He had played college football at
Grambling, and spent much of his life in segregated settings.
Standing inside his first pro huddle, and calling the play to be
run, it occurred to him that he’d rarely been alone with this many
white people before, much less in a setting in which he was
giving orders.”
Just Stuff
–NFL…2005
Sports Illustrated’s Dr. Z picks the Carolina Panthers to defeat
the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl.
But now for your EXCLUSIVE Bar Chat forecast which you can
take to the bank. [What you do with it there is your problem.]
Indianapolis over Philadelphia!!!!!
As for my Jets, they’ll sneak in as a wild-card but disappoint in
the end.
By the way, if you’re fans of the 49ers and Bears, Dr. Z says they
are the two worst teams. Probably best to think about basketball,
or take in a show or somethin’.
–Whenever I go to Ireland, I often find myself observing the
ravens there. OK, I’m normally sitting in this one particular pub
on the water in Lahinch with a spectacular view where ravens are
part of the backdrop, but I’m amazed how smart they appear to
be. So it was with interest I read a piece in the Sunday Times
Magazine by David Berreby concerning a recent study on raven
behavior.
“Last year, in the journal Animal Cognition, the behavioral
biologist Thomas Bugnyar described a twist in an experiment he
was conducting with laboratory ravens. The bird’s job was to
find bits of cheese hidden in film canisters, then pry open the lids
to get the food out. One raven, Hugin, was best at this, but a
dominant bird, Munin, would rush over and steal his reward.
“So Hugin changed his strategy: when the other bird came over,
he went to empty canisters, pried them open and pretended to eat.
While the dominant bird poked around in the wrong place, Hugin
zipped back to where the food really was. He was deceiving
Munin.
“To do that, Hugin had to grasp that ‘what I know’ and ‘what he
knows’ are different. He had to understand, on some level, that
other ravens have their own individual perceptions, feelings and
plans, just as he does. It was big news when scientists found
evidence that apes could grasp this. That some birds can as well
is even more remarkable.”
Actually, it also shows that Munin is one dumb bird.
–Bad news on the cougar front. Biologists tracking four adults
in the Santa Monica Mountains say that only one now remains
after a male puma killed its mate. Earlier, a male and a female
had died after apparently becoming ill from eating tainted
coyote; possibly because the coyotes had in turn eaten rodents
that were poisoned with household- or commercial-grade rat
poison.
According to Jia-Rui Chong of the Los Angeles Times, the other
two cats, known as Puma 1 and Puma 2, got into a huge brawl
while the female was chowing down on a freshly killed mule
deer. [They say that mule deer are quite tasty this time of year.]
The female was also protecting her four cubs when the male
approached.
Woody Smeck, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains
National Recreation Area, offered this analysis. “We believe the
female may have been in heat and may have attracted the male.
For some reason, she was not going to accommodate the male.”
So the two went at it; fighting for several hours according to a
park biologist who was close enough to hear the growls and
howls that echoed through the forest. Chong writes, “He
couldn’t see the pair, so he didn’t know whether they were
breeding or fighting.”
Well, the next day researchers heard the radio transmitter around
the female lion’s neck giving off the “mortality signal,” a fast
beeping sound indicating death. A team then found the body.
As for the cubs, for now they appear to be alright.
But there’s a lesson here for all of us guys. Never, ever disturb a
babe dining on mule deer. Let her finish first. At least that’s
what I’m taking away from it.
–“Natural Cures”
Like many of you, one night I stumbled on Kevin Trudeau doing
his infomercial for his book “Natural Cures.” The guy is kind of
mesmerizing, I think most of you would agree, and perhaps the
best salesman I have ever seen. Well, as a lark and because I’m
always looking for new sources of Bar Chat, I bought his tome
(and immediately canceled the newsletter that is the real ‘hook’).
LT and I then looked for Trudeau’s opinion on beer and wine,
the two of us enjoying a glass or mug from time to time, and we
came across this.
“How to Never Get Sick Again”
#40. “Make your own beer and wine”
“If you are going to drink beer and wine, make it yourself with
pure organic ingredients. It’s fun, it tastes better and it’s much
healthier for you. Beer and wine are not unhealthy; however, the
chemicals on the grapes, the hops, and other ingredients get into
the final product. The heat used in processing kills the beneficial
living enzymes. It is much better, however, to drink beer or wine
than sodas or canned or bottled juice.”
So there you have it. Beer and wine are better than sodas and
bottled juice. Time to put kegs in our schools….or am I
misinterpreting this?
–More on baseball attendance…from the New York Daily News
and a report on last Wednesday’s critical (at the time) Mets –
Phillies game.
“We’re glad (owner) Fred Wilpon got the revenue for 38,316,
but trust us on this: There were nearly that many empty seats at
Shea for what you could argue was the most important game the
Mets have played all season.”
Expect a big Sports Illustrated cover story on this topic over the
winter, though anyone familiar with their baseball history knows
that even during the 1960s, my favorite era for the sport,
attendance was generally abysmal.
–Links Magazine has a Q&A with chef and author Bobby Flay,
who also happens to be a solid golfer.
Q: Would you be more nervous cooking a meal for President
Bush and other heads of state, or playing golf with Tiger Woods?
A: Playing with Tiger, no question.
Q; Complete your dream foursome, and what you’d prepare for
dinner after the round.
A: Bill Clinton, Muhammad Ali and Phil Mickelson. Post round,
I’d make lobster club sandwiches. And to drink, Arnold Palmers
spiked with tequila.
*So…I had never heard of an Arnold Palmer, being a beer
drinker myself after a round, which forced me to look it up.
5 oz. lemonade
5 oz. iced tea
Served in a high ball or tall glass with ice.
Of course Flay’s idea of spiking it with tequila is the key.
Now kids, don’t mix these up yourself without checking with
your parents first.
At Bar Chat, our concern starts with America’s youth.
–Doh! From the pages of GolfWorld:
“Golf is not always a game of honor. David Graham, 58 (no
relation to the pro golfer of the same name), had been receiving
disability payments from the Scottish government since 1993,
claiming he was unable to walk more than 30 yards at a stretch.
Yet he played golf walking twice a week. Fraud inspectors,
according to the Manchester Evening News, filmed him in action
and hauled him in.”
I’d nominate Mr. Graham for “Idiot of the Year,” but I have
bigger fish to fry in ’05.
–Golfer Greg Norman is loaning his helicopter to the hurricane
relief effort for as long as it’s needed, a nice gesture.
–I really don’t get Michelle Wie’s act sometimes, aside from
the fact she can drive a golf ball 80 yards further than I can. Wie
was slated to receive a sponsor’s exemption to the 84 Lumber
Classic (PA), a PGA event I attended last fall, but turned it down
after spending several days on site and deciding the 7,516 yard
long course didn’t suit her game. Wie’s father and swami, B.J.,
declined to give specifics. [GolfWorld] This is the same girl
who is bound and determined to play with the big boys, and no
doubt she has the game to make some cuts, but she is handed an
exemption and turns it down.
Well, sports fans, for this we place Michelle Wie in the Bar Chat
“Jerk of the Year” category. Goodness gracious….the field for
all the awards is becoming quite crowded.
–Also from GolfWorld, we have the tale of Tiger Woods and his
refusal to talk to CBS’ on-course reporters such as Peter Kostis.
I loved the comments of columnist Stu Schneider.
“The hardest question in most post-round interviews (with
Woods) is ‘So, how do you feel?’ And Woods, more than any
other pro, is particularly adept at saying just enough to barely
answer the question. You get more insight by watching his TV
commercials.
“Putting this in perspective, other players have had problems
with the media. Vijay Singh, for instance, rarely talks to writers
one-on-one. Phil Mickelson – yes, smiling-all-the-time Phil
Mickelson – was so upset about something written about him a
few years ago that he confronted the writer and essentially told
him to put up his dukes. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed –
meaning the writer probably ran away…
“With CBS finished with golf for the year, the two parties go to
neutral corners for about five months. Is that enough time for
Woods to reconsider his position? Possibly. Fair or not, the
onus is on CBS and Kostis to try to work things out with Woods.
[A nice handwritten letter has always worked for me.] But
here’s something else to factor in: One has to wonder what Tim
Finchem, currently trying to pry millions of dollars from
unhappy cash-poor networks, is thinking when his biggest draw
is telling one of his ‘partners’ to talk to their hand.”
–Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated had an update on former
Arizona high school basketball player Joe Kay, a fellow I first
wrote of in this space back on 2/12/04. Kay is the kid who had a
monster slam dunk near the end of a critical win against his
school’s archrival and was then tackled by the fans as the final
buzzer sounded. Reilly describes the scene.
“A throng of delirious boys runs madly at Joe Kay, out of their
minds with desire to grab, carry and / or dog-pile their hero, all at
once. But for Joe Kay it’s like being hugged by the 5;15 train.
They are coming too hard. He tries to brace himself, but two
guys flat-out tackle him. A dozen more pile on. Joe Kay gets
twisted. Something freaky happens inside his neck.”
Kay was paralyzed. When he got body-slammed, “his carotid
artery was briefly blocked, keeping blood from his brain. Joe
Kay had a stroke.”
The doctor said the damage was permanent. But today Kay is
walking and talking, albeit slowly in both instances. Incredibly,
this kid has a great attitude about it. “I mean, how bad is it
compared with what’s happening to people in Sudan? In India?”
he says.
Sadly, however, Kay has yet to receive an apology from the two
students most responsible. It’s a big time court case, as you can
imagine. But Joe, who was slated to attend Stanford on a
scholarship, is focused on his recovery. It’s a long road back for
him, especially mentally, but what an inspiration.
–Uh oh….I see that Green Day, The Rolling Stones and rapper
Kanye West are headlining the NFL’s Kickoff Show this
Thursday. Now none of these three are exactly Bush supporters
so you have to believe the censor’s will be a little more active
than they were with West the other night. In case you were
traveling back from Guam the past few days and have been out
of the loop, Mr. West appeared on NBC’s Concert for Hurricane
Relief and promptly said “George Bush doesn’t care about black
people,” and other stuff, like “I hate the way they portray us in
the media. If you see a black family, it says they’re looting. See
a white family, it says they’re looking for food.”
This is the same West who during Live 8 blamed whitey for the
scourge of AIDS in Africa, among other things. Yes, we have
yet another “Jerk of the Year” candidate!
–Congratulations to Notre Dame for doubling up on Pitt, 42-21,
in coach Charlie Weiss’s first game.
And elsewhere in college football’s opening week:
Pretender Boise State got its butt kicked by a solid Georgia
squad, 48-13. Yup, B.S. isn’t ready for prime time this go
around.
Back on Thursday, my Demon Deacons lost 24-20 to Vanderbilt.
Good god. What a terrible way to start the season. And now I
go to Nebraska to watch the Cornhuskers probably roll all over
Wake. [Then again, Nebraska beat Maine by only 25-7.
Maine?! Sometimes you forget this state even exists. I mean
even just typing ‘Maine’ seems kind of weird.]
But the big story over the weekend was 26-point underdog TCU
upsetting #7 Oklahoma.
Finally, I saw that Montana beat Ft. Lewis 55-0. I’m thinking Ft.
Lewis plays in breech skins.
–Golfer Gary Player shot his age, 69, at Pebble Beach in the
Champions Tour event eventually won by Hale Irwin, 60, who
picked up his 43rd Champions title.
–I’ve been following a golfer I wrote of back in December when
I was attending Q-School; a fellow who blatantly cheated a few
times. This guy has played in 12 Nationwide events without
making a cut. Heh heh.
–Kyle Busch became the youngest to ever win a NASCAR event
at age 20 with his victory in Fontana, California on Sunday.
–Ah yes, another scintillating match between Serena and Venus.
Venus, by the way, was asked to comment on Katrina. “I really
don’t follow those things.”
–The University of North Dakota, known as the “Fighting
Sioux,” is suddenly having problems with an old ally, the Spirit
Lake Sioux Tribe, amidst the NCAA ruling that schools with
“hostile and abusive” nicknames and logos not be allowed to
display them at NCAA championship events or postseason
tournaments. A former tribal chairman said the authorization for
use of the logo was contingent on UND freshmen visiting all of
North Dakota’s Indian reservations in addition to sensitivity
courses. Totally absurd. The school’s president said there was
never any such agreement, though he added “I have personally
visited every reservation in North Dakota.”
So I’m thinking the next time they stage a reenactment at Little
Big Horn, it could get violent, know what I’m sayin’?
–They’re getting ready to film a new James Bond flick, “Casino
Royale,” but they can’t find an actor to play 007. I’m available
but it would require a change in the script. “What do you have in
bottled beer?”
[The original “Casino Royale” has held up well over the years.
What was her name? Dahlia Lavi? Ahem.]
–I was reading an obituary of William Rehnquist in the
Washington Post and it confirmed what I always felt in just
observing him, at least the few times us common folk were
allowed to do so. He struck me as being unpretentious and
there’s a story of how when he was presiding over Bill Clinton’s
impeachment trial, Rehnquist was conducting a poker game with
his law clerks in a Senate cloakroom during the breaks in the
proceedings. Now that’s my kind of Chief Justice.
–From Sports Illustrated’s “They Said It,” Dodgers outfielder
Milton Bradley, who is one strange dude in case you’re not
familiar with him, on his legacy:
“I want people to say Milton Bradley was a pretty good
ballplayer and a pretty good person. Anybody who is going to
stand between me getting there, then they need to be eliminated.”
–For those of you not from the New York City area, there’s a
club called CBGB in lower Manhattan that is facing eviction for
not paying rent, among other things. It’s a true dump but some
want to save it because a few groups got their start there, like
Blondie. For this very reason alone, it should be demolished.
Top 3 songs for the week of 9/6/75: #1 “Rhinestone Cowboy”
(Glen Campbell) #2 “Fallin’ In Love” (Hamilton, Joe Frank &
Reynolds) #3 “Get Down Tonight” (K.C. & The Sunshine Band)
…#7 “Fame” (David Bowie) #10 “One Of These Nights”
(Eagles…#1 the prior month)
NFL Quiz Answers: Top ten scorers –
1. Gary Anderson…….2,434
2. Morten Andersen….2,358
3. George Blanda…….2,002
4. Norm Johnson……..1,736
5. Nick Lowery……….1,711
6. Jan Stenerud……….1,699
7. Eddie Murray………1,594
8. Al Del Greco………1,584
9. John Carney……….1,537
10. Matt Stover………1,481
*FYI…All-time Touchdowns
1. Jerry Rice………208
2. Emmitt Smith….175
3. Marcus Allen…..145
4. Marshal Faulk…..135
5. Cris Carter………131
Next Bar Chat, Thursday. This will be a little different…pre-
packaged, as we say in the biz, and posted a little later than
normal due to travel.
