Tag: NFL

The great Gale Sayers (40) passed away today at the age of 77. His NFL career was before my time, but like a lot of people, I learned of his career and his character through the movie “Brian’s Song”, the biopic about Brian Piccolo (41) and his friendship with Sayers, their friendly competition and the battles that they each faced, with some being bigger challenges than others. 

They each were born in 1943. Piccolo died in 1970, Sayers died 50 years later. It’s like they are from two different worlds. My dad was also born in 1943, so there is always a tie/interest when someone famous from that year of birth passes. He died 25 years ago next month, so I guess that lodges him right in between this pair of Chicago Bears. 

I hope Piccolo and Sayers are teasing each other like was depicted in the movie by Billy Dee Williams (Sayers) and James Caan (Piccolo). 

I finished the book “Hail to the Redskins”, by Adam Lazarus which chronicles the Redskins three Super Bowl titles in ‘81, ‘87 and ‘91 coached by Hall of Famer, Joe Gibbs. It also briefly touches on Gibbs return to coaching and his building of championship Nascar teams.

While it was interesting, I would preferred it to dig a bit deeper into that ‘81 season and more stories about John Riggins, and the HOGS, but that’s just me. 

2019 Challenge/Pace

Next Book*:

I’m 50% or so through an audiobook of Brian Freeman’s “Marathon”, so far it’s not been on par with the other Stride novels I’ve read from him and not equal to his Front Easton projects either. 

I picked up the Kenny Stabler at Ollie’s a close-out chain for a $1.99 for the content of the player and not the writing of the fraudulent hack known as Mike Freeman, so hopefully the hack didn’t see 1/10th of a penny for my purchase. 

The Bull Durham book is interesting, and I also downloaded a copy of the script and converted it to a PDF and then into a version to go on my tablet.  It’s neat since it paints a picture like book, but is close related to the film, with minor changes. Ebby Calvin “Nuke” Laloosh is a lefty in the screenplay script, while Timmy Robbins is right handed.  The “I believe” quote that Kevin Costner so poetically delivered was nearly word for word with the biggest difference being Thomas Pynchon’s self-indulgent, overrated crap was switched to Susan Sontag.

It’s an interesting read so I might do this again with some movies that I really like.

*Of course, I could always update something in a few days/weeks where I listened to or poured through something entirely different. It happens.

With 10 minutes to spare, Happy 72nd Birthday to “Mean” Joe Greene, one of the best to ever walk on to a football field.

The Lawrence Taylor documentary was both interesting and yet a bit sad.

This guy had all the talent in the world and is likely the best defensive player the NFL has ever seen. Maybe the drugs helped make him that way, a lot like the bottle helped Hemingway become Hemingway, he alluded to that at one point. 

I had a high school football coach that played with Taylor at Carolina and he had a few stories he would share and while he was likely on beer/alcohol at that point he still had a wild streak. 

The Lawrence Taylor documentary was both interesting and yet a bit sad.

This guy had all the talent in the world and is likely the best defensive player the NFL has ever seen. Maybe the drugs helped make him that way, a lot like the bottle helped Hemingway become Hemingway, he alluded to that at one point. 

I had a high school football coach that played with Taylor at Carolina and he had a few stories he would share and while he was likely on beer/alcohol at that point he still had a wild streak. 

So far with this post Peyton Manning NFL, I have yet to watch a live down of Football. Just not feeling it. Sure it’s only the 2nd full week of the preseason, but my interest isn’t fully there.

So far with this post Peyton Manning NFL, I have yet to watch a live down of Football. Just not feeling it. Sure it’s only the 2nd full week of the preseason, but my interest isn’t fully there.