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Headbangers Ball: The Bears' Richard Dent and the Packers' Ken Ruettgers met twice a year in the NFC Central rivalry.
I spent time with both in game week and attended the first 1993 meeting in the rivalry, on Halloween in Green Bay. It was both a double profile and inside the game piece. The story
ran in the issue that hit the mailboxes the week of the rematch in Chicago. Dent was inducted in the Pro Football Hall of
Fame in 2011. |
In July 1995, I traveled to Starkville, Mississippi.
Jerry Rice picked me up at my hotel and I rode with him to Mississippi State, where I watched him go through one of his legendary
offseason workouts at the school's track. In addition to interviewing Rice that weekend, I also went to his nearby hometown
of Crawford, explored where he grew up, visited his alma mater, B.L. Moor High, and got a mini-tour from principal Lillian
Thomas. His senior picture was on a hallway wall between those of GL Brown and B McGee. The story was a combination look back
at his youth in the small town and what lengths he was going to, to remain the game's top wide receiver at age 32. Hall
of Fame: 2010.
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I jokingly called this 1994 story my "10th
Annual" piece saying Vikings defensive coordinator Tony Dungy should be an NFL head coach. I had first written that after
meeting him in 1984 during a visit to Pittsburgh to gather preview material for the Broncos-Steelers playoff game. "At
least you still have your hair," he told me when I met him at the Vikings' headquarters. He had to wait two more years
for his chance with the Buccaneers. Hall of Fame: 2016. |
At the 25th anniversary of the landmark Texas-Arkansas
game, I did the story that led to Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming. Based on this story as a starting point, Simon and
Schuster bought the book before I'd started the additional research or the writing. Eventually, I came to understand that
this story was, well, no more than OK.
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In Super Bowl XXVIII, the Cowboys routed the Bills 30-13 in Atlanta
and it was Buffalo's fourth Super Bowl loss in four seasons. The Cowboys' Emmitt Smith noticeably consoled the Bills' Thurman
Thomas after the game and the seeds were planted for a story about theeir friendship. That spring, I attended the joint birthday
party for charity Smith put on in Dallas and talked with them, then visited them at their training camps. (Their birthdays
were one day apart.) The resulting story was the cover piece for the NFL Preview edition. Hall of Fame: Smith
2011, Thomas 2007.
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My suggestion was that I do a narrative project piece on a college program
going through a coaching transition. We picked out Michigan State after George Perles was fired late in the 1994 season. I
attended Perles' final game, at Penn State, to get the story started. Soon, MSU hired Browns defensive coordinator Nick Saban
and I first met with him at the Browns' headquarters after he took the job, but remained with Cleveland through its first-round
playoff elimination. I went to East Lansing to check in with Saban off and on for the next year and the story ran in December
1995. A version of what I now call "Nick Saban Before He Was Nick Saban" -- is here. |
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USC tackle Tony Boselli was from Boulder
and Fairview High and as the 1995 draft approached, I attended his private workout in a USC gym and profiled him. The issue
at the time was cynicism about PEDs in the wake of Michigan State tackle Tony Mandarich's flop in the NFL. At the end of the
story I said the question was whether Boselli was going to be more like Mandarich or Hall of Fame tackle Anthony Munoz. I
said the answer would be Munoz. I was right. Boselli only played seven seasons because of injuries, but was dominant at his
position and eventually will be in the Hall of Fame.
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Charles Haley was one of the top defensive end-linebackers in the NFL
and an intriguing, thoughtful, largely private man. He didn't speak much with the media at the time, and he met me in a Cowboy
official's office for the major interview for this story. Hall of Fame: 2011. |
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Because of the popularity of my "Headbangers
Ball" story, we decided to have me do a sequel two years later. It was a double profile of Cardinals cornerback Aeneas
Willliams and Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin. Again, I attended the division rivals' first meeting of the season and spent
time with them before and after in the Phoenix and Dallas areas. (Aeneas suggested I meet him at his daily Bible study at
the McDonald's near the team headquarters. At 6 in the morning.) The story ran as a setup for the Christmas night game in
Tempe. Hall of Fame: Irvin 2007, Williams 2014.
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I settled on relatively obscure tackle from Sonoma State, Larry Allen
to both profile him and illustrate what he got out of attending the NFL Combine in a time when the curtain largely remained
in place for the media and the proceedings were private. He had fun doing the story and was cooperative. Hall of Fame:
2013. |
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I checked in with the bellicose Browns and young head coach Bill Belichick
in Berea, Ohio after popular quarterback Bernie Kosar's controversial release. Belichick, perhaps hearing from others that
I believed he was taking more heat for his "diminishing skills" evaluation of Kosar than was warranted, granted
me a brief private interview for the story. This didn't come into play, but our fathers had played against each other in 1942
at Chicago's Soldier's Field -- Jerry Frei for Wisconsin and Steve Belichick for the Great Lakes Naval Station. |
This was a fun story to do. I attended the 1994 Oklahoma State-Nebraska
game in Lincoln and documented the weekend Nebraska football experience. Misty's Steak House, with the band marching through
and playing the fight song, the Sidetrack Bar and its house band raising hell, tailgates and motor homes in the parking lot,
booster game-day breakfast, the game itself and senior Terry Connealy being honored on his "Day" and ... Most of
the Cornhuskers' faithful continued to cooperate after I let it slip that I was a Colorado alum.
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This was a blast and one of my favorites.
I spoke to a bunch of NFL long-snappers for a cover story on their quirky role and their craft. I spent the most time with,
and wrote the most about the cover buy, Vikings long snapper Mike Morris -- a motorcycle-riding rebel who ended up being a
talk show host. We all talked about such things as whether snappers were real players, how they managed to get the strings
in the prime place for holders ... and more.
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Before the 1994 draft, I attended the private
workouts of Heath Shuler in Knoxville and Trent Dilfer in Fresno and did a dual profile of the two quarterback prospects.
Shuler later went third overall to Washington and Dilfer sixth to Tampa Bay. I concluded in the story that Dilfer was more
pro-ready, but Shuler had more more upside. Oops.
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When Nebraska's Tom Osborne retired from
coaching in 1997, I was asked to do the assessment of his career with the Cornhuskers and his legacy. It was my perspective,
with the opinions of others I called around the country also included.
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I proposed that I find and write about the
college football experience of the best player we could find in a major program who most likely wouldn't play in the NFL.
After putting out feelers and accepting nominations, we settled on Texas linebacker Jason Reeves, a starter and standout,
but not a star. Texas coach John Mackovic was cordial and cooperative and I went to Austin, with photographer Elsa Hasch,
to shadow Reeves during the week and attend the Longhorns' game against Texas Tech.
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TSN scribes also wrote for the Sporting News'
Yearbook magazines, and it was enjoyable because we were given virtual carte blanche on subject matter and often the OK to
travel. I did this on Dave Meggyesy, the former NFL linebacker who wrote the landmark football rebellion book, Out of
Their League. He was working for the NFL Players Association at the time.
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For two seasons after having enough of Jerry
Jones and leaving the Cowboys, Jimmy Johnson worked in TV. But he couldn't stay away and took the Dolphins job as Don Shula's
replacement in 1996. In late October, the Cowboys faced the Dolphins in Miami and the game was treated as a showdown between
the head coaches, with Barry Switzer in his third season in Dallas. That week, I first went to Dallas, and Switzer was
hilarious in talking about Johnson and the matchup. When I thanked him for taking the time to meet with me privately during
Jones' weekly news conference/luncheon, and noted I probably wouldn't have that kind of access to Johnson, he teased that
Jimmy couldn't even draw up a Dolphins play. On Sunday in Miami, the Cowboys won 29-10 and I finished up my largly pre-written
story and made the Sunday night deadline. Hall of Fame: Johnson, 2020 selection.
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I'm including this, written from the 1995 Rose Bowl matching Oregon and
Penn State because my assignment was to try and make the case for the unbeaten Nittany Lions as No. 1, ahead of Nebraska,
which had beaten Miami in the Orange Bowl the night before. I made light hearted remarks about the NBC Orange bowl crew declaring
Nebraska the national champion the second the game ended, and years later when I spoke to Bob Costas on a book matter, he
brought up what I had written. |
As the 1999 draft approached, I went to Kentucky
to profile Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch, expected to be the No. 1 overall choice and go to the Browns. I visited with Couch
in Lexington, then headed to his tiny hometown of Hyden to fill in some blanks. The story and approach was similar to my Jerry
Rice story a few years earlier. Like virtually everyone else, I was convinced Couch was a can't miss prospect. He wasn't
a complete flop -- that has been overstated -- but his five-year career with the Browns was a major disappointment.
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I often was called on to do inside the game-type
pieces, and this might have been the ultimate. Going to Columbus and using the Ohio State Buckeyes as the case study, I wrote
a magzine-length examination of what happens between the break of the huddle and the snap of the ball. Quarterback Joe Germain
was terrific and so were many of his offensive teammates. The story ran in the 1998 College Football preview edition.
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I talked my way into this one for TSN's 1995
Hockey Yearbook. I had seen a lot of major junior hockey in Portland and knew there were good stories out there. Photographer
Doug DeVoe and I went from the Final Four in Seattle to Kamloops, B.C., to hang out for a few days with the Kamloops Blazers
during a playoff series against, yes, the Portland Winterhawks. The Blazers were coached by Don Hay, and their top forwards
-- sometimes even jammed onto a line -- were Darcy Tucker, Jarome Iginla and Shane Doan, who played a combined nearly 60 seasons
in the NHL.
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Rick Neuheisel's departure from Colorado
was sudden and controversial and I was sent to Seattle to catch up with him in his early days at Washington in 1999. The question:
Had he learned lessons during his stay in Boulder that he could take with him and use in a fresh start in a new program?
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Another pre-draft story. This one was star-crossed.
In 2000, I went to Jackson State to chronicle the private workouts for scouts of two highly regarded Tigers -- receiver Sylvester
Morris Jr. and cornerback Rashard Anderson. They both went late in the first round -- Morris to Kansas City at No. 21, Anderson
to Jacksonville at No. 23. Morris was the Chiefs roster for four seasons, but played in only one because of injuries. Anderson
played only two seasons before he was suspended for violating the league's substance abuse policy. He wasn't reinstated until
2003 and didn't play another game in the NFL.
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So ... After his rocky four-season stay at
Indianapolis, Jeff George had moved on to the Falcons. As his second season there approached, I went to Atlanta and visited
him for the 1995 Pro Football Yearbook. His coach, June Jones, had been in my dad's Oregon program, and I also knew quarterbacks
coach Mouse Davis. They thought George was an All-Pro in waiting. George was candid and, I thought, sincere in saying he would
continue make the most of his fresh start. I believed him. I remember thinking if George couldn't keep getting along with
Jones and Davis, there was no hope. He didn't and there wasn't. He played for 13 seasons but never took full advantage of
his mouth-dropping physical talent.
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Maybe I was just angling for return trips
to Misty's and the Sidetrack, but I was sent to Lincoln to do this College Football Yearbook piece on the Nebraska offensive
line tradition. I even got a tour of the famous Cornhuskers weight room of the time -- one that would be belittled as inadequate
today.
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Although I mostly wrote about football, the
bosses knew I had covered the NBA and I occasionally helped out with basketball. In March 1995, I went to Orlando and San
Antonio to meet with Shaquille O'Neal and talk about his progress in his third season and especially his reaction to the "Hack-a-Shack"
strategy that was gaining popularity as a defensive strategm against him. He swore he would get better at free throws and
make the approach moot. That didn't quite work out. Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame: 2016.
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I had covered Gary Payton at Oregon State and even was in New York for
the 1990 NBA draft when the Sonics took him second overall. So I was a natural for this TSN Pro Basketball Yearbook story
-- chronicling his Oakland background, his continuing friendships and family closeness. Hall of Fame: 2013.
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