I was but a pre-teen in the 80’s. As the 90’s came and high school began and nostalgia kicked in, outside of my beloved Philadelphia Eagles, there wasn’t much cooler from the Reagan era than the’85 Bears, widely regarded as the greatest team to ever step on the gridiron.
The names are legendary – from Ditka to Dent to Singletary – but none more so than the great Walter Payton, who dominated his way to the all-time NFL rushing title with both power and grace.
While the exact dates escape me, I also remember his tragic illness, and the outpouring of emotion for such a wonderful human whose life was cut short.
The thing is, like all people, famous people particularly, there is always a deeper complexity.
What I took from the book is hard to describe. For the most part, I want to dismiss Payton as an egotistical prima donna who thinks the world owes him for being God’s gift to sport. But I can’t fully do that. The reason is you just need to put things in perspective. Were this guy not the one of the greatest athletes who ever lived, we wouldn’t even have the chance to reflect on his enigmatic life.
To his credit, and contrary to what his critics might say, Pearlman is fair. He doesn’t gloss over unsavory topics, nor does he minimize Payton’s greatness both on and off the field. He paints a full picture, and (as he always does) does so in a very entertaining way.
Steve McMichael hasn't been this awkward since he was making his living in a squared circle.
And you can bet Double A would kick him out the Horseman for much lesser offenses.
Former Chicago Bear Steve McMichael takes a tumble from a mechanical bull, as part of a special challenge held Friday at Union Station in Chicago. McMichael, a two-time Pro Bowler and key member of the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl XX champions, was defeated by current Bear defensive Corey Wootton in the event, which helped kick off the Professional Bull Riders inaugural Chicago Invitational, which takes place Saturday and Sunday at the United Center. Wootton registered the longest time on three rides to down McMichael.
25 years after Super Bowl shufflin', former Bears coach Mike Ditka and former Niners/Lions coach Steve Mariucci will serve as head coaches in the 2011 Under Armour All-America High School Football Game, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Wednesday, Jan. 5, at 7 p.m. ET, on ESPN.
Love the commercial that aired this past Sunday...
Welcome to the "man" episode. We focus on "things guys like" with Guyism.com and chat with the incomparable Sarah Spain.
Lucas is away this week in sunny Hawaii, so filling in once again is Chris Illuminati. Combining Illuminati's new segment at HHR with Lucas' Ballsy Blog of the Week, we bring on Guyism.com's Isaac to answer 8 Softball Questions.
What happened to the World of Isaac?
Why do women read men's sites?
Why do people get so worked up over internet articles?
What Internet trend will he never understand?
Who epitomizes Guyism.com?
What's more unmanly than creating Internet viruses?
How unmanly are staged wedding party pictures?
What is something every man needs?
Keeping with our theme, Chicago's own Sarah Spain joins us. Four years removed from auctioning herself off on eBay to get to the Super Bowl, Sarah is now rubbing elbows on the red carpet at the big game with NFL legends in a journalistic capacity.
Sarah has been our eyes and ears on the ground in the planning process of BwB3, and really epitomizes a lot of things we intend to focus on in June.
One thing we've worked hard on incorporating is a more diverse perspective at the shows. Among them is having more women participate. Like previous guest Jemele Hill, Sarah talks about the role her gender plays as a sports blogger and journalist. Ivy league educated, she talks about how she balances being a woman in a male-dominated genre with her talent, background and work product. She offers her advice to female bloggers and talks about what they can expect along their respective paths, which could include a couple of creeps and stunts like this:
Sarah also has worked in various platforms including web, radio and now television - both locally and for national companies. She also talks about the professional advantages of online accessibility and social media.
In lieu of Skyped Up, as the queen of Chicago sports, we put her on the spot and ask us to talk about some of her favorite Windy City team-specific blogs and bloggers.
Throughout the season we will feature the ramblings of unapologetic Bears fan (and Cutler/Lovie hater) the Kayfabian Messiah. For more KM, you can check out "Thoughts from the Inner Walls."
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I hadn’t written anything in weeks because there was really not a lot to say. The Bears beat the Browns & Rams & other than that had performed like the Oakland Raiders almost all year. Last night was a huge game & showed that they are not a terrible team, but revealed a lot of why have nots.
The first is one that has bothered me since the beginning of the season & will be the drum that beats Lovie Smith & Ron Turner out of jobs. Why was Devin Aromashodu not starting all year? He played excellently in preseason. The only reason it seems Earl Bennett got a starting job was more to kiss Jay Cutler’s ass because they were college teammates. I have never had a problem with Devin Hester or Johnny Knox in those roles because they actually work hard & excel. Bennett is just not anything more than a wideout. He is blameless personally because nobody is going to say I don’t want to be a starter. But this Mangini like Favre love put on Cutler by Lovie & Turner began with that half-assed decision.
The second one was a blessing in disguise. Last year, the Bears went 9-7 but they easily could have had several more wins. One guy on defense had them blow multiple leads with his outrageously terrible coverage of wide receivers, inability to keep his own balance & all around blooper reel like qualities. That man is Charles Tillman, the NFL’s worst cornerback of all time. Your job as a CB is to guard WRs. If you can’t keep up with them and/or run the easiest of routes not only shouldn’t you start but you should be out of the league!
The dumb ass logic of keeping Tillman as a starter (despite drafting his replacement that is faster & 100 times better) is things he does in the community. Now I love players who give back & stuff but this isn’t tee ball where everyone gets a chance to play. These guys are getting millions of dollars! This isn’t a volunteer job! He is not doing his job! Tillman has been beyond terrible including his infamous clumsiness of tripping over himself. If you are great in the community & no longer can cut it as a player then retire & join the player’s association as a goodwill rep! But because his true colors are about the money he won’t! That is the Charles Tillman hypocrisy!
Instead he undermines a team’s defense & they are forced to play two games on defense. One is the Bear’s defense against the opposing offense. The second game is the Bears Linebackers & Defensive Ends having to do his job & almost play against him for the defense to succeed. This is why the defense did well for a while against Minnesota because the LBs & the DEs continued to push through not allowing Tillman to be the blocker. When Tillman was the blocker guys like Peterson easily threw him to the ground as if he was as imposing a 95 lb ref. That was on top of the clumsiness & screw ups of the routes.
When this horribly inept joke of professional football CB got hurt (which was like winning the Superbowl to me) all of sudden the secondary was able to make a ton of stops & held the Vikings to a FG. What a coincidence! As a matter a fact even in OT it was obvious that the Vikings struggled to move the ball once this disgrace to every player to ever play in the league on the secondary was out of the game. This is another reason Lovie Smith will be canned. Tillman is one of his best friends. He hired another one of his friends to miscoach the defense last year & obviously that failed. He does as well with separating friendship from professionalism as Robert Downey Jr. usually did with sobriety!
It makes it far worse because the Bears drafted DJ Moore who is faster & far better than Tillman & after last night more than anything it was obvious Tillman sucks on a national scale; so why Lovie are you still starting him? These kinds of boneheaded moves not only will fire Uncle Ben but its going to make it damn hard for him to get a coordinator job even in the CFL! Imagine if the Giants fire Sheridan & hired this goof! He would probably fall in love with CC Brown & push to start him every week even though the guy is obviously awful.
All in all it was great to see my favorite team beat my least favorite team & at least the Bears have an attempt to go 7-9 which is far better than the 4-12 finish I was sadly anticipating several weeks ago. However, it also is a disgrace with the talent they have to not make the playoffs the last 3 years & the incompetent coaching was even worse than the issues on the Browns, Raiders & Chiefs in many many ways! Since great things were not allowed to be used all year, the showcasing of talent that was constantly benched only makes you look than much worse as a coach. It may have been the worst thing to happen to Smith (and the greatest things for Bears fans) because now a new coach is going to be able to come in here & do these things & make things happen. Goodbye Uncle Ben & Good Riddens!
Throughout the season we will feature the ramblings of unapologetic Bears fan (and Cutler/Lovie hater) the Kayfabian Messiah. For more KM, you can check out his recently launched "Thoughts from the Inner Walls."
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I guess some fans are delusional at times. When a team comes off a 9-7 season, is anticipated to do far better but ends up on a pace for 6-10; there’s hardly anything to be happy about! Also with all due respect to certain reporters & dozens of annoying mouthpieces who do not watch Bears games in whole each & every week, how are you qualified to make criticisms of good & bad? It’s a lot to pay attention to every missed tackle, screwed up assignment & miscue to the point where you can call an interception or predict an opposing team to go down field on a given play that can’t be summed up by simply watching a 5 second highlight!
When you see a head coach for THREE YEARS continue to use these same failed plays with the defense & it gets to the point where you can predict how badly the team is going to fail, there’s no a lot to be happy about! Everyone in the media likes to point fingers to everyone but the obvious. Most journalists like to use the Babe Ruth method for Jay Cutler of kissing his ass & putting the blame elsewhere. Perhaps this is why he has this ego since the dimwitted tools on the Bears’ coaching staff do the same. When you are a coach, you do not treat a player like royalty & kiss his ass as if you were the president of their fan club!
Brian Urlacher, who is the widely the most respected player on the Bears right now, spoke out against the errors of having Cutler over Orton & how Lovie & his crew of morons has lost the identity of the team in the process of picking him up. The Bears have always been a running team offensively. That is their identity. You don’t see the Vikings stop going to Adrian Peterson with the addition of Brett Favre’s arm. They utilize both talents like any common sense coaching crew would do. One that doesn’t shouldn’t even be coaching at the pee wee level!
Also in response to morons in the media, Urlacher HAS EVERY RIGHT TO COMMENT! He is the team captain! And he is not the type of person to publicly call this team out ever! Urlacher is a class act! So when he makes comments such as this; you shut up & listen! He had to make the comments because the extremely lackluster joke of a disciplinary machine the Bears call a coaching staff won’t do that! They don’t do anything! The Bears did win a game yesterday & Lovie looked like he didn’t have a clue what the hell was going on! I’m sure that’s a familiar feeling in his daily life!
I see so many teams with problems but they have coaches that actually fix them! Whether you bench a top player to get the team fired up or the bench a player that plays awful for one who plays better; it all works out for the best. But the latter is that ‘common sense’ thing which is above Lovie Smith’s head. The #1 rule with that one is with his idol, Charles Tillman. Any other coach would have cut Tillman by now! This guy for the most part over the last three years has far & away become the worst CB in the NFL! Sadly, the Bears drafted a quicker far better CB in DJ Moore! The genius Lovie has let him play zero times in regular season! Another brilliant move by this crack (er crap) staff!
So, until this disgrace to the legacy of George S. Halas Sr. is fired along with his deplorable coaching staff, things will never change! They had far less talent in past years & won because they were coached far better during previous head coaches’ stints. Without leadership, discipline, direction & accountability things will continue to be awful.
This BS about the WRs & other stuff is fodder from people who watch 5 seconds of Bears highlights a week. Sure Cutler is to blame somewhat & there are problems on both sides of the field, but 95% of the problems all point to the coaching staff! Once the right staff is brought in, things will improve & many franchises have proven that theory correct for years!
As a new feature to HHR, we will feature the ramblings of unapologetic Bears fan (and Cutler/Lovie hater) the Kayfabian Messiah. For more KM, you can check out his recently launched "Thoughts from the Inner Walls."
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The time is now for change in Chicago. For the last 3 years, Lovie Smith (aka Mr. Rogers) has done nothing but denigrate a team with more talent than Dick Jauron’s 2001 #2 seed Chicago Bears. There’s nothing wrong with the WRs. People who say that are on the useless Jay Cutler bandwagon. He’s an average quarterback with a gigantic ego. Here you have a team that is built on running with a RB who ran over 1500 yards last year. Cutler convinces terrible Offensive Coordinator Ron Turner to pass it more.
Now, when you have talent at RB; why not use it? Turner has successfully destroyed & turned this team into a one dimensional team. All this BS about Devin Hester is just that. He is doing the best he can with a QB who constantly overthrows & under throws. Randy Moss & Larry Fitzgerald couldn’t catch most of the crappy passes that Cutler throws. There is talent with Cutler but it can only harnessed by a legit coaching staff with DISCIPLINE! Ned Flanders is more of a strict disciplinarian than Lovie Smith.
The lack of leadership is the true problem. When you have no accountability for doing bad things & acting like a whiny douche like Jay Cutler; what’s to make him stop this behavior? Where’s the accountability of being punished for continuously playing terribly? No where! At least in Carolina there is pressure on Delhomme to perform well or be benched as it should be anywhere. You are paid a lot of money to play as a starting QB! This isn’t little league where everyone gets a chance!
Basically, it all dwindles down to the message sent from the top. Shanahan would not take any crap from head cases like Shannon Sharpe, Brandon Marshall or Cutler. And they respected him. How the hell can anyone respect Lovie? He doesn’t do anything! Tommie Harris gets ejected & there are no consequences for his actions! He also as coach & Defensive Coordinator doesn’t change failed plays & continues to executive them despite the constant failure. Everything he does (or doesn’t do for that matter) is the definition of world’s worst leader.
Obviously, fine, Jay Cutler is a selfish tool but it’s the coach’s job to punish a player to put him in line to be a team player. There are plenty of hot headed arrogant QBs but when push comes to shove; they are all team players. Cutler is truly the first in years to behave this way & obviously it has everything to do with the fact that he can get away with it. Lovie kisses this kid’s ass & is more of his cheerleader! He doesn’t even care when he performs badly.
When have they worked with Cutler (if ever) after a bad game? This week with Minnesota you could tell Lovie didn’t even bother to prepare his team at all! Then you have Lovie’s other ‘boyfriend’ Charles Tillman. For the most part over the last 3 years, Tillman has proven himself to be the worst CB in the entire NFL. Nobody is slower in coverage against WRs, trips over his own feet more, always runs the opposite way of the WR & consistently performs worse than Tillman! But Lovie won’t bench him!
In fact they drafted a CB who proved to be faster & better at running routes! Does Lovie use him at all? NO! Then you have Corey Graham who is a better CB than Bowman & Vasher & Lovie plays him out of position. The terrible secondary issues are what caused the multiple blown leads last year. That’s why it made no sense in trading for a QB. That was not the problem last year; it was the defense.
Lovie’s solution is don’t fix the problem but attempt to improve something that wasn’t the problem to begin with & give up draft picks for 2 years! One idiotic decision after another & an execution of the worst leadership ever has led up to this season which is a probable 6-10 finish. It’s all on Lovie Smith!
It’s not a coincidence that the Bears haven’t made the playoffs since Ron Rivera was let go & that the Chargers have not been winless in the playoffs since getting him. The worst thing the NFL ever did was giving that moron (Lovie Smith) coach of the year. They should give it to coordinators who carry the team. The Bears won in spite of a coach who was obsessed with starting the worst QB ever. There were games when the defense did all the scoring. As a matter of fact between the special teams with Hester’s brilliant rookie year & the takeaways by the defense it was all done on the other side.
Lovie (like now) ran a crappy team & Rivera carried his ass! Lovie wanted to prove he could run the defense. What he has proven since 2007 is that he flat out sucks! I swear the day he’s fired will be as happy as the day the Bears won the NFC Title for me. He is a disgrace to the Halas legacy & it’s an insult that he still holds that job urinating on it! The time is now to fire the Bears worst coach ever & sign a legit head coach & not another hack coordinator!
Brian Dawkins signed with Broncos thinking the team was making a concerted effort to compete. His addition sured up a lackluster defense that would compliment a young, explosive offense. A few weeks later and they've traded their franchise quarterback and are preparing for a mini-camp QB battle between....wait for it....Kyle Orton and Chris Simms. Not exactly what the future HOFer signed on for in his last few seasons.
This week, as college standouts showcase their talents before pro scouts at the NFL Combine, players of all skill levels hope to raise their draft stock and secure the lucrative contracts that come with playing in country's premiere sports league. This is a far cry from the practices that accompanied the golden years of professional football, when it was still struggling against baseball, boxing and horse racing for both legitimacy and the public's attention.
One man in that era (along with those associated with his stardom) helped shape the League as we know it today, by transforming both the college and pro game and its perception with the public.
Harold "Red" Grange is considered the greatest college football player who ever lived. While "Western" football was looked at as far inferior to the Ivys of the East, the Illinois standout legitimized the sport as one that appealed beyond the silver-spooned campuses of Yale, Penn and Princeton and paved the way for programs in the Midwest to showcase some of the country's best talent.
Known for his effortless gait, the Galloping Ghost's legacy is one that has rarely been looked at in depth, despite his unprecedented contributions to the game. At a time when most college players, especially superstars, capitalized on their stardom by forgoing the stigmatic notion of turning pro in favor of a white collar desk job, Grange's decision to sign with the Chicago Bears turned the college football community on its head. With Grange bringing tens of thousands of fans to pro stadiums across the country, he created a frenzied rush by other teams to emulate the Bears' model of signing and showcasing a major entertainment attraction.
Grange wasn't alone. His chief confidant-turned-agent, a noted con man named C.C. Pyle, saw the potential that the floundering NFL had, and flaunted it to his and his client's financial benefit (as well as that of NFL owners...when Grange was in town, at least).
It came a cost. Literally fresh off his college season, Pyle booked the Ghost and his Bears on a grueling nationwide barnstorming tour that often had the team playing 2-3 games a week.
While his health, and subsequently performance, suffered, Grange was still a box office hit, as fans clamored to witness the rumored legend that was so eloquently painted by respected sports writers of the day.
We recently caught up with the author to discuss his book.
HuggingHaroldReynolds: Red Grange is widely considered the greatest college football player ever and is often credited with legitimizing the professional game. Yet, until your latest biography on him, few major accounts of his life have been published. Why are football's golden years and its players often overlooked, and what made you decide to fill the void and pen a piece on the Galloping Ghost?
Gary Andrew Poole: Football hasn't always been a super-popular subject. Of course, there have been some excellent books written about football, but the publishing industry considered it a second-tier category in the sports genre. Baseball, golf and even boxing have traditionally dominated the sports bookshelf. (There is a cottage industry in Babe Ruth biographies.) But football has become our national game so there is more interest in it from publishers, authors, and readers. I have noticed that more quality football titles have been written over the last couple years. You can look at last fall in which a whole bunch of football books were released, including Jeff Pearlman's Boys Will Be Boys and Michael Rosenberg's War As They Knew It. Many of the books have been about more recent history. I thought there was a real gap in books about the early history of the game. I was shocked that no major publisher had tackled the Grange story. Not only did I think there was a great narrative to tell, I thought Grange--the Babe Ruth of football--was an overlooked figure. Many people consider Grange the most important figure in football, both college and pro; ESPN named him the greatest ever college football player; he was America's first national football hero and thanks to his charismatic and conniving manager, he was America's first sports commodity as well. I just thought there needed to be a major biography of this guy.
You also asked about why football of this era gets overlooked. Baseball, boxing, and just about every other major sport, haven't drastically changed over the years, but football looks much different. Baseball--minus the steroids era--is pretty much the same game that was played in the 1920s. But football was a radically different game in the 1920s. At its highest levels it was an exciting game, but it was more of an endurance sport (players often played the whole game, offense and defense); passing was a smaller element because the ball was wider and more difficult to throw; and kicking played into strategy much more (it wasn't unusual to punt on first down to backup your opponent). I wanted to give people a context to appreciate it, and to understand how football has evolved. It is virtually impossible to compare statistics and there isn't much film footage, even of Grange, the greatest player of that era. Through my book's narrative, I try and give modern readers a sense of the game, and the drama playing on and off the field.
HHR: Illinois coach Bob Zuppke essentially rolled the dice in terms of recruiting given his aversion to many of the practices and because of his own personal philosophies, and almost missed out in landing Grange. Had Grange not gone to his home-state university, would history have been different and what is that chance that the football world would have missed out on one of its greatest talents?
GAP: That's a hell of a tough question. Along with Michigan's Fielding Yost and Notre Dame's Knute Rockne, Bob Zuppke was one of that era's greatest coaches. He was very creative and invented the "flea flicker," among other plays. He was also more than willing to pass the ball, which was looked upon as pretty crazy back in that era. Grange really thrived under Zuppke, and in turn Zup's reputation was forever tied to Grange's success, but Zup couldn't lower himself to beg a 17-year-old kid to play football for Illinois. He would have been embarrassed to act like Lane Kiffen, Charlie Weiss, Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll or other modern coaches as they glad-hand a high school kid...If Zup could have watched modern recruiting practices he would puke. Zuppke saw football as a way to learn discipline and leadership, and he believed that playing football at a university was an honor; football was a maker of men, not an end to itself. After his last college game, Grange decided to turn pro, which was shocking to Zuppke and the rest of the college football establishment. Zuppke, a surrogate father to Grange, was upset and didn't really talk with his greatest pupil for a couple years.
Would history be different without the Zuppke-Grange partnership? Zup would devise his whole game plan around Grange, and he was also very good at motivating the Galloping Ghost. So I don't know. If Grange would have gone to Michigan or Notre Dame, he might have had more consistently good players around him, but he would have been in much more plodding offenses...Zuppke and Grange formed a perfect storm: Zuppke's creativity as a coach, and Grange's creativity as a runner. But no matter where Grange played, I am guessing he would have excelled. In several of his greatest games, he almost single-handedly won the contests. Grange would have a terrible team around him and he was still able to dominate and even astonish some of the best teams in the country. Those games, in which Grange had to overcome great adversity, created his legend.
HHR: C.C. Pyle is painted throughout the book as a con-man. While the physical ramifications of Grange's career have undoubtedly been negatively affected by their association, has Grange's reputation and legacy at all been tarnished by Pyle's involvement?
GAP: Maybe Pyle hurt Grange's reputation, for a time, back in the 1920s, but Pyle was his own force of nature and I think the public came to realize that Grange had benefited from the relationship in many ways. I think the public simply saw Grange as naïve.
HHR: Despite his unsavory ways, Pyle in many ways can be credited as being one of the innovators who helped shape both the game as we know it today, as well as the role agents have taken in modern sports. Can you elaborate?
GAP: Many people see Pyle as a conman and I go to great lengths to narrate his rather dubious dealings, but I also see Pyle as a creative force, and an overlooked figure in sports history. He was Grange’s Col. Parker (i.e. Elvis’ manager). It was Pyle's plan to make Grange into a pro, which was outlandish in the 1920s because pro football was a joke. Pyle also realized that marketing the pro game and creating stars resonated with the public. Pyle was an entertainer, an old vaudeville guy who had many connections in Hollywood. He understood the power of movies, sports imagery, and the press, and he had the smarts to create schemes for Grange, many of which vaulted Grange from great college football player to cultural icon. Without Pyle, Grange might have been remembered as a great college player, but nothing more. For better or worse, he paved the way for Drew Rosenhaus and his ilk.
Photo: Pro Football HoF Grange signing pro contract with Bears co-owners Edward Sternaman and George Halas (left) and Grange's manager C.C. Pyle (right).
HHR: A handful of East Coast sports writers played a large role in legitimizing the pro game by bringing it to the masses. Luckily, in their eyes, Red lived up to expectations. Had Grange not performed the way he had in the Illinois-Penn game, how different a course would the sport have taken?
GAP: Let me give the HHR readers a little context. Back in 1925, Illinois went to Philly to play the University of Pennsylvania. Penn was considered a national championship contender (the national title nonsense was as big a clusterf*!k back in the '20s as it is today). Except for Red Grange, Illinois was not a very good team. Penn was expecting to rout the Illini. All of the big time New York writers came to Philly to watch the contest. They were half-expecting to see Grange fall on his face, but he single-handedly took over the game and ran for 363 yards and three touchdowns. They were astonished. He already had a national reputation but playing on the East Coast and dominating a great team made him into the equivalent of Babe Ruth, and in fact many of the writers were saying he was more popular than Ruth. The florid writing and the newsreels featuring Grange made him into a demi-god.
Then Grange decided to turn pro. This move was greeted with great skepticism by the press, but fans loved the idea. In the 1920s, many people worked on Saturdays and it wasn't always easy to get tickets to college games—the tickets were expensive, and many people were living in cities so getting to a place like South Bend, Indiana wasn't always so easy. Grange took the game to people and they gobbled it up. He went on a nation-wide barnstorming tour and he sold out games in Chicago, New York, Boston, D.C., Tampa, New Orleans, Los Angeles...everywhere. The football wasn't always so great because Grange and his teammates were playing several games a week but Grange's tour helped legitimize the game. The media was tracking Grange across the country, and after the tour he starred in a movie and endorsed many products, and then tried to break the NFL by starting his own league. He was quite powerful and popular. He became exceedingly rich through pro football in a time in which most players were making $200 a game. Pro football would have eventually become more popular, I am guessing, but Grange really jumpstarted the pro game and created legitimacy, not only with fans but players. He made it ok for a college player to join the pros. George Halas said what television is to the modern era, Grange was to the earlier era.
Just to give readers a little more context, the great sportswriter W.C. Heinz wrote a profile of Grange in 1958, and I think it personifies an older generation’s awe of The Galloping Ghost.
“When I was ten years old I paid ten cents to see Red Grange run with a football. That was the year when, one afternoon a week, after school was out for the day, they used to show us movies in the auditorium, and we would all troop up there clutching our dimes, nickels or pennies in our fists.
“The movies were, I suppose, carefully selected for their educational value…but I remember only the one about Grange.
“I remember, in fact, only one shot. Grange, the football cradled in one arm, started down the field toward us. As we sat there in the dim, flickering light of the movie projector, he grew larger and larger. I can still see the rows and rows of us, with our thin little necks and bony heads, all looking up at the screen and Grange, enormous now, rushing right at us, and I shall never forget it. That was thirty-three years ago.”
HHR: As a journalist, what is your impression of (and perhaps appreciation for) the poetic nature journalists in the 20's portrayed athletes in the absence of 24/7 televised coverage, and ultimately in helping modern historians to piece together facts? Is the notion that many of them protected athletes by glossing over unsavory facts hurt their credibility, especially as we witness the opposite extreme today? Were they preserving or forging facts/reality?
GAP: I actually wrote an essay about this same subject in the Columbia Journalism Review (January/February issue); the article-- Back to the Future: How sports writing can recapture its relevance-- delves into the history of sport writing, the impact of the Web and blogs, and how modern sports writing could be better.
But to directly answer your question: Some of the story leads went over-the-top but when you get into the guts of many of the game stories, there is an enormous amount of reporting and wonderfully rendered detail. Did they protect athletes? To some degree. But I wouldn't simply categorize it as glossing over unsavory facts; I don't think the sports writers were blindly protecting athletes. Remember, a lot of these sports writers had been in World War I, child mortality rates were higher, life was harsher...Sports were seen as games, as a relief from the struggles of life. There was a maturity and perspective on sports. We live in a different era, and sports and athletes are taken more seriously. Did 1920s writers gloss over too much? Perhaps, or maybe they had a more realistic view of human nature and a more mature perspective. As our society has become more educated and softer and athletes have become richer and treated as outsiders, we have taken a harsher, more adversarial, and cynical view of athletics.
But I don't think the writers ignored everything. Grange allegedly had a kid out of wedlock and the writers wrote about it; they talked about his pathetic vaudeville act when he was gong broke; when he was playing terribly and a member of his entourage started a riot in the stands, the press talked about it. I spent three years reading newspaper articles of the early era of sports writing. There is a stereotype that sports writers were protecting everyone and I just don't think that rings true. Some of the writers were pretty damn harsh. Like in any era, there is good writing and bad writing/good reporting and bad reporting, but in the earlier era there was a maturity level; a sense of human nature, its glories and foibles. Sports is an important subject and it deserves dogged reporting. But in modern journalism an athlete will be caught doing some nefarious act and the foaming-at-the-mouth tone demonstrated by the press often seems ridiculous, false, hypocritical, and rather immature to me.
By the way in the researching and writing of my book I didn't rely simply on newspaper accounts. I decided to take a modern approach to my subject and dig deeper than my 1920s compatriots. It was an exhaustive effort. To give events more perspective, I dug up courts records, police reports, oral histories, etc. from the 1920s. I didn't want to write a love letter to Grange and the era; I wanted to write a real story. For example, I spent a year finding Grange's "illegitimate" daughter. So I used newspaper accounts in my book, but I always tried to double-check the journalists of the day with primary sources, as well.
HHR: With the uncertainty of professional football in the 20's, Grange's dive into the pros was a calculated gamble to capitalize on both his popularity and physical ability. Had he and Pyle not taken the path they chose, between the barnstorming and the ramped up publicity machine, how long would it have taken the NFL's founding fathers, most of whom were football purists despite the knocks on the pro game, to realize the commercial appeal and marketability of the stars?
GAP: Pre-Grange, the NFL was doing ok: a few thousand people would come to the games. Grange joined the NFL and Pyle promoted him like crazy. People came in droves to watch Grange and he sold out stadiums all over the country. The next season the NFL owners were promoting individual stars. But I think they would have figured it out eventually.
HHR: Throughout the book, Grange is put on the same Mount Rushmore of sports with Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and Bobby Jones. For the benefit of our young readers, is there any modern day athlete whose impact and ability can be most likened to Red?
GAP: In his glory days, he was the kind of guy people had to see. He brought drama to the game. He seemed to always perform in the clutch. He was a Tiger Woods- like figure.
HHR: Your website is brilliant and vibrant. Tell us a little about your podcast, some of your other projects and what's next for GAP.
GAP: Thanks. We worked hard on it, and I really hope people check it out, particularly the Experience section of the site. As for my podcast, it mostly has interviews with me on my book tour, but I am hoping to put more on it--interviews and essays--in the near future. I also have a blog. It is called In The Fray and I typically highlight great sports writing, post commentary, and write some other observations. For the last several months it has become a chronicle of my book tour, but I am phasing out the navel-gazing and getting back to its original mission. As for other projects, I am working on some articles, and I am also working on a new book proposal, which is another sports book but set in modern times.
As you may or may not follow, SI.com has dispatched "10 writers to report on the 32 NFL training camps across the country" and is featuring their reports throughout August in their Training Camp Postcard segment.
Here at HHR, we prefer to look at actual postcards sent by players to their loved ones, as opposed to Peter King drivel.
Today, we take a look at what's going on in , WI (Packers), Mankato, MN (Vikings), Bourbonnais, IL (Bears) and Allen Park, MI (Lions) from a player's perspective. To See the Complete Parts 1-8, Click Here.
The SF Chronicle's Ray Ratto was a guest today on Jim Rome Is Burning's Forum. And while his mouth was talking about Brett Favre and the Pack, I have no doubt in my mind that the only thing running through his brat-fattened head was...
"Daaaaaaaa Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears da Bears."
Despite his gaudy statistics at BYU and Super Bowl Championship with the Chicago Bears, Jim McMahon was most known around football circles for his ability to clear a bathroom.
Like most lists, this one was a little predictable, but I can't say I'd argue with the inclusions.
Believe me, I would have busted heads, if my boy $hamrock was on it.
Here's what the Music Blog's Rob O'Connor had to say about our Athlete/"Entertainers": 25) Chicago Bears: The Chicago Bears are a professional football team based in Chicago, Illinois. In 1985, before winning the Super Bowl they daringly commemorated their proud achievement with "The Super Bowl Shuffle," a rap tune that made this group of on the field tough guys look like an ineffective glee club. Did they really psych out their opponents with this? So why didn't they record a follow-up? They didn't win the Super Bowl the next year. Honorable mention goes to the Miami Dolphins, the San Francisco 49ers, the L.A. Raiders, the Cincinnati Bengals and the L.A. Rams, other football teams who couldn't resist the urge to kick back a few beats and look more than a little silly.
11) Shaquille O'Neal: Now I love watching Shaq stand over the basketball net and push the ball in with his hand. Being 12 feet tall has its advantages. Rapping isn't one of them. It doesn't make you sound better. If a midget like the Geto Boys' Bushwick Bill can get it so right, how is it that Shaq could get it so wrong? Well, as Bushwick would tell you "Size Ain't (expletive deleted)." Sure he can wax personal "Biological Didn't Bother" but bad puns like "Can't Stop the Reign" and "Blaq Supaman" (that's not even a pun, that's goofy spelling) just don't quite match up to what he's capable of on the basketball courts.
WREX-TV reports that on Saturday, February 23, former Chicago Bear and Four Horseman Steve "Mongo" McMichael will be taking on former Green Bay Packers defensive back Sammy Walker in a kickboxing match at something called the "Rockford Rumble."
Mongo's not holding back any punches: "I have to explain this all the time to Bears fans in Chicago who are disgruntled that I went to Green Bay my last year. I'll explain it to you like this, my whole career, I was 16-6 against the Packers, so I whipped them right. And in my last year, I went up there on my last leg, stole their money. whipped them again. That's how I feel about the Packers."
Then again, he's no stranger to fighting words. Here he is with ex-wife (and Stone Cold ex/punching bag) Debra and former stable-mate, the infamous Crippler Chris Benoit. If that's the company he keeps, Walker better watch his ass.
Apparently, Mongo coaches in something called the "Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL)" for something called the "Chicago Slaughter."
Mongo added, "There's three reasons I'm doing this. One, you see this logo right here. We're going to be playing the Rock River Raptors this year in the CIFL league right here in this stadium. Whoop some more butt then. That's the first one. The second one is, they didn't call me Mongo for nothing. I like to whoop some butt. The third reason is, everybody congratulate me, yesterday was my three year old little girls birthday."
Apparently, Mongo is heavily inspired by "butt" and picks fights to celebrate his three year old girl's birthday. What a dad!
Former NFL player Todd Burger was one of five men arrested over the weekend in a bust of an alleged Internet gambling operation.
Burger, who played guard for the Chicago Bears and the New York Jets, allegedly collected gambling debts for suspect Anthony "Cheese" Pecoraro.
Upon learning Burger worked below Cheese in this alleged scheme, an HHR contact in the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office and New Jersey State Police leaked us this diagram of the complex organized crime ring:
The same source divulged that Anthony "Weiner" Alphonso and his brothers Santino and Salvatore served as bag men along with Freddie "Pickles" Muccerelli.
(Doesn't quite have the same ring as the "700 Level" does it?)
Pre-game.
4:15 game and our host and chauffeur Kato has a penchant for buggery. Needless to say we understood that by accepting free tickets from Kato, at some point before, after or during the game we would end up at a gentleman's club. We also had a hunch that he didn't really have tickets and that he was going to end up at an unsavory establishment to watch the game. So before we left we made sure he showed us the tickets.
We roll into Philly around 1 and despite CBass having a nice set-up with plenty of food and drink at his usual spot at FDR Park since 9 AM, Kato wants to start the afternoon off "right," so we head to Gentleman's Club 1 (GC1) to kick things off. To Kato's dismay, the club is closed at 1 PM, just as the early NFL games are starting. GC1 opens at 3. This does not sit well with Kato. The entrepreneur he is relentlessly tells us of all the money GC1 is losing out on.
So with a 30 pack in tow, we head to Gentleman's Club 2 (GC2), a BYOB. While the sex shop is open, this club too is closed. Kato is not happy. So eventually we make it to Gentleman's Club 3 in time to catch a couple of Brady TDs. We stay only for about 2 beers, but Kato is happy he got his fill.
(In Kato's defense, maybe he was just offering a public service. Afterall, it is breast cancer awareness month, and he did spend the entire day offering free exams. In his honor I bought Ariel a pink Eagles "tit hat" (Kato's words not HHR, the NFL or the Philadelphia Eagles').
Game-Time.
Where to begin? Observation #1 - the Eagles are not a very good football team. The fans hate the coach, the quarterback, the punter and the wide receivers.
A girl in our section is wearing a Devon Hester jersey, and the first few times she walks up and down the aisle it was simple boos, hisses and harrumphs directed at her.
Eventually it got to the point of one fella kept screaming at her the following (loud and angry):
"You suck. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hope you trip and fall down the steps and kill yourself."
Class act.
Two of the best throwback jerseys were in our group. Kato had a green Seth Joyner jersey while the Mad Dog had a UNLV Cunningham one on.
Others of note: Wes Hopkins, Herchell Walker, Andy Harmon, Ivring Fryer and Ike Reese.
Someone actually showed up wearing a Ricky Watters jersey (for who? for what?).
(Ariel notes: "There is always someone with a Watters jersey, same with Mamula." I told her there was a Mamula jersey in our section, but I wasn't sure if it was meant to be a joke. Ariel said, "No it's just been 12 years since they last shelled out dough for a jersey.")
Kato says next time he's putting everyone to shame and showing up donning Timmy Hauck.
When 3 teenagers show up wearing Wilbert Mongomery jerseys, I have to start questioning the whole fad. 1 Montgomery jersey is plenty in the stadium. It's unique. But when 20 people in the section are sporting Montgomery, Jaws and Charmichael, it's too much. I'll give the Papale fans a pass. For now.
I won't bore you with insight into the game, because I'll be spewing the same 'can't score in the red zone, can't hit open receivers, run too little, can't catch a pass, Brian f'n Griese drove 97 yards with no timeouts in under two minutes.'
Flipping back and forth between WYSP and WIP post-game I think the general consensus and the most logical explanations/conclusions/grumblings are multi-tiered:
1. The current receiving corp is much better than the days of Charles Johnson, Torrence Small, Pinkston and Thrash. Particularly with the latter two, fans are torn between two things - first, wondering how we could win with them but not with the current crop; and second, if the receivers are the problem, why is it continually not addressed? Which brings us to...
2. If for the sake of argument the receiving corp is better, the issue is that the quarterback is not the same player that could elevate those around him and make the system work. Bringing us to...
3. The system. The coach built the system around #5. If #5 is not the same player he was even 3 years ago, the system is not going to work the way it did 3 years ago.
For all intents and purposes the season is done. One more "next year" to look forward to. The Cowboys, Giants and Redskins continue to pull away. The schedule doesn't look to get much easier and reaching .500 is as much of a stretch as reaching the playoffs.
There is not all bitterness in Philadelphia. Say what you will about Philadelphia fans, but they love America. Even if they hate sleeves.
Madden's in the tank. You might as well join him. While Madden doesn't need beer goggles to ogle over Brett, you do.
Pre-gaming the Pregame
Finish a beer if any of the highlights of the day's games:
caused you to lose money
knocked you out of a suicide pool
ruined your fantasy week
One drink for every minute of a pregame Brett Favre career highlight package
Drink once for every mention of Favre breaking the TD record
Drink once for anyone in studio mentioning they played against Brett Favre
Finish a beer if it's really Ronde and not Tiki in studio.
Once sip for every "This is our country" commercial BEFORE the game. (I am going easy on that, I don't want anybody s-faced before the game even starts.)
The Beer Half
If Madden compares another QB to favre, drink once
If that same QB is on the Bears roster, laugh , then drink three
If Brett Favre says the name John Madden, finish your beer while
Madden finds a change of pants
One chug for every year Madden or Michaels speculates Favre will play
If they end the sentence with "who knows how long he will go" finish the beer
One sip for any mention of Mississippi
One chug for every shot of Grossman on the sideline
One chug for every time Griese is on camera (just to catch up to him- he is 3 beers ahead already)
One sip if favre "still plays like he is (insert age)"
Shotgun a beer for any Packers running back who rushes for over 50 yards
Drink once for the term "gunslinger"
Drink once for a John Wayne comparision
Finish the beer for those two in the same sentence, finish two beers if they are back to back in a sentence...example "He has always been a John Wayne, gunslinger"
Shotgun a beer if John Madden does a Frank Caliendo impersonation.
Halftime
If Collinsworth fake laughs at Olberman because the joke went over his head, you don't have to drink, because you didn't get it either
The hard stuff second half- (alcohol of choice)
One shot for a Devin Hester run back
If the Packers are losing, one shot for every forced Brett Favre throw or INT
If they are winning, same thing, because he plays the same either way
Just follow half one rules and be glad you made it through without punching your TV
I was but a pre-teen in the 80’s. As the 90’s came and high school began and nostalgia kicked in, outside of my beloved Philadelphia Eagles, there wasn’t much cooler from the Reagan era than the’85 Bears, widely regarded as the greatest team to ever step on the gridiron. 
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