TAMPA, Fla. -- Week after week, Wayne Fontes keeps asking why the media can't say something nice about his football team. OK. Here's something nice. Nice collapse, fellas.It's hard to imagine a better nosedive. Losing to Tampa Bay, a team that not only hadn't won a game, but hadn't seen a second-half lead all season? And you lose by 17 points? And you throw the ball just about everywhere but to your receivers?I am impressed.But then, I liked "Cliffhanger."
LILLEHAMMER, Norway -- Although the Winter Olympics have barely begun, we've already had our first major clash. It took place a few days ago, in a packed auditorium, during a press conference. It was not a clash of skis or hockey sticks, but a clash of cultures. In many ways, it set the stage for these Olympics.The focus of that press conference was Norway's Vegard Ulvang, a top cross-country skier and a national hero. Cross- country is to Norway what basketball is to America. Ulvang is hugely famous. When he speaks, people listen.
Hear ye! Hear ye! The nation's first Sports Court is now in session. Step forward, and ye shall be heard. Ye shall be judged. Ye shall be sentenced.And I don't wanna hear any complaints.CASE 1: The people vs. U.S. basketball team.CASE SUMMARY: Tired of no air-conditioning, of spicy food, and of all thatSpanish, the U.S. men's basketball team at the Pan Am Games left the athletes' village in Havana and flew to Miami between games, staying at the exclusive Mayfair House hotel, where rooms cost up to $600 a night and feature
HAMILTON, Ontario -- The funny thing about these Dream Team performances: It's damn hard to tell who won. Is it the team with the long faces, answering questions about a disappointing night? Or the team waving little flags and blowing kisses to its fans?
There is one less tough guy in the world this morning: We buried Eddie yesterday.Even as I write this, I can still see him, punching me in the arm when I was a kid and saying "Put em up, buddy boy" -- then striking a pose like one of those 1920's boxers. I can still feel his steel-hard muscles when he lifted me in the air, and the sandpaper edge of his whiskers when I kissed his cheek.
BARCELONA, Spain -- They come to stare at Ben Johnson now, as if he were a baby in a stroller, only they look at how much smaller he has grown, instead of how much bigger."His torso's half the size!" someone whispers."Look at the arms. Much less definition.""Thighs are shrunken, too."
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- You find me in the basement, under a long-haired wig, strumming a guitar in front of a video camera."What's up?" you ask."WAYNE'S WORLD! WAYNE'S WORLD!""I beg your pardon?" you say.Come on. I am preparing. We all should be preparing. By "we," I mean people who are over 30, and, therefore, soon to be put out to pasture."What are you talking about?" you say."Michigan," I say glumly.
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.
