BOBBY Ross walked into the locker room and asked the players to listen up. They didn't know it, but he already had resigned, already had told management he couldn't do the job anymore, that his body, spirit and tolerance were spent.Yet as the players looked up, Ross first took care of housekeeping. He reminded them of a banquet they had to attend Monday evening. He reminded them to lift weights, start thinking about the next game, Sunday against Atlanta.Only then, with the small details attended to, did he clear his throat.And told them he was quitting.
What if Terri could talk?What if, for five minutes, Terri Schiavo came out of the vegetative state she has lived in for 13 years, and said what she was thinking, not what others were thinking for her?Would she smile at her husband, Michael, and say, "Thank you for defending my wish to die. Let me go. It's what I want."Or would she scowl and say, "How could you? I'm your wife. You'd let me die? What if they find a cure?"
Idon't want to burst any bubbles here, but if Barry Sanders' father has to make an appointment to talk to his son, just how influential can he be?I mean, imagine the big "showdown" this weekend.DAD: Barry, I'm here. Let's talk.BARRY: And your name is ...?Believe me, all this entire sad affair proves, once again, is when they say it's not about the money, it's about the money.
I find him in the basement of a Miami baseball stadium. He is sitting at a desk, in a cloud of cigar smoke, talking on the phone."So you'll take him?" The Dump Man says into the receiver. "Great. I'll send over the paperwork ...uh-huh ...ciao."He hangs up the phone."We just dumped Kevin Brown," he says, crossing a name off a list."Kevin Brown?" I say. "The ace of the Marlins?""You got it.""The guy who helped win the World Series?""The one and only.""But why would you dump Kevin Brown? He's a local hero. He's a champion."
TO: Baby Girl YzermanRE: Your birthday messageDear Newborn,By the time you are old enough to read this, many things will have changed. We'll be in another century. We'll have a new president. We might even have stopped going to see "Titanic."Also, by the time you're old enough to read this, your father might not be playing hockey anymore. He might be retired, living a quiet life with you and your mother and your older sister, polishing his Stanley Cup ring (or rings), getting on with a new career.
* DALLAS 21, WASHINGTON 10: He missed the kick! He missed the kick! Oh. Sorry. I'm still a little revved up from Monday night's Lions game. Pick vs. spread: Washington.* NEW ORLEANS 20, PHILADELPHIA 16: In Philly, they're actually getting excited about Rodney Peete as their starting quarterback. This proves that it wasn't just Rocky who took too many shots to the head. Vs. spread: New Orleans.
Look, I'm not trying to make excuses for these guys. But hockey is rough business. The Red Wings need a release. They need to blow off steam. So, OK, maybe it isn't "normal" behavior. But they're big, powerful men. They have to do it. They gotta have it.They need their chess.Chess?"We're into it," admits Darren McCarty.Chess?"Oh, yeah, every chance we get," says Brendan Shanahan.Chess? Chess. On the team plane. In the hotels. In the locker room. Chess. It may be Bobby Orr on the ice, but it's Bobby Fischer everywhere else.
He died quietly, which was not like him, early Sunday in New York City, before sunrise, in the wee hours, when the ratings don't matter. His heart -- which many claimed he never had -- failed him at last.Meanwhile, just a few blocks away, ESPN was preparing for its second full day of NFL draft coverage, over-hyped and over- announced insanity, with the insufferable Mel Kuiper Jr. set to prattle on about split times.No wonder Howard Cosell left us. He probably couldn't stand it anymore.
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.
