First of all, Wayne Fontes is still the coach of the Lions. I don't fire him. You don't fire him. All the pundits on radio and TV don't fire him. That task is for someone named Ford, and if you go by the history of that name and this team, well, there's no telling what might happen.But just as we do our Christmas shopping early for a holiday that is still weeks off, perhaps the Fords already are thinking about a new man for the job, even though the current coach has three games left to endure, er, play.
In March of 1995, a limousine carrying Ted Koppel, the host of ABC-TV's "Nightline," pulled up to the snow-covered curb outside Morrie's house in West Newton, Massachusetts.Morrie was in a wheelchair full-time now, getting used to helpers lifting him like a heavy sack from the chair to the bed and the bed to the chair. He had begun to cough while eating, and chewing was a chore. His legs were dead; he would never walk again.
When Connie Chung was given one of the most powerful jobs in America, she didn't ask questions. She took it. She didn't care that she was made coanchor of the CBS Evening News mostly because CBS wanted to beat NBC to the punch of hiring a woman. She never said, "That's the wrong reason to hire me."Ratings were at stake. She took advantage.
GRANDPA'S HOUSE, THE YEAR 2035 -- The old man put his grandson on his knee and opened a dusty scrapbook."Who's that, Grandpa?" the child asked."That's the greatest quarterback I ever saw," the old man said. "His name was John Elway.""Where's his rocket booster?"
CHICAGO -- Barry Sanders, maybe the best running back in the history of the game, was stuck in the corner with camera lights blinding his eyes. He looked down. He mumbled his answers. For every time he mentioned "pride," he mentioned "disappointment." For every time he said "honor," he said "frustration." He sniffed between questions and pulled on his neck, as if coaxing the words up through his throat. He never smiled.
News media reports indicate that apathy is at an all-time high in our country, and that small percentages of the voters are actually planning to go to the booths today. Six years ago, I wrote the following poem about apathy. The Free Press reran it before the 1996 presidential election. And it still rings true today on the cusp of another election.I heard a knock upon my doorAnd opened it to seeAll the poor around the worldLooking back at meIn tattered clothes and worn-out shoesWith families to feed,They held their hands out, hopefully,
HOUSTON -- Let's not say the stadium was empty. Let's just say that if you were sitting behind one end zone, and the hot dog guy was clear across the other end zone, all you had to do was yell, "Sir? When you get a chance?"
The sports world is full of errors in judgment: The Lions drafting Andre Ware, World Team Tennis, Fox creating a blue puck.Still, lately it seems like a plague of bad decisions has infected sports, and it's even worse than usual. For example:OLIVER McCALL VS. LENNOX LEWISA couple of years ago, Don King was talking about one of his fighters. He couldn't remember his name, so he said, "Who's that junkie I got?"
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.
