In 1972 (before many of you were born), Miami Dolphins starting QB Bob Griese broke his leg while playing against the San Diego Chargers in the fifth game of the season. His backup Earl Morrall came off the bench and completed 8 of 10 passes, throwing for 2 touchdowns as well. Over the next ten weeks, Morrall proceeded to complete 83 of 150 passes for 1,360 yards and 11 touchdowns, continuing the Dolphins winning streak while Griese's leg healed. Morrall led the Dolphins to nine more regular season wins and victory in the AFC semi-final game before Griese returned for the AFC Championship and then the Super Bowl. Earl Morrall even looked old in 1965 Morrall had a reputation as a clutch player. Two years earlier, he had come off the bench in relief of injured Johnny Unitas and led the Colts to victory in Super Bowl V, but he wasn't a guy who was going to light up the scoreboard, even though he could throw the ball to Hall of Fame wide receiver Paul Warfield or tight end Jim Mandich, who averaged one touchdown for every fifth catch that season. Miami had an awesome running attack led by Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick, and Eugene "Mercury" Morris. They just didn't need to throw the ball very often. Their defense became known as the "No-Name" defense, anchored by NFL Hall of Fame defensive lineman Bill Stanfill and Super Bowl MVP safety Jake Scott, both outstanding former Georgia Bulldogs. The No-Name defense earned its moniker from Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry because their high-powered offense received so much more publicity. In a fourteen game regular season, Miami … [Read more...]
A solution to the NCAA problem
The NCAA has a fairly serious problem, but I have an idea about how to fix it. I am a fan of college football. Specifically, I am a Georgia Bulldog. Yesterday, my favorite team won an exciting Peach Bowl game against the University of Cincinnati Bearcats on a last second field goal. If Cincinnati had won the game, pundits would have been called a stunning victory. However, Bulldog fans had a valid excuse ready if we'd lost--a number of NFL draft-eligible "star" players chose not to play in the game, Now if Georgia had been contending for a national championship, it is far more likely that Eric Stokes, Ben Cleveland, Monty Rice, and other starting players who skipped the game would have been on the field. While many fans complain about these players missing a football game due to fear of injury, I would like to remind the complainers of the serious injuries suffered by the great South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore, or more recently, the serious knee injury to Miami QB D'Eriq King in the 2020 Cheezit Bowl. Those two examples prove the players have a valid concern, but there is a third injured player whose name I'll never forget: Devon Gales, the inspiring young player from Southern University tragically paralyzed in Sanford Stadium while blocking on a kickoff return against the Bulldogs. The NCAA is a very wealthy organization. There is a lot of money involved in college sports, especially college football, and players have demanded they get paid to play. The counterargument to their demand has historically been to point to the value of a college … [Read more...]
Do All Black Lives Matter?
Do all black lives matter, according to the protestors? Or only some? Do white lives ever matter? Asking for a friend…which happens to be me. My life matters to me. Call me selfish if you want, but it's true. Nobody wants to be a victim. Though I've accepted the idea that I'm going to die one day, all things being equal, I'd rather not die today. Several decades from now, preferably in my sleep, would be my preference, but we don't always get to choose when and how we die. I think it's safe to say nobody would choose to die lying on a street with someone's knee on their neck. With the possible exception of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and his three fellow officers on the scene, it would appear safe to say we can all agree that George Floyd’s life mattered. His life ended much too quickly and violently for an overwhelming majority of Americans. Most of us have seen the video; we’ve felt helpless outrage from seeing the life of a human being so perniciously ended by law enforcement for no justifiable reason. It was awful. Outrageous. Way beyond the pale. It's like Selma all over again, if you believe the movies (I'm not old enough to remember the news coverage of Selma.) It's like looking at a picture of Emmett Till's mutilated body and realizing that's the butchered corpse of a child. If you could watch a video of George Floyd's "arrest" and think what was happening was perfectly all right, I'm going to offend you by saying there is something really wrong with you. While it may be debatable whether or not the suspicion of … [Read more...]
(It’s not) The End of the World as We Know It
Remember seeing these guys at Tyrone's for a $1 cover charge? I am being half-serious when I say it might be my fault that the Georgia Bulldogs lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks last Saturday between the hedges in Athens, Georgia so if you really feel the need to vent your anger at somebody, you can direct it at me. By my own estimation, I committed the cardinal sin of any true Dawg fan (and especially an alumnus) of the University of Georgia--I took a game against an SEC opponent for granted. I was so sure that Georgia would easily win the game that I decided to leave for Savannah and listen on the radio instead of watching it at home, as I normally would. Because I'm old enough to remember the pure joy as a child of listening to Larry Munson's famous call of the 80-yard touchdown pass from tight end Richard Appleby to wide receiver Gene Washington on the "end around" pass, the idea of listening to the game "live" and then watching the highlights on replay had some appeal to me. I guess I was feeling a little bit nostalgic. The bottom line is that I had a choice, and in retrospect I chose unwisely. I probably should have stayed home and watched the game, and drove to Savannah later that night. Should have, would have, could have. I should have known better. Because I have played sports myself for much of my life, I've always been a little superstitious about sticking to a routine on Game Day. On the other hand, sometimes you just have to accept that some things are a little more important than who wins or loses a football game and it's important to keep our … [Read more...]
When snowflakes melt
I have this serious love/hate relationship with social media. I love staying in contact with family and friends scattered all over the world. But social media can be a horrific waste of my time, and I don't think of myself as retired or ready to die. As the poet Robert Frost famously wrote, "But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." I am self-employed as a writer. If I don't sell a book or a short story, I don't earn any income. If I waste hours upon hours each day engaged in asinine, juvenile arguments with presumably adult men and women about religion, politics, or Georgia Bulldog football, I'm wasting hours of precious time that should be dedicated to my work. Earlier this year I threatened to quit Facebook entirely, having purged my Twitter account, with the idea that I would focus all of my attention on professional work, instead of writing for fun or worse, arguing with somebody who has assumed they know more about a subject than I do. However, publishers in this digital era of mass communications expect writers to develop and maintain a social media presence. To my eternal surprise, my wife also opposed a permanent self-imposed ban from Facebook, even though I did manage to delete my membership from all the large forums where most of the arguments seemed to take place. This left me in a bit of a quandary. Could I remain on social media, without getting sucked into a black hole of absurd arguments? The challenge may not be insurmountable, but it has certainly proved to be formidable. Today has been a prime example of why I "hate" … [Read more...]
