Football Memories

   I am always amazed that when I say something relevant or interesting about sports, I garner a lot of attention.  For instance, on Thursday, when I was shopping at a grocery store, prior to the onrush of pre-snow storm mobs, I said to my cashier (a capable young man) that I thought it would be fun to see Megatron run around and slip and slide on an icy field.  For those of you who don't know, Megatron is the nickname of the Detroit Lion's great pass catcher Calvin Johnson.  My cashier called over a friend of his and pointed to me, a gray-haired (and old) woman shopper and said with glee, "she knows Megatron."  We then launched into a discussion of the merits and faults of the Eagles and other NFL teams.  There was no winner of this debate because my order was packed and in my cart and the next person in line was already being checked out.

     On many of our 35 trips to Hawaii, we were in Honolulu at the time of the Pro Bowl.  The excitement generated by this game was palpable.  We always bought a Pro Bowl shirt and, when we walked around the streets of Waikiki, we wore either our Pro Bowl jerseys or our Philadelphia Eagles shirts.  One day, a young man came running up to us and said breathlessly, "I'm going to bet on the Pro Bowl.  Who should I pick?"  Unhesitatingly, I answered, "take the points and the over."  We saw him the next day and he thanked us.  He said that he "cleaned up."  And no, he didn't offer and we didn't ask him to share.

     Also at one of the Pro Bowls, was a cheerleader from the San Francisco Forty Niners.  We met her at the Pro Bowl luncheon and, since almost everyone who was there, except me, was male, she sat down next to me at the table.  Edgar didn't mind.  He was on the other side of me.  It turns out, she was a graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, went to Pensacola, FL for training, and became a top gun.  Better than the male students who came from all over the world.  I asked her what she was flying then, and she said a P-3.  That's the plane with the radar umbrella over it.  I whispered "you're a spy," and she said, "ssshhh."

     And to finish with just one more, we interviewed Tom Brookshire of Philadelphia Eagles and CBS football announcing fame.  But, the story I want to tell you was the one his wife Barbara told us about a Thanksgiving dinner.  (He and Pat Summerall announced 8 Super Bowls.)  She told us that the family was waiting for Tom to come home from announcing a Thanksgiving game, the table was set, and the cooked and beautiful turkey was in the center of the table.  Tom walked in the door, saw that the dog was on the table and ready to dive into the turkey and "he made the best tackle of his life."