Buffalo’s selection of E.J. Manuel conjures memories of the great Charlie Ward

Now that all of the 2013 NFL draft picks are in and the selections have been analyzed and overanalyzed, one pick that continues to be discussed is the Buffalo Bills' selection of Florida State University quarterback E.J. Manuel in the first round.

In a draft when most of the name-brand quarterbacks were selected later than expected, Manuel seemingly came out of nowhere when the Bills chose him with the 16^th overall pick. It was no surprise that Manuel was drafted but his selection in the first round, as the first quarterback taken, was a major surprise to most.

The last time a FSU quarterback was discussed to this degree around draft time was 19 years ago. Ironically, on Draft Day 1994, a Florida State quarterback far more decorated than Manuel did not hear his name called at all. That QB's name was Charlie Ward and he was coming off a Heisman Trophy winning season in 1993.

The NFL of 1994 was not the NFL of RG3, or Russell Wilson, or Colin Kaepernick, or Cam Newton; and I still feel the hurt that was felt by many African American fans from what appeared to be the rejection of Ward by every team in the league.

Many excuses were served up as to why Ward was not drafted. There was talk that he could not decide between a career in football or basketball. Others said that Ward had issued an ultimatum to teams declaring that he would not play football unless he was selected in the first round. Some even contended that Ward simply was not cut out for pro football because he lacked great size and had not played in a conventional NFL-type offense at FSU.

Regardless of the many theories presented, for African American fans at that time who knew the history of the NFL, it was hard not to believe that the color of Ward’s skin combined with the position he played did not factor into the decision made by every team in the league not to draft one of the most celebrated quarterbacks in the history of college football.

Ward would go on to play 11 seasons in the NBA, mostly for the New York Knicks. He never approached stardom as a professional basketball player, but Ward always played with tenacity and intelligence while earning the respect of teammates, fans and foes. Nonetheless, what Ward might have accomplished in the NFL remains a frustrating, unsolvable mystery.

Perhaps we will get a glimpse of what Ward may have accomplished in pro football when Manuel takes the field, even though the latest QB from FSU is much bigger and is different from Ward in other ways, too.  RG3, Wilson and Kaepernick are probably better examples, when trying to figure out what Ward might have done in the NFL.  And although the media rarely if ever compares a quarterback who happens to be black, with a quarterback who happens to be white, I contend that Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees do many of the same things that Charlie Ward performed on the field in college despite the difference in their skin color.  

The truth of the matter is that we will never know what Charlie Ward could have done in the NFL because no one will ever play the game exactly as he did.  The same can be said for Rodgers, Brees, RG3, Wilson, Kaepernick and now Manuel.  Each quarterback is unique regardless of ethnicity and deserves the opportunity to have his talent judged on the field at the highest level the sport offers, if he is good enough to play. 

Make no mistake about it Charlie Ward was more than good enough to play in the NFL.  The fact that he did not play, regardless of the reason, was a disappointment to any football fan during that era that desired to see the best compete on the field each Sunday.

The selection of Manuel and other developments in recent years indicate that we are approaching a point in pro football where the best athletes are being allowed an opportunity to make their mark on the game at all positions regardless of ethnicity and style of play.  That is certainly a good thing, but old-school fans like me can only wonder what mark Charlie Ward would have left on the pro game

Barry Bonds First Edition deserves to be in Baseball Hall of Fame

Toward the end of a wonderful, peaceful, joyous Christmas day spent with my family, I had an opportunity to watch a few minutes of “The Tenth Inning,” which has been airing on the MLB Network during the holidays.

“The Tenth Inning” picks up where Ken Burns’ landmark 1994 documentary “Baseball” left off and provides a history of the sport from the 1990s to the present day.  Not surprisingly, the 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa is highlighted.  Burns and co-director Lynn Novick take viewers back to that magical summer when the media and fans transformed McGwire and Sosa into larger than life superheroes.

If we are to believe what “The Tenth Inning” and others have implied, it was this 1998 home run race and the adoration bestowed upon McGwire and Sosa that irked Barry Bonds.  As the theory goes, Bonds was outraged that two lesser players had become the biggest stars in the game through their use of performance enhancing drugs and followed the old adage:  “if you can’t beat them join them.”  The rest as they say was history, albeit controversial history, as Bonds went on a hitting rampage in subsequent seasons, including a 73-homer campaign in 2001 to break McGwire’s controversial single-season record set in ’98.  Bonds then took aim at the all-time home run list and when his assault was complete, he was the new king of the long ball with 762 career blasts.

Myths and baseball go together like a glove and ball, but this theory surrounding Bonds has always sounded very plausible to me.  That is why I think the process is simple for Hall of Fame voters who have to make a decision on Bonds.  These voters need to simply evaluate what he had accomplished by the conclusion of that ’98 season—the season before Bonds’ physical form seemed to radically change before our eyes. 

Much is made of the physical transformation of Bonds beginning with the 1999 season, but an eye test also should be applied to what he accomplished before that season.  When this is done, we rediscover a multi-talented player who had already won three National League Most Valuable Player awards and was the first player to amass 400 home runs with 400 stolen bases.  Bonds also got it done in the field during this period as his numerous Gold Glove awards attest.  Those numbers and accomplishments make Bonds worthy of being a first ballot Hall of Famer and that’s how the voting should go if voters consider the considerable portion of Bonds’ career when no one questioned if he was using PEDs.

I realize that there is a moral clause that factors into the Hall of Fame voting, but I contend that Bonds is no more morally flawed than the many less talented players that may have used PEDs just to stay in the game.  Also, how about the morality of the media and the baseball establishment that continued to hype McGwire even after his suspected use of PEDs was written about by an Associated Press reporter during that majestic 1998 season? 

As we continue to celebrate the season of giving, I hope those still undecided Hall of Fame voters simply give a great ballplayer his due and vote Barry Bonds Edition I into Cooperstown. 

New film reveals bitter truth about Marcus Allen’s football odyssey with the Raiders

Just when I thought I had seen one of the best sports documentaries in a long time after viewing the ESPN 30 for 30 piece on Bo Jackson this past weekend, the NFL Network premiered “Marcus Allen:  A Football Life” last night.

While I’m still savoring the delightful film on Bo, for my taste, the Marcus Allen film was equally well done and moving.  Ironically, football fans will forever link the two men because they shared the running back position for parts of four seasons (1987-1990) with the Los Angeles Raiders. 

As the film revealed, it was possible for a player to be Rookie of the Year; a Super Bowl MVP; and finish his career with more than 12,000 yards rushing and still not accomplish everything he could have due to the actions of a vindictive team owner.  This was the football life lived by Marcus Allen. 

However, the hour-long program was just as much the late Al Davis’ story, because he was the owner who denied Marcus Allen and his own team from being all they could be by personally seeing to it that Allen was kept off the field for a significant chunk of his career.  The fact that Allen still had much to give was the nine victories he led the rival Kansas City Chiefs over the Raiders in 10 heated contests after leaving behind the silver and black.

Indeed, Marcus Allen’s football life was stranger than fiction but he never lost the respect and support of his teammates, and Allen’s journey finished in a sweet place in Canton, Ohio at the NFL Football Hall of Fame.

The sledding for the Raiders has not been as sweet.  Not only have they not won a championship since Allen’s departure following the 1992 season, but also an argument can be made that they have replaced my beloved Detroit Lions as the least-respected franchise in professional football.  Evidently the football gods don’t like ugly and there is still a price the Raiders must pay for management’s mistreatment of the classy Marcus Allen.

My Don Adams will always be 'the' Don Adams to me

While getting ready for a short run yesterday, a segment on the MLB Network caught my attention and took me back almost 40 years in a time capsule.

The image on my TV screen was that of a little boy living in Texas, no more than six-years-old, who was crying over the news that longtime Texas Rangers standout Michael Young had been traded to the Philadelphia Phillies.

The scene naturally brought on a big “aw” from the studio hosts and me as well, which caused me to remember the first time that I learned an athlete would no longer be a part of my hometown team.  It’s an occurrence that all young sports fans must eventually experience, and for me it happened sometime toward the end of the 1974-75 NBA season when my dad told me our hometown Pistons had cut forward Don Adams.

Our Don Adams was nowhere near as famous as the actor of the same name, but for a kid approaching his eighth birthday and following the hometown team throughout the entire season for the first time, the hardworking role player from Northwestern University was a big deal.

I guess by that point in my young life my parents had done a good job of explaining to me the importance of having a job, because I remember asking my dad questions like:  How will Don get money to eat?  Where will he live? What’s going to happen to his family?

My dad said that Don would be OK, and while I always believed what my dad said, I still had an uneasy feeling about Don’s prospects for survival.  I began following sports in an era when athletes were not millionaires.  Although the players were doing something that I dreamed about, I still regarded  them as working people just like my mom and dad.  I knew I would be very sad if my dad came home and said he didn’t have his job, so I had similar feelings for Don Adams.

I finally felt a little better a season or two later when I saw Don Adams once again on TV playing for another team.  However, even after his career was long over, Don Adams served as a reminder to me that professional athletes are also vulnerable and fragile and more times than not deserve our sympathy.

I feel bad for the little boy in Texas who is crying over losing Michael Young.  As one of my favorite former presidents might say:  “I feel his pain.”  But make no mistake about it I love the little boy’s spirit.  He possesses the heart and spirit that make all true sports fans special.  

'Girls on the Run' continuation: If Isabella likes it; I love it!

On Saturday I wrote about my eight-year-old friend Isabella in Washington D.C. who recently participated in a 5K “Girls on the Run” event.

When I first heard that Isabella was doing this it warmed my heart and excited me to know that she is experiencing the joys of running at a young age and being empowered in the process.

A similar feeling of joy and excitement consumed me last night when I received a very special message from Isabella’s mom telling me that Isabella enjoyed reading my story about her.

Well, if Isabella likes it, I love it!  In writing about Isabella’s experience, I had not considered that it is also would be a positive experience for her to relive the 5K by reading a story about the event with her cast as the star.  Perhaps having her story told in writing will give Isabella a little extra excitement the next time she laces up her running shoes.   If so, I feel my writing is serving a much higher service and I do not want this service to end.

If anyone reading this knows of a young person who is beginning to have a life-enriching experience through sports and physical fitness, please feel free to drop me a line.  I would love to feature the child’s story in this blog and hopefully encourage more youth and parents to view physical activity as a pathway to a positive life.

Today's NFL players could learn a lesson from Bo

For the past two Sundays, America has been reminded just how fragile some of the athletes are in the National Football League.

I am not referring to the strength of the players’ bodies, but rather the fragile nature of some of the players’ internal makeup, as witnessed by the headlines of the past two weekends. 

A murder suicide committed by a Kansas City Chiefs player has been followed up by news of a Dallas Cowboys practice squad player who was killed in an automobile driven by an intoxicated friend and teammate.

Any football fan with a heart has to hurt for the families of these players and everyone directly involved.  It is indeed a sad feeling to take into a football Sunday, but then I suddenly remembered a documentary I saw last night and I began to cheer up.

The ESPN 30 for 30 series documentary “You Don’t Know Bo:  The Legend of Bo Jackson” tells the story of one of my all-time favorite athletes. 

Bo starred as a football and baseball standout at Auburn University during a chunk of my high school years, when I was sometimes at odds with my dad for not applying myself in school.  Bo had no way of knowing that his exploits on the football field brought me tons of enjoyment during a challenging period of my life.

My first year of college was Bo’s senior year at Auburn, and by that time my grades were no longer an issue and I could watch Bo work his magic while feeling relatively stress free.  I celebrated as Bo won the Heisman Trophy following his senior season and whenever I could I watched him perform as a professional with the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball and later the NFL's Oakland Raiders.  A feat he performed simultaneously! 

Blessed with legendary strength and speed, Bo thrilled fans in both sports before his hip gave way after being tackled in a NFL playoff game at the age of 28. By this time I viewed Bo more as a long distance friend, as opposed to a hero, and I felt awfully bad for my friend.  Watching him return to baseball for a short stint following hip replacement surgery left me with an even sadder feeling.

However, a surprising thing happened after Bo’s professional athletic career was officially over at age 32.  Instead of the sad feeling lingering, I found myself becoming happy during those rare occasions Bo was interviewed on TV after his career, because Bo always seemed to be happy.  This man who made the game so special for so many fans, did not seem to miss the game and all that he was able to do on the playing field. 

Bo has always come across as a man very much at peace with no great external wants or regrets.  This comes across in the Michael Bonfiglio directed documentary and I thank ESPN and Bonfiglio for presenting this film to let me and the world know that our old friend Bo is doing just fine.

I hope the players performing today can avoid injuries as much as possible.  But more important, I hope they all can find the inner strength that Bo Jackson seems to possess.  If so, these players will be much better off during the remainder of their playing careers and beyond.

'Girls on the Run' empowers young ladies one step at a time

The challenges of life had taken me away from my blog for several months.  Therefore, it is fitting that a program which helps people conquer challenges would bring me back to my blog and hopefully this time for good.

The program that I speak of is "Girls on the Run," which empowers girls from the ages of 8 to 13 by exposing them to distance running.

As a lifelong runner, I understand with all my heart how running long distances can fuel the mind, body and soul.  My family and running are the constant sources that keep my life moving forward each day regardless of the challenges I may face.

That is why a big smile flashed across my face when I learned my eight-year-old friend in Washington D.C., Isabella, was running in a 5K race (3.1 miles) put on by the "Girls on the Run" chapter in her area.  I have wanted nothing but the best for Isabella since the day she came on the planet and to know that she and the other young ladies in the program are learning that they can accomplish anything in life through a one-step-at-a-time process, feels me with joy.

I knew nothing about "Girls on the Run" until Isabella's mom, a coach in the program, informed me of the journey they were about to embark on together.  Now I want to learn more about this wonderful program and I encourage anyone who comes across this post to do the same.

For more information about "Girls on the Run" please visit www.girlsontherun.org.  www.girlsontherun.org