Roll Tide Roll: Sam Bam Cunningham

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  I watched the NFL Hall of Fame induction this past weekend.  I watched Warren Moon.  Moon attended Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. He was recruited by everybody, but they all wanted to convert him to another position.  No black quarterbacks here.       

He went to Washington.  Senior year. Moon led the Huskies to a 27-20 Cinderella win over the Maize and Blue in the 1978 Rose Bowl.  Moon was named MVP of the game.   Moon went undrafted.  No black quarterbacks here.  Disgraceful.  Had to toil 5 years in the CFL before an NFL team would take a flyer on him.  This made me think of another football player.  Mr. Cunningham.  No, not Randall.  His older brother. Sam.  Sam Bam Cunningham, my favorite NFL player ever.

The story goes something like this:  It wasn’t the greatest game of all-time.   An ordinary USC Trojan team beat up Alabama at Birmingham’s Legion Field. No big deal, right?  In the deep deep south.  Pick-up trucks, gun racks, Confederate flags, and a lot of hate.  This is why the game was so big:  Bear Bryant’s Alabama Crimson Tide.   Roll Tide roll.   White, lily white, alabaster white.  Adolph Rupp style.  Bama, and plenty of other schools, were not ready to integrate. No way, no how.  This is where Sam Bam Cunningham comes in. 

He rolls into Alabama and just runs roughshod all over the Tide.  He rumbled for 135 yards and two touchdowns on just 12 carries as USC  humiliated Bama. 41-14.  This game forced the Tide to finally get with the program and realize that the times really were  a changing.  Bob Dylan style.   

To compete, they’d have to integrate their teams. They did, and Alabama rolled through the 1970s. Roll Tide roll.  Rumor has it; the Bear asked USC head coach John McKay if he could see Cunningham after the game. Bryant took Cunningham into the Tide locker room and said to his team:   “This is Sam Cunningham. This is what a football player looks like.”  People say Sam Bam Cunningham did more in that one game for integration in the South than Martin Luther King was able to accomplish in a decade.  Sam Bam played for the Pats in the pros.  Diving over goal lines and punishing defenders.  Earl Campbell style.

Public Knowledge: 

1.  Maybe its me, but I get an extra special tingly feeling whenever Mo Rivera gets roughed up.

2.  I know it makes no sense at all.  I know I should be rooting for the Yankees to clobber the Go-Go White Sox and secure the wildcard for the Bosox.  But I just can’t.  I want first place.  Over the Yankees.  Nothing else will satisfy me. 

3.  T.O.’s hurt.  Won’t be ready for season opener.  Dallas Morning News’ Gerry Fraley:  “Maybe Owens does have a hamstring problem. Or maybe he is just not that interested in running routes in August.”  I agree with the latter.  He has not played football since October 10th, last year.  Physically, I don’t think that matters.  T.O. is a freak.  But for the team and Parcells, it matters big time.  I cannot wait for this to bubble over.  Mike Wilpon says he would not be suprised if there already was a tiff between T.O. and Bledsoe.  Neither would I. 

4.  The Cincinatti Bengals have a new twist at their games,the Jerk Line.  If a fan gets rowdy or out of hand, all you have to do, is call it, security will come, and manage the situation.  There will be more drunks making the calls than getting called on.  Guaranteed.

5.  Deion Branch needs to get his butt into camp.  Without him, the best receiver on the Pats is Ben Watson….Trouble in paradise.

6.  Tigers.  I don’t care how many games they win.  I’m not buying.  Especially come playoff time.

7.  Tiki Barber says the Giants have 5 potential Pro-Bowlers.  Are you out of your godammed mind?  Who are they?  Maybe you, Lavar, if he stays healthy, then who?  Stupid.

8.  More on T.O.  This guy ruined the 49ers, ruined the Eagles, on his way to ruining the Cowboys.  Isiah Thomas style.

9.  Week 1 NFL.  Manning vs. Manning.  I pick Manning the elder in a blowout.

10.  On PTI they asked who makes a comeback 1st, Mel Gibson or Floyd Landis.  While they both said Gibson, they were too cowardly to give the real answer why:  People care less about Jews that they do about steroids.

11.  Former Buckeye star Maurice Clarett has been charged with carrying a concealed weapon and a traffic violation after a highway chase.  Clarett was arrested early Wednesday after a highway chase that ended with police using Mace him and finding four loaded guns in his sport utility vehicle.  Just lock up this guy for good, for once and for all.  He’s nopt going to stop until he kills somebody or himself.

12. Harry Sinden, president of the Boston Bruins for the last 17 of his more than 40 years with the team, resigned Wednesday to become an adviser to club owner Jeremy Jacobs. Thank God.  He was good once, but he ended up Jacobs’ lap dog at the end.

13.  Dodgers win 11th straight.  These guys, not the Mets, get into the World Series.

14.  Papi hits his 41st to lead the majors, and don’t look now but Manny’s hitting streak goes to 23 games.  Look out Chase.  And not foer nothing, but how great would it be if Manny takes Joltn’ Joe off the charts.

15.  It doesn’t look good for Curtis Martin or the Jets.  If he doesn’t play, who does?  Derrick Blaylock?  Cedrick Houston?  Leon Washington?   Big trouble in Little China.

16.   Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Eric Desjardins, the second-highest scoring defenseman in team history, will retire this week.   I always liked this guy, maybe its his name.  I dunno.  He sure was good though.

17.  Sebastian Coe says track and field athletes should receive lifetime bans from the Olympics and all other top-level meets after a first doping offense.  I agree, for all sports.  One and done, that would put to bed alot of this nonsense.

18.  USA Basketball:  Please pick up Michael Redd.  He’s the best shooter in basketball today.  He’s the missing puzzle piece.

Public Figures:  Brought to you by the good folks at Elias Sports Bureau and ESPN the Worldwide Leader.

1.  Miguel Tejada hit his 20th ding of the season in the O’s win in Toronto. It’s the eighth consecutive season in which Tejada has hit at least 20 bombs. Only two other players in major league history had eight consecutive seasons of 20-or-more home runs and 100-or-more games at shortstop: Cal Ripken (nine straight seasons, 1983-1991) and Alex Rodriguez (eight, 1996-2003). Ernie Banks did it seven consecutive years (1955-1961).

2.  Papi’s 1000th career hit was a home run. Ortiz is the third player this season whose career hit No. 1000 was a home run. Phat Albert did it on April 21 and Richie Sexson on May 1.  The last guy to do that in a Red Sox uniform was Pudge Fisk on June 1, 1980.

3.  Richie Sexson hit a walkoff grand slam in the Mariners‘ win over Tampa Bay. It was the fourth walkoff slam in the majors this season. Jeff Francoeur, Jason Kubel and Adam Dunn all hit walkoff slams earlier this season.

4.  Bob Wickman has recorded a save in each of the Braves‘ last six wins, the longest such streak by a Braves pitcher since John Smoltz in 2004 (six in a row) and one shy of the team record of seven set by Mike Stanton in 1993

5.  Radke has 20 wins against the Tigers since 1995. That matches the second-highest win total by any pitcher against any team over that span. Tom Glavine has 25 wins against the Expos/Nationals and Andy Pettitte has 20 wins against the Orioles over that span.

Peace Out Homies.  Six Two and Even!

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