December 30, 2004

THE MANY FOND MEMORIES OF THE MINISTER OF DEFENSE

      It is quite unsettling when I hear of someone, supposedly in good health, who dies suddenly and is around the same age as me.  I was taken aback by the sudden death of Blue Jays announcer, and former player, John Cerutti who died in his hotel room the night after broadcasting the second last game of the season.  Cerutti was 44, just one year older than me.  And recently it was the shocking news of the passing of Reggie White, probably the most dominating NFL defensive lineman of his time, at age 43.  I did what I always do in such situations—questioned my mortality and my health.

       A few hours is all that it takes, and the news that White had previous, and serious, health concerns—like Cerutti who had a heart arrhythmia—to get past my own concerns.  Then I began to remember Reggie the player and how he became my favourite football player.  It was a Thursday night game, I believe, and a crucial one between division rivals Green Bay and Minnesota.  I had been Los Angeles Rams fan for more than a decade, but the disputes between ownership and the city and the Draconian methods used by the Rams to get out of their lease with LA (somewhat similar to the methods used by ownership in the baseball comedy Major League) disturbed me.  I couldn’t support a franchise that was willing to screw their longtime fans simply to garner a better deal in another city—one they did receive from St. Louis.  At the time of the Packer-Viking game I was simply a fan of the game, and not of any team.  I was a nomad looking for a home.

       The game was big, not only in real life, but in the smaller world of my own football pool.  I was running a close second, at least as much as I can remember and had selected the Packers for this late season contest.  The person I was chasing, a close friend at the time, had picked the Vikings.  I thought it would be interesting if we watched the game together, so we set up comfortably in my apartment for the game.  And what a game!  I remember Brett Favre was injured early in the contest and had to leave the game—that’s how serious the injury was since Favre never comes out of a game.  The Packers fortunes, and my own, were now in the hands of the very inexperienced Mark Brunell.  Brunell went on to have a very solid career leading Jacksonville to the playoffs for a number of years, but at the time he was a nervous rookie not ready for prime time.  The Vikings licked their chops and came at the rookie with fire and fury.  Brunell looked scared and instead of sticking in the pocket he ould scramble at the first sign of a rush.  He spent the better part of the game running away from Viking defenders.  Needless to say the Packers didn’t score many points that game.  If Green Bay was going to win, they would need to win with defense.  And the defense, at that time, was spearheaded by Reggie White.

       I remember Reggie was an unstoppable force that night.  He knew the offense needed all the help it could get, and he went about providing it.  There wasn’t anything the Vikings could do to stop him.  They ran two and thee linemen at him, they ran fullbacks and tight ends at him, they rolled away from his side of the field—they ran at him and away from him, they threw quick hitches and crossing patterns—the entire Viking playbook consisted of plays designed to either limit Reggie’s effectiveness or to avoid him with quick plays that wouldn’t give him enough time to be disruptive.   Nothing worked.  Reggie was throwing linemen around like they were made of foam, and he was attacking the Viking quarterback and running backs and receivers like a ferocious lineman.  He was encouraging his teammates, leading by voice and by example.   It was, by far, the greatest game I had ever witnessed by a defensive player.  It was a game that endeared me to that gem of a man, and by consequence, to the Green Bay Packers, even though the Vikings ended up winning it.

       To this day I am still a devout Packer fan.  I see a lot of Reggie White in Brett Favre, a leader by effort and by voice, a player undeterred by obstacles and a player that relishes tough competition.  Favre was a young player when Reggie signed with Green Bay, spurning large contracts from large market teams, and it is evident that the soon to be Hall of Fame lineman’s character rubbed off on the soon to be Hall of Fame quarterback.  Reggie was a principled man, (even if sometimes his biblical views turned him in the wrong direction).  Reggie was a dominant player, one who played, and existed, with high morals and judgment.  I will always remember that game, and I will always remember Reggie, his uniform sweater off and wearing just a white t-shirt, running across the field, with the Super Bowl trophy in his outstretched hand, thanking the fans after the Packers won the title.  I will forever remember Reggie as an indomitable force, throwing defensive lineman around until he reached the one with the ball.  Reggie was tops in my book. 

      I will miss him.