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Show Thursday, December 27, 2007 DAILY HERALD C7 2007, END OF THE YEAR STORIES Two Solent NFL deaths Fred Lief ThE ASSOCIATED PRESS The calendar had barely turned to 2007 when a spray of bullets hit the stretch Limousine carrying Darrent Williams. The Denver Broncos cornerback was leaving a New Year's Eve party at a nightclub. He was hit in the neck and dead at 24. Fast forward to the year's closing weeks and the same grim scene played again, the NFL and its extended family left to sort out grief and anger, mourners filing into a church one more time and trying to make sense of it alL Sean Taylor, a Washington Redskins safety, was shot in his leg at his Florida home in what police say was a botched robbery. A bullet damaged his femoral artery and he died at a hospital following surgery. He, too, was 24, the two deaths bookends to the year in sports. Redskins players began wearing decals on their helmets with Taylor's No. 21. The Broncos ended practices shouting Williams' signature phrase, "All ready!" "As a culture, as a country, we've got to start respecting life," Broncos safety John Lynch said at his teammate's funeral.; Williams and Taylor didn't get much time to savor life, and they were not the only athletes dying young in 2007. There was Damien Nash, a running back who died after a charity basketball Quirks are bookends to year in sports game, leaving the Broncos to grieve yet again. There was Marquise HilL another NFL player gone at 24. The New England Patriots defensive end fell off a jet ski in Lake Pontchartrain. Joe Kennedy, a journeyman pitcher, woke up at his home in Florida, collapsed leaving the bedroom and died at a hospital at 28. Mike Coolbaugh, 35, was struck in the head by a line drive as he stood in the first-bas- e coach's box during a minor league game in Arkansas. He died at a hospital about an hour after he was struck. There was boxer Diego "Chico" Corrales, rugged and exciting in the ring, laid out in an open casket at 29 after a Las Vegas motorcycle crash in which he was driving drunk. And there was Ryan Shay, who had big hopes for Beijing but collapsed on the streets in New York during the Olympic mara-thontrials. The had been diagnosed with an enlarged heart but cleared by doctors. "The thing that made him such a great runner may have killed him," father Joe Shay said. Eddie Robinson got to live to 88, long enough to become a landmark in American sports. He spent nearly 60 years at Grambling, where he put a remote and predominantly black Louisiana school in college football's bright lights and was the gold standard in his sport with 408 victories. s' er Continued from CI Robinson was out front in the segregation battles and sent more than 200 players to the NFL, many with a diploma. There were about 5,000 people at his funeral, across the street from the school stadium. "I don't know if I would be where I am today if there had been no Eddie Robinson," former Grambling and NFL quarterback Doug Williams said. "He put that spark into everyone, that will to be more, to be the best." Bill Walsh died at 75 after a career in which he won three Super Bowls with Joe Mon- "What the heck is going oa" ' A lot of people wondered that very thing when they heard about Ryan Boatwright. He's a basketball star from Aurora, ILL, and Southern Calif ornia coach Tim Floyd offered him a scholarship. Jothing unusual there. But Boatwright had yet to decide where he's going to high school He's . tana and the San Francisco 49ers. Walsh was the NFL's resident coaching genius, with his West Coast offense of quick passes and innovative schemes. He didnt become an NFL head coach until he was 47, but made up for lost time by winning six division titles and two coach of the year awards on the way to the Hall of Fame. "I always said that he was an artist and all the rest of us were blacksmiths pounding the anvil, while he was painting the picture," Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said. Bill 14. FILE Associated Press "Hmmm," Louisville coach Boston Red Sox's Jonathan Papelbon celebrates after the final out Rick Pitino said. "I'm not good in Game 4 of the World Series on Oct 28. Papelbon's dog later enough to evaluate that far chewed up the ball that made the final out. ahead. Someday I might." Youth and we're talking rewas also served on ally young veterinarian was accused of make it in the Dodger organizawomen's the Nebraska-Kearne- y basketball team Coach Card Rus- tion. A few years ago, he bought injecting horses with vodka be50 acres of Land in Massachusetts fore races at Former Park. The sell was a few minutes late for a charges were dropped and left game, but please forgive her She from his aunt for $50,000. While unclear was whether the horses poking around the property he gave birth five hours earlier. "I usually stand up for the found stone ledges in the ground. preferred the vodka with tonic and lime. Now he's sitting not on a gold whole game," she said after the 108-7- 5 loss to North Dakota. "But mine but a quarry that could Elsewhere in the judicial I didnt have the energy." syst em, Mike Tyson served a yield more than $2 billion worth sentence in Arizona for of rocks. She was not the only pregDU1. The former heavyweight nant woman with grit. Colleen "I'm just a small-towguy PaveLka induced early Labor trying to get to the big leagues," champion ate sloppy joes and read the book "American Gangsaid. "It's beyond because her husband, a rabid the ster" during his stay. Like other Chicago Bears fan, had tickets to comprehension." Feed and drink were assuredly inmates in the open-aithe NFC title game. Dad did his jail he was obligated to wear pink unon the menu in sports this year. part, though. He was there for derwear beneath his The English soccer power delivery in his "Monsters of the Chelsea warned that fans could stripes. Midway" shirt. And maybe in 2007 there was Bears fans clearly are a hearty be barred from games tf they y breed. Scott Wiese, an persist in throwing celery on the a lesson to be learned about perseverance in the face of grinding, field. The fans have been singstore worker, made a bar utter defeat. bet in Decatur, III If his team lost ing obscene songs about celery At the Asian Winter Games, the Super Bowl, he'd change his for years, but club officials had Kazakhstan beat Thailand in name to whoever led Indianapoenough once the veggies went ice hockey 52-- Until the Thais lis to victory Well, the Colts won airborne. scored in the third period their For Jonathan Papelbon's bulland Wiese began legal proceedn highlight came when ings to become Peyton Manning. dog, the cuisine of choice was Terani Harnarujchai rawhide. The Red Sox closer had He should be thankful the Bears checked a linesman into the didn't play the Chargers, and the ball from the last out of the boards. Thailand coach Michael tight end Brandon Manumaleuna World Series in his Mississippi home. Then Boss got hold of it. Rolanti, a former American colwas the MVP. "I think I represent all Bears "He tore that thing to pieces," lege player, assessed the wreckfans," he said. "Not that I'm sayage and took heart. Papelbon told the Hattiesburg "I think it was a good game American. "Nobody knows that. ing they're all idiots like me." for us," he said, "because we did I'll keep what's left of it." No idiot, Matt White. He's a not give up." As for the drink, a Nebraska journeyman pitcher try ing to one-da- y n r e office-suppl- France Jr. presided over an empire. He succeeded his father as NASCAR chairman in 1972 and in three decades galvanized his sport like no other. And if people didn't care for France's decisions, well, that was too bad. He ruled this kingdom. . defen-sema- 7 A1 Litke ' Continued from CI We talk every so often, and Grossnickle always frets about how easily the rest of us forget those kids. What made the conversation newsworthy that night was a banquet downtown being staged by the Chicago chapter of the American 1 J X Mi FILEAssoc ated Press From left, Darrent Williams, Bill Walsh and Sean Taylor were three of the notable deaths in the Football Foundation. The foundation was offering Grossnickle's kids center stage at its banquet, an opportunity to tell their comeback stories to an audience. Grossnickle was elated for his kids, too. It was their chance to again be part of a game they once loved and still do, even strapped to breathing machines and con- NFL and the world of sports. fined to wheelchairs. He called from his cell phone just before walking into the banquet hall to check if there were any more questions. All good, I said, then sent the story with the promise he'd fill me in later on how it went. Around 10 p.m., the phone rang. "Amazing," Grossnickle said. He was talking a mile a minute. "Not too many dry eyes in the place by the end, you know. You should have seen their faces." I could only imagine. "But that wasnt the most amazing part," he said. "That was when they began our part of the program. The kids started rolling up toward the stage and the room went completely stilL The only sound in the place were the ventilators, you know, going "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.' I:i3lll3fll!l ' iBM lisi Grossnickle paused to catch flltHIiilitfit HjaiMiiW K' s n 5' his own breath. "I just wish," he said finally, "you could have seen their fas faces thea" That wasn't a problem with y soft-spoke- color of his hands," John Jr. said, turning up his own palms. Memorable moment No. 3 came at the Kentucky Derby in May. Looking for a story that didn't involve the favorites, I took the advice of a friend and wound up at the barn of 30-- 1 shot Storm in May. The long gray colt had the look of a contender and the pedigree to match. He was the grandson of Storm Cat and a of Triple Crown winner Secretariat. There was only one drawback, but it was a big one: Storm in May was blind in his right eye. As he nibbled at the grass outside his barn, the colt's right ear was cocked to track nearby sounds like radar. "The blessing," Bill Kaplan, Storm in May's engaging trainer, explained "is that he doesn't know he's different than anyone else." The betting public did, though, and so did anybody who had done their homework. Twice in the previous 25 years, thoroughbreds made the Derby lineup and crossed the wire covered more in dirt than glory. But listening to Kaplan recount all the obstacles the horse had overcome just to reach Churchill Downs made me feel as if I had wandered into the middle of one of those inspiring sports movies. Against my better judgment, I plunked down $20 on Storm in . May to win. The official chart that Saturday listed the colt's finish as 16th in a field of 20. For all I know, Storm in May might still be running. .'. great-grandso- n one-eye- d I Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitkeiap.org. mm niilBiiuijpHiii3'i.i('inniinE'i'i o ifiinir'jiTij'iijra'flliiMinii1 ifiM 1 my second favorite moment. It came a month later at the Final Four in Atlanta, where former Georgetown coach John Thompson was working as a radio commentator and playing proud papa in between. John Thompson III had the Hoyas back in the national championship semifinals a quarter-centurafter his father had first taken them there. I covered his dad's teams a few times in the intervening years and remembered him as a gruff , imposing figure who still looked like he could bite off your head. But Associated Press sports writer Joseph White, who worked the Georgetown beat the past few years, knew him much better. He heard John Jr. talk about the lessons he learned from John Sr., and convinced him to allow me an interview, provided we limited it to that subject. I wasn't optimistic. But for the next 45 minutes, he was by turns so funny, charming and n that I shed my fear and leaned in to hear every word. A few minutes later, he explained how that ferocious devotion to work he and his son were lauded for was simply embedded in their DNA. "I always laugh when people say to John, "What's it like to follow in your father's foot" steps? John Jr. said. "Because we both have footsteps to follow in that are much bigger than either of us." John Thompson was a laborer his entire life and John Jr. launched into his story with the memory of never seeing his father's hands clean. "Never. He'd come home and scrub his hands with this ugh brown soap that looked like tar. 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