I was the one who took football off the back pages and put it on to page one.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
At home I have a copy of the April 21, 1986, issue of 'Sports Illustrated.' I'm on the cover with the blurb, 'Can Lou Do It?' I'd just arrived at Notre Dame, and with spring football underway, I was the focal point of that week's coverage.
I never thought I'd make the pages of 'Sports Illustrated', because I've always been skinny.
I think that, in all of my time, I got just one fan letter, from an NFL fullback named Darian Barnes. NFL players might not have enough time for my books.
In the morning, I reach for the sports page.
It was actually a very nice little book done by a gift book company. They illustrated it with pictures from 1920s football, before there were face guards.
At school, I would read the City pages before I read the sports pages.
When I was a kid, my father brought home the autobiography of Sid Luckman, the great Chicago Bears quarterback - probably an extra copy from the sports department where he worked. It was the first sports biography I ever read.
When I was starting out, William Goldman took me under his wing, and he's still the person I show pages to.
And once I know what the first page is, then the rest will come.
I always turn to the sports pages first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures.