Col. North Meets Redskins, Not the Press

The rival coaches aren’t revealing any useful information and the players don’t have much to say, so to get the inside line on the Super Bowl, I phoned my No. 1 secret source.

Lt. Col. Oliver North.

You remember him. He’s the Dominic Frontiere of the East coast. Dom was scalping Super Bowl tickets; Ollie was scalping U.S. arms.

I’ve never talked to North, but this seemed like a good time to strike up a friendship. He has visited two Washington Redskin practices, and last Saturday he addressed the team, giving what the players say was an emotional and rousing pep talk.

Among other things, North told the Redskins that the U.S. Marines are on their side, which might come as disturbing news to John Elway.

Hanging around the Redskins, surely North picked up some secret tidbits that would enrich my pregame insight. Or maybe Ollie and I could just talk football, guy to guy.

I phoned North at home late Wednesday afternoon. Don’t ask how I got his phone number. Not from directory assistance.

A young girl answered the phone and said she would summon her father.

Now I was worried. I’m calling from a pay phone at Santa Monica beach--hey, it’s my day off--and what if some surfer comes along and starts nagging me to hurry with the phone?

What will I say? “Buzz off, Pal, I’m talking to Ollie North.”?

After a minute, Mrs. North came on the line. When I identified myself, she politely explained that her husband’s lawyers had ordered him to say nothing to the media.

“I promise I won’t ask him about anything except football, I swear,” I told Mrs. North.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I’m not trying to single you out, he really can’t talk to anyone.”

Mrs. North and I chatted a few minutes about the Super Bowl and the Redskins, but she offered no inside football information, so I thanked her and said goodby.

I’m intrigued by the link between the Redskins and North. Actually, it’s not surprising. The Redskins have always reflected the trends of the nation’s capital.

Defense contract overruns? George Allen invented ‘em. Press leaks? Joe Theismann was a veritable Watergate. Affirmative action? The Redskins’ late owner, George Preston Marshall, foreseeing the day when black players would form a majority in the NFL, hired only Caucasians.

I tried to track down the North connection. Joe Gibbs’ secretary told me: “(North) is invited by the coach, and we welcome him with open arms.”

So North and Gibbs are pals? Where did they meet? Maybe over haircuts at Floyd’s barbershop in downtown Mayberry?

Gibbs told me Thursday that he and North met when the colonel dropped by a practice last Christmastime.

“We got to sit down and talk, and we enjoyed our visit,” Gibbs said. “Our guys loved him.”

Indeed they did, and do. Judging from the half dozen Redskins I polled Thursday, the players have been able to look past North’s small, alleged transgressions and see his finer qualities, such as his love for the Redskins.

“It’s nice to have a guy like that out there rooting for us,” said R.C. Thielemann, the Redskin guard who has been accused of misdeeds himself, such as roughing up men and women in a bar. “He’s a great inspiration to me, a great inspiration to the country. I’m glad he’s on our side.”

Tight end Clint Didier said: “He gave us a little pep talk, told us the Marine Corps was behind us.”

I’m not sure North has the authority to mobilize the Marines in support of an athletic team. But where there’s a will . . .

Maybe the Broncos, who live just up the Colorado highway from the academy, will counter with backing from the Air Force.

Personally, I find it a little disturbing that the Redskins are so united behind North, a character whose heroism is highly debatable.

“I think he was getting a bum rap,” said Didier. “I think (the investigators) were just trying to find someone to roast.”

Right, and Don Rickles was out of town.

“(North) was trying to help (the government) the best way he knew how,” tackle Mark May said. “He just didn’t go by the rules.”

Tweeet! Fifteen yards. Illegal use of arms.

I think what it is is that the Redskins are star-struck by North. After all, there are no stars on the team itself, and Washington ain’t Hollywood.

Asked what he thought when North showed up at practice, Redskin receiver Eric Yarber said, “I thought, ‘Hey, that’s Ollie North!’ He helps run our country, and he was out there cheering us on.”

See what I mean?

Jerry Buss could send two or three guys off his B list of Laker celebrity fans to D.C. and they would be deified.

In the meantime, Ollie North and the Marine Corps should serve as sufficient inspiration to the Redskins, so I’m picking them to win Sunday.

Those Redskins are going to go out and shred some butt.