A Nice Guy Is Thrown for a Loss

Lyle Alzado is a large, smart, funny, fuzzy teddy bear of a guy. He could be nasty and vicious in a football game, then an absolute pussycat when it was over.

The last time I saw Lyle, it was mid-December and we were doing a TV talk show hosted by Ron Reagan, the former President’s son. He was clean-shaven, a rarity for him, and looked considerably younger than his 41 years, and I distinctly recall him saying: “I don’t know if I look old, but I sure don’t feel old.”

He was happy and chipper and, well, Lyle.

The last thing I would have expected was what I heard over the last few days.

Last Tuesday, Lyle got arrested. Suspicion of committing battery on a peace officer.

OK, football players are tough customers and occasionally lose control.

But this, this sure didn’t sound much like Lyle.

He was accused of pushing a 110-pound female process server toward the balcony of his 10th-floor apartment when she came knocking on his Marina del Rey door around 7 in the morning. The woman, Linda Armstrong, a Los Angeles County deputy marshal, sprayed the 6-foot-3, 265-pound Alzado in the face with Mace, then called the sheriff’s department for backup.

Deputies came by to make the arrest.

Well, I figured it was one of those things. Word was, Alzado was annoyed about Armstrong coming by so early in the day, waking him. Whether he got physical with her, only they know.

I figured the matter would be settled in court, and that would be that.

What I wasn’t prepared for was what happened next.

Alzado’s doctor and lawyer came forth Friday with prepared statements revealing that Lyle is suffering from brain cancer and is being treated with radiation, to be followed soon by chemotherapy.

They also said that Lyle has lost coordination in his right arm, right hand and right leg and, in the words of Stephen Michael Lopez, his attorney, would be “incapable of committing any of the alleged acts purported to have occurred.”

Saturday, things got worse. He was hospitalized in stable condition after suffering what his doctor called a brain seizure.

Evidently, Alzado found out a little more than three weeks ago that he has the cancer. He also had a birthday three weeks ago, turning 42. Some birthday.

His physician, Robert Huizenga, diagnosed it as primary brain lymphoma and said Alzado is “quite unsteady when he walks.”

Could this be the same man who seemed so robust at Raider training camp late last summer when he tried to become the oldest player in professional football?

The only reason Al Davis and his coaches didn’t keep Alzado on the roster was that they felt an obligation to protect younger players whose careers might last anywhere from five to 15 more years.

Lyle Alzado had been around so long, he was voted the NFL’s “comeback player of the year” in 1982.

I remember Lyle saying: “My mind told me I had no business being out there, but my body told me not to pay any attention to my mind.”

It did not please Al Davis to have to cut Alzado, and now the Raider owner must deal with this latest sadness, after having been so overwhelmed by the tragedies that befell players John Matuszak and Stacey Toran. Just about anybody who ever worked for the Raider organization is like family to Davis, who felt helpless that he knew no way to “dominate death.”

Lyle Alzado is fighting it. He has dizziness, slurred speech and double vision, his doctor said, and is being given cortisone orally.

If there is anybody who knows how to fight, it is Lyle. He once was a Golden Gloves champion who later went eight rounds in a Denver exhibition bout against Muhammad Ali.

He was enough of a physical presence to play the lead in “The Destroyer,” a science-fiction movie about a massive madman, but enough of a lamb to satirize his image in comedy bits ranging from one of John Candy’s movies to Garry Shandling’s TV show.

There always have been two things you could count on from Lyle Alzado--strength of body and sharpness of mind.

And now his mind is telling him things and his body isn’t listening.

Sometimes, a man doesn’t say what he means or doesn’t mean what he says.

In the week before Super Bowl XVIII between the Raiders and the Washington Redskins, Alzado was asked about his defensive strategy for the game.

“I’m going to take off Joe Theismann’s head,” he said.

Somebody relayed this message to Theismann, the Washington quarterback, who considered the information, nodded his head and said: “Well, down deep, Lyle Alzado is a very fine fellow.”

Yes, he is.