Some Prospects May Be Products of Bad Timing
It’s that time of the year again, time for the NFL draft, time for scouts to toss out 40-yard dash times that call into question the dexterity of their fingers, the accuracy of their stopwatches or the depth of their imaginations.
And, sure enough, from Nick Canepa in the San Diego Union-Tribune: “A wide receiver out of West Virginia named Jerry Porter has run 40 yards in 4.3 seconds for the NFL’s quick-fingered scouts? Porter’s dilemma now: Play in the NFL this season or win the 100-meter dash in Sydney.”
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Trivia time: Dallas Cowboy linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson returned an interception 68 yards for a touchdown in the NFC championship game between the Cowboys and the Los Angeles Rams at the Coliseum after the ’78 season. Why was that a historic game for the Rams?
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The new Hollywood: Having won $28 million in the Texas lottery (he actually took a lump sum of approximately $14.4 million), Henderson suddenly has all sorts of new friends and concerned old friends and relatives.
“Henderson’s ex-wife thought her part in the process deserved a bonus,” Frank Luksa wrote in the Dallas Morning News. “Her contribution was to note the only winning ticket had been purchased at an Austin drugstore near Henderson’s home, then to call and make sure Thomas checked his numbers.
“She figured $1 million would be adequate for this service.”
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The old Hollywood: Back when he was a Cowboy, Henderson sometimes talked a better game than he played.
When his team beat the Rams, 28-0, in that NFC title game after the ’78 season, Henderson was not only in the face of Ram offensive tackle Doug France, but in his ear, talking trash throughout the game.
“He’s paid to play, not talk,” a frustrated France said. “There’s only one Muhammad Ali.
“What Henderson is doing is just talking and hoping that 10 guys will back him up because he’s not man enough to do it himself.”
Wonder if France has called in the last few weeks to check up on his old friend.
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The cruel Hollywood: Before Super Bowl XIII, between Dallas and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Henderson said Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw was so dumb, he couldn’t spell “cat” even if you spotted him the “c” and the “a.”
From Gary Shelton in the St. Petersburg Times, “I wonder what Terry Bradshaw thinks of Hollywood Henderson winning the Texas lottery.”
Bradshaw has probably called to add his best wishes.
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Maybe his fastball hums: “Every year,” Bret Lewis of KCBS-TV reports, “the Mets give an award to the best rookie at spring training. This year they gave it to . . . I’m not making this up . . . country singer Garth Brooks, who was trying out with the team.
“He was zero for 11 at the plate.”
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How long does a career last? Brett Hull and his father, Bobby, are tied with 610 NHL goals, but Bobby is far ahead in overall goals scored, with an additional 303 in the World Hockey Assn.
“I don’t think they’re going to start a new league in time for me to play in it,” Brett told the Dallas Morning News.
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Trivia answer: It was the Rams’ last playoff game at the Coliseum. In the 1979 season, they played two postseason games on the road, then the Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl. In 1980, the Rams moved to Anaheim.
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And finally: Ron Judd of the Seattle Times writes that the implosion of the Kingdome is “perhaps equaled on the list of epic Seattle collapses only by the career of Brian Bosworth.”