By Bob Lobel (@boblobel)
It’s less than a week away and already the NFL is dominating the conversation and consciousness of the fans that care about things that matter.
It's lucky us that most things about the Patriots matter.
Now, most things about the Indianapolis Colts are pure luck. Next Sunday night the NFL brings an even bigger event than Brady-Manning.. Our luck is Brady-Luck. I don’t know why, but this has infinite more appeal to me than that Denver game. Ho hum!
This is about the present, soon be the past, and the present, soon to be the future. That’s where we are.
This has been a week of reminiscing of past great and not so great moments that have been witnessed by yours truly and my co worker, Bob Neumeier. Neumy and I go back to our first meeting at a Beanpot luncheon. Today I can just picture him recovering from whatever he is facing. The challenges come up for all of us.
Today, only the good stuff cause there is no bad. I will always think of him as the greatest horse player I ever met. Like ever.
I know he won thousands in single races and lost thousands in single races. He was a fearless better: Not gambler… better.
I think you have to have no fear to bet. He had no fear, I could never do what he did. Too afraid to lose and be responsible for it. The network telecasts recognized his ability. He knew everybody that was anybody in the game of playing the ponies.
Other relationships blossomed because of his knowledge of that world that seemed just out of view for most of us that stayed away. Bill Parcells was a confidant united by the sport of kings. There were many others. As I write this I feel drawn back to the Colts. It’s the Neumeier factor.
I want to say many things about many things right now. How we never talk about Aaron Hernandez. How the greatest players seem to be the biggest punks. That is a huge over reaction and an unfair portrayal, but it just seems that way. Bob Neumeier had little patience for those who wasted careers, abilities and fortunes. He was on the goal line in Miami with photographer Tom Rehkamp when Gerard Phalen caught the Flutie pass to beat the U and become immortal.
You should know the tape of the football in the air from Flutie to Phalen was the work of Rehkamp. It's in every shot of that moment in Boston sports history. Neumeier always did the Hagler fights in Vegas or where ever.
Hagler-Hearns was one of his best ever sporting events. It always seemed to me that there was such a connection between the sweet science of boxing and the sport of kings, horse racing, that, if you loved one, you were hooked on the other.
He did offer to take me to Suffolk Downs and teach me the intricacies of playing the ponies but I declined. No guts. His offer was sincere and I can tell you he had a system based on homework of past equine and jockey performances, plus how track conditions played into it all.
He got it and knew it and used it. I think without much doubt, the Timely Writer story was one that he was connected to in a most personal way. We were very proud of the work we did as a team.
Bob was a great story teller and was a genius in using music to underscore the subject. Of course, that was back when TV game time was story telling with an entertaining value. I can also reveal that Harry Chapin was his favorite performer. If you listen to any of his work you'll have a better understanding of who Bob Neumeier is.
So it's back to the field on Sunday night. Not much domestic violence talk these days, but rather when these talented but brutal punks can get back in a uniform. It does remind me of many ways of the Hunger Games, or at least the formative years that lead that make believe country called Panam to get to where the Hunger Games were their Super Bowl.
Would you trade Brady for Luck? A most asked question on talk shows this week. I say never, ever. Plus, is it possible that the future of talk radio will eliminate talk of salary caps, salaries and contracts?
It's become brutal. To be a sports fan these days, you need more than a favorite team or player.
Ok, I told you I had a lots or things to say about lots of things. It wasn’t very organized but it was sincere.
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