.On the face of it, it is appalling that a dad would sell his 13-year-old son to a college football coach. On the other hand, since coach of little conscience Lane Kiffin is not actually allowed to confirm or deny the report, it is possible David Sills IV is spending no money to get DS V a great deal of publicity and early endorsement deals. Since he's likely to burn out or be seriously injured well before he plays for USC or anyone else, it could be his father has snatched the brass ring for his son with the only chance he's got. It might look (and actually be) disgusting, but maybe father did know best when he ran his mouth?
It is certainly impressive that famous footer father Tom Brady has produced a new child with a supermodel while staying on good terms with the mother of another of his children [Earlier: Tommy Two Time], a mere model.
In the modern miracle sweepstakes, however, sports news takes a distant second place to that of new geek demi-god, Britain's Leroy Smith, who blackberrily googled "how to deliver a baby," when his wife went into labor (labour). Fortunately, he went to a legitimate site.
Of course, if you can successfully search the internet for how to deliver your own kid, is it possible Brady might have webbed his way to fathering with multiple beautiful women or did he have to rely on the old-fashioned way.
How does father-son bonding work? Yes, in the popular imagination it's just about sharing an interest. But is there a real and permanent connection made when a Las Vegas dad is in the stands shooting a documentary of his son's football prowess?
Is that a shared activity in the way it would be if they spent at least a day pretending together they were pro footballing Cincinnati Bengals? What is the real mechanism by which two men can come to love something so much that they participate as best friends (like coaches Gillin of Indian Creek, Indiana) in it when the son grows up?
Surely some of it is in participating together in the same activity. But at least a good bit is also luck, having the right activity come along at the right time with the right participation by both father and son. How else to explain three sons bonding with the same dad (who bonded with his father in used book stores) in activities as diverse as writing, eating and trains.
The mystery of it makes it seems that a book on fatherhood isn't possible, only a 3-ring binder that lets one easily tear out and add scribbles on notebook paper.
So often does "proud father" appear in print, it seems possible at least some journalists have built the phrase into a keyboard macro to save time and typing. Yes a cliche; nevertheless, often a fact.
Pops take pride. And there is something for everyone about a beaming dad. Right now Bob Bridgman, father of Heather Reams, a detective like her grandfather, is ecstatic with the accomplishments of his daughter, as well as the life of her new child. There is Trevor Brazile, rodeo Triple Crown winner and father of 2-month-old Treston Norris, who is already on his third rodeo. And, today, there is Archie Manning, proud father of consecutive Super Bowl MVPs.
But Manning is as winning as he is because he keeps that pride in perspective, "I never thought about them even playing college ball, much less pro football, much less winning Super Bowls or MVPs," Archie said. "It wasn't in the plan. We tried to raise kids. We raised kids just like any other parents raised their kids. I can't explain it."
And keeping it in perspective is the key to P-fatherhooding. Using biblical wisdom as a guide, it is important to remember that it is not "pride that goeth before the fall" but, according to the King James Version, Proverbs 16:18-19 reads, " Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
There is a certain amount of magic to how a father passes along love of a sports hero or whole team to a child. There is a certain bonding — perhaps one day to involve a ridiculous trip shared by father and daughter to stand in insane weather to exorcise an irrational "jinx."
Part of all magic involves talismans (talismen?). And this week's objet d'eBay and objet d'eBay (to be fair) could be the touchstones for creating that magic, perhaps begun with a shared day of happiness centered on SB XLII ... a football game on HGH (hype growth hormone).
For some father and child there will be a shared 13-card set of Tom Brady, QB for the (perhaps) perfect Pats. Another duo will always have their 8-card set of Archie's son and Peyton's bro, Eli Manning, QB for the New Jersey Blue Giants. And when the game itself has become mere agate type in an NFL game-history compendium, they'll still be bound, they and even those who lost out in the bidding will still have shared memories.
Maybe the Patriots have their stories and they just haven't made it to the web ... or are still hidden from the spiders. But right now, the New Jersey Giants have a more sentimental tug on the heart of fans rooting for a Super Bowl XLII winner than the New England Patriots.
Big Blue has more stories of generational father-son bondings and the Giants have had four fathers and sons who have played for them — currently highlighted by long snapper Zak DeOssie, whose father, Steve, was a linebacker and long snapper on the 1991 Super Bowl Champ Giants. (Admittedly, it is hard for the Pats to match either of these as they were only founded in 1960 as the Boston Patriots of the AFL and the "Jints" have been punting, passing and kicking since 1925.)
And while surely, somewhere there are Pats fan stories and they are in the process of creating some for the future, the Giants even begin the SB with a father-child edge as Jordin Sparks, an American Idol and daughter of former blue man Phillippi Sparks, will sing the national anthem. The elder Sparks managed to be on and then off the team in the valley between its 1991 and 2001 Super Bowl appearances.
It must be some sort of Christmas season miracle as dads are making money out of both love and rage.
From the love side of equation come SAHD Jeff Robinson, happily chasing after 8-month-old Mae Louise. And then the phone rings and he's got a job for the next few Sundays that will bring in $135,000 as the "long" snapper for the local football side, the playoff-bound Seattle Seahawks.
And from the rage side comes a $9010 net as a Canadian father of a 15-year-old got so mad at finding his son smoking marijuana with stoner friends that he sold his Christmas present right from under the tree. The $90 Guitar Hero III the son lusted for is on its way via eBay (and assuming that the report is true) to an anonymous Australian fool parted from his money.
Fathers can give, but kids still have to take the wisdom and fit into the puzzle they use to beat dad.
Former football great and current Allstate Insurance shill (among other activities) John Elway sounds sincere in expressing his hope that his son will succeed as a quarterback. He brags of the physical attributes, but there seems a little more hope than belief when he refers to him as a "late bloomer." The high school senior threw seven interceptions in one game and either he is a real diamond in the rough that only dad can see or the Arizona State football scholarship was a two-for-one deal.
And Erika Ford learned a great deal from playing under her basketball father coach Larry. But either not quite enough, or not enough to do more with her players as her Davison (Mich.) Cardinals fell to dad's Flushing (Mich.) Raiders 49-46. Of course, to be fair, the younger is the coach of a team that was 2-19 last season and taking on a team that earned a 19-2 record and second straight league championship.
"I tried to get into his head a little bit," said the losing coach. But like most kids, she only succeeded a bit and, for at least another game, dad is still more successful.
What decides whether a child forgives his or her dad when the world probably can't? Circumstance? Self-deluding rationalizations? Love?
In The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood, defined by The New York Times as "a book to keep you up at night," author Mark Kurzem traces the life path and his own discovery of how his father went from a child of about five seeing his parents killed by Nazi soldiers to becoming their pet to being adopted by rich anti-semites to an Australian upbringing to keeping the secrets of his life from himself, his wife and children until he was in his eighth decade.
In another study of a father Malte Luddin, who hardly remembers his Nazi loving dad in person, created the documentary "Two or Three Things I Know About Him." Putting his sister on camera he inquires of her feelings about dad and, hesitatingly, she answers, "I can't say [my father] wasn't a criminal, but for me, he definitely wasn't,"
And beyond art there is life. And in another example of the messiness of life, Baltimore Ravens running back Musa Smith can be a star of the University of Georgia's 2003 Sugar Bowl victory and have a middling or perhaps someday star day or even career in the NFL, but he will always have the burden — the internet shadow if nothing else — of his dad as dupe (?) of Islamic terrorists involved with the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.
Smith, like every child can say his dad's deeds are behind him, but as shown by others who are still trying to understand themselves and their fathers by looking at actions taken decades ago, that it never completely the case.
Following the path outlined on his three childrens' long faces led 43-year-old Vinny Testaverde to at least one more week as a quarterback hero.
Old and possibly unloved, Vincent Frank Testaverde, was released in September by the New England Patriots as a backup QB. Keeping in shape from the couch of his Long Island home he had agreed to take a job in Phoenix, but put his kids to sleep having seen how unhappy they were that he would be spending so much time away from them — the family was planning a move to Tampa, Fla. So, instead, VFT wriggled out of the one contract and into a job he could more easily commute to and from in Charlotte, N.C.
And the man immediately named "dad" by his teammates made his first week on the job, at least, into some father feelgood history.
"I do all the things now that I saw other fathers do that I swore I'd never do," says Burt Reynolds, much better know for his Cosmo centerfold, dating adventures and movies than as the father of an 18-year-old (from his five-year marriage with actress Loni Anderson). "... it's a comedy of errors [living with Quinton]; we could probably have done a television series about it. It's like: 'Why didn't you call me? Where are you going? What are you doing?'"
Reynolds credits lessons from his father — who agreed to adopt the friend Reynolds brought home after learning he being abused in his home — as inspiring his own parenting ways. In addition to trying to do right by his son, he has also done over 40 years of charity work on behalf of children.
With that background and able to talk football — Reynolds first attended Florida State University on a football scholarship — perhaps he could be persuaded to impart some of those lessons to prolific procreator Travis Henry . The Denver Broncos running back has nine kids with nine women in four states. But don't worry, his attorney says he's "a really committed father." (Ironic and unlikely, unless the last "er" was dropped.)
There seems to be some question about the New England Patriots' family leave policy. Unsmiling, cowled coach Belichik hasn't announced whether he will let QB Tom Brady attend the imminent birth of his child, saying everything is decided on a case-by-case basis. Is this legal?
No doubt company and league lawyers are scurrying to draw up the official policy regarding attendance at the birth of a child one has with a woman one never married and no even longer dates? While Brady waits for the signal, his teammates are surely planning to surprise the father-to-be with a baby shower. Maybe they could all chip in for the big box of condoms, as well as wipes, diapers and stuffed animals? (Earlier: Tommy Two Time.)
What a tangled web Tom began to weave when ere he took no precautions to conceive.
Entering training camp this Friday, New England Patriots QB Tom Brady may be out of the Red Zone with girlfriend Gisele Bundchen. The Brazilian supermodel, who was rumored to be pregnant earlier this year, was also reportedly quite displeased with the timing of the possible birth of Tom's son, via former girlfriend, American (but not super) model and actress Bridget Moynahan. That was to happen last Friday, the Brazilian's birthday.
However, the two minute warning for the son and first child of T&B continues, as the baby, like Pat's coach Bill Belichik's free and easy nature, has yet to arrive.
