DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Best sports/famous story

Back n 2002,

I was flying out of Columbus during the winter Olympics. It was the day of the USA vs Canada hockey final so I was tryn to rush and hurry up n get thru security so I can watch the game before my flight. I was so focused that I didn't really realize what was going on with my surroundings. Everywhere I looked I saw beautiful, good-looking, fit women. I thought I was in a Hollywood movie. It was amazing. There ended up being some Arnold schwartenager fitness seminar in columbus that weekend. The whole airport was just filled with all these aerobic instructors, fitness guru's, n roided out body builders with there hot girlfriends. IT WAS A GREAT DAY TO FLY.

Anyhoo,

I .was posted up at the bar watching the game, enjoying the view when I didn't even notice Lou Ferrigno was sitting beside me. We talked and chatted about the game and watched the 2nd n 3rd periods drinking a couple brews. I thought he was a lil weird cuz he just seemed a lil rude. Imean he was very polite n nice. He was conversational but at times he wouldnt respond at all making me feel like I was intruding. The bar was noisy from the crowd but not overly loud.
Long story short. When I got to Cali i told my dad about the flight and meeting the hulk. I told him i thought he was lil weird. He asked my why and i explained. My dad then asked me if I knew he was deaf? Suddenly the light wentt on in my head.... That's why he would only respond when I was facing him. So he probably didn't hear half of the convo.

this was a couple of years after the Broncos won the second of two superbowls.. I was in Denver on Business and was heading home on a flight. I happened to (because of miles accrued) have been seated in Business (first) class.

Who was sitting next to me, Tony Jones. His contract with Denver was up and I said, you gonna try and hook up with the New Browns and he said yes,, I guess his wife was from Cleveland, his kids were born in Cleveland., So for him and his family it would have been the best thing to come back to Cleveland.

Of course, that never happened. He finished his career in Denver in 2000.

Nice guy., never wanted to leave Cleveland but because of he move to Baltimore, he had no choice. He spent one year in baltimore and took off for the Broncos.

He did not like Modell. Not one bit. He said that many players wanted nothing to do with being in Baltimore.. I guess we all kinda knew that.

When I was at the NO game a few years back my girlfriend and I were leaving the stadium and a guy came up and asked to bum a cigarette off of my girlfriend. We started chatting and he said that his cousin played for the Browns - I asked him who it was and he said Phil Dawson. Well, I was a little drunk (being in NO will do that ) so I asked if I could meet him - I'm normally not that forward. To my surprise he said they were on their way to meet him and that we could tag along:


Also got to meet Floyd Womack - he accidentally stepped on my GF's foot; ouch! His mom is a little white lady - I was chatting with her before I knew she was Floyd's mom. Super nice lady.


To get home we split a cab with the entire Jason Trusnick family. I was talking with his grandma and she has attended every game, home and away, that he has played in. She had a jersey that said "Grandma Trusnick" on the back.

I was there with CapitalGG and he texted wondering where we were at as we were supposed to meet up for some dinner. I replied with a picture the picture of me and Phil saying "just hanging out with my buddy Phil", lol.

All in all, a pretty cool trip!

At CBS I sat next to Kellen Winslow's Jr's family - Sr, his wife, and Kellen's wife on the club level.

2001 and 2002 football seasons, Bernie's private loge was directly behind our seats (last row of section 313, club level). My dad is blessed with the gift of gab, and so he and I got to know Bernie and his parents pretty well. They couldn't have been nicer or more friendly to us. He often had some celebs watching the game with him, too. One time it was Otto Graham (dad got a great photo of Otto and Bernie together). Another time it was the cast of the Drew Carey Show. Got a picture of that one somewhere I'll post if I can find it.

Since those seasons were pretty lousy, football-wise, and because our seats are the last two in the row, at the top of the stairs, we got displaced by autograph seekers pretty much all game every game, despite the best efforts of security, who even assigned an extra usher to the section. Got to see Bernie let some small kids wear his Super Bowl ring for pictures. Saw him take some lady's Terrible Towel and sign it "Go Browns BK #19".

Last home game of the 2001 season, against Jacksonville, shortly after the start of the second quarter, we get a tap on the shoulder. "Hey Dave, Adam, you guys have been great putting up with all these people shoving you out of your seats all season long. Here's a couple passes...come up here and watch the rest of the game with us." Dad wasn't sure about it. Said he thought Bernie was just trying to be a nice guy. I told him he was nuts and that we were going. So at halftime we grab our stuff, head to the elevators for the private boxes, show the guy our passes, knock on the door and got welcomed in like we were old friends. We shot the breeze with his family, dined on their spread, and even though we were literally two feet behind where we were sitting in the first half, it was like being in a different world.

I've never really met famous people or athletes before, other than back in the day when they'd always be at card shows at malls.

A few years ago I had a hockey game, went into the building, from the lobby I was just about to enter the rink we were playing on when I see a guy about 6'4" who looked like Mario Lemieux. I said to my buddy wow that looks like Mario Lemieux, well it was, his daughter was playing before our game in a youth tournament. He was standing outside the locker room door waiting for her.

I didn't get to shake his hand, because my hands were full, but he smiled and said hello, and gave me a head nod for my Browns hoodie I had on, since he was Pittsburgh guy, almost as if he respected that I wore my colors.

I've always had nothing but respect for that guy. Some of the guys I play with put together charity tournaments, and they kinda know him through other people and he always donates stuff for the tournament. They auction off jerseys, pictures, sticks. He's a quality human being on top of being one of the greatest hockey players of all time.

At a drinking establishment in Westlake during the summer of 1997, don't remember the name of the place...

My buddy and I walk in and it's semi packed. I go to the bar to order some drinks and notice Richie Sexson standing right next to me. And then to his right, a VERY drunk Jared Wright with his back to the bar.

Richie kind of gives me a nod, so I took this as my opportunity to tell him he had a nice game that day (which I think he did). So he says thanks. As my beers show up a VERY HOT woman walks up to Jaret and starts tonguing him as if they were on a Chatsworth set in Southern California. And this lasts for a good 5 seconds. As she pulls away she says, "I'm going home with you tonight, so don't leave without me." And then she walks back to her friends table.

I say to Richie, "Does that happen a lot?"

He says, "All the time man, you have no idea."

That's it.

I was a HUGE Mario Andretti fan growing up as a kid. My dad would always take me down to the Cleveland Gran Prix the day before the race and walk me around the pits. So, I'm walking around in the pits one year and I see Michael Andretti sitting in his pit box. I was really excited to see him, so I ran up to have him sign my race program. Considering how everyone says he's kind of stuck up and cynical these days, he was actually one of the nicest guys I met there. He struck up a bit of a conversation with me and seemed pretty genuine. So after getting his autograph, I walk back to my dad, and he's laughing his head off. I'm like, "What's so funny?" ... and he tells me that I was so excited to see Michael Andretti, that I shoved Mario out of the way to get to him.

Let me see what else ... We sat next to Mike Singletary at a hocky game in Chicago. My uncle asked if he could sign an autograph, and he politely declined saying that if he signed one, he would be there all night.

Bob Golic used to go to our church in Ohio, and we would frequently sit near him. Phillip Rivers and David Justice apparently go to my current church in San Diego, so I've probably bumped into them and not even noticed. A few weeks ago, one of the girls on our softball team was trying to convince DJ's wife to let him play for our team.

I have met a few famous people. worked out with Bill Kazmaier, he was in Columbus GA, training for a career in wrestling and was college buddies with my LT. We worked out together a few times. Also met Kevin Nash when he was in Columbus GA working as a bouncer at the little rock and roll club. He threw me out lol.

The one guy that I met that really made an impression upon me was Alex Haley. He came to my highschool and gave a lecture, I spoke to him afterwards, just handshake autograph thing but a year later we were in the same dinner together in Barboursville Ky. I just said nice to see you again Mr. Haley and he asked me to sit with him. I had just signed my papers to go to the army and he told me about joining the coastguard and then he shared some stories for about an hour and a half. He paid for my meal and headed back to Tenn.

Haven't met any real cool people. Guess the closest I could say is playing basketball with Dave Chappelle. (He's terrible, for the record LOL)

mmm pancakes

I was in the Detroit Airport years ago and was sitting next to this giant of a man waiting for a friend's plane to arrive. I didn't realize it was Artis Gilmore until he left and heard some people talking about it.

The most "famous" person I've interacted with is Michael Stanley (the singer of NE Ohio fame).

I was at a bar in the Valley in Akron. I'd had a couple drinks and was watching the people dancing. Well, there was this extremely drunk and rather large guy wearing beat up jeans and a dirty flannel dancing like a loon.

I lean over to the guy next to me (we had small talked a little) and said "that guy looks like a roadie for Steppenwolf." The guy next to me starts laughing pretty hard (because it was a very apt observation). As we small talk some more, he says "I'm Michael Stanley." I recognize the voice, but since my BAC was somewhat high, I didn't connect the two. We BS'd for a little while longer, then me and my buddies went to a different bar.

It wasn't until the next day I realized who I had talked to.

Also, growing up, my absolute sports idol was (and remains) Rickey Henderson. At an Oakland/Cleveland game at the old stadium, we got there early and I was at the fence. Rickey was at the bottom of the fence talking to the guy who was standing right next to me. I was so awestruck, I literally could not form words to ask for an autograph or anything. He walked away after a couple minutes and I just stood there, still dumbstruck.

Met Patrick Ewing when I as 16 or so, at an ice cream place in D.C. Walked in - and their he sat with another guy (who, I don't know), and their - I'm assuming - wives. I said "dad, that's Patrick Ewing". (he's kind of recognizable). As he was walking past us on his way out my dad said "Are you Patrick Ewing?". Before he could answer I said "Dad, YES he's Patrick Ewing." He laughed, shook my hand, and said "yes, I am".

Played a few pickup games of basketball with Shawn Kemp when I was in college and he was in high school. Yup, got dunked on quite a bit.

Sam Hornish is my first cousin through our wives - so I see him in a private setting often enough. When we're in Bristol, he'll spend an evening hanging out with his wife, in laws and us.

At Sam's wedding, I got to chat with Helio Castronueves and Roger Penske. Sat right down with them and joined the conversation for a while.

At a Toledo Mud Hens game a few years back, sitting in the Crow's Nest - right outside where the loges are, etc......I turned around and saw a guy smoking. (it was outside - but smoking was not allowed in the stadium anywhere). Elbowed my wife and said "look at that guy - he doesn't even care about the no smoking. He'll be kicked out soon." Turned around again - then said "Hey, that's Jim Leyland." Grabbed my daughter and her souvenir ball and walked up to him. Said "Excuse me, Mr. Leyland, would you sign this for my daughter?"

"Sure. Do you have a pen?" I didn't. Went back to my seat and started asking people for a pen - finally got one, went back to him and my daughter and they were just chatting away. I took a picture of him and my daughter. We talked baseball for a couple of minutes - then he was off.

If you want hilarious stories about pro athletes, read some of the athlete run-in stories that Deadspin did a few years ago. I won't link it because some have profanity and I know Deadspin can't be linked but there are some great ones.

My favorite is the John Kruk story. In a nutshell, at the old vet stadium back in Mcnabb's first year, they weren't very good and were playing the last game of the season versus the Rams who were tuning up for their playoff run. Some guy decked out in Rams gear was being an idiot, and out of the stands went flying one of those giant diabetic-sized cups of pop and it hit him square in the chest.

Kruk threw the cup. lol. The full story is better.

Met Doug Dieken when I was in high school and he was still playing at a football camp at Dennison college, I was like 17 & Doug was one of my favorate players back them, Doug was great talked to us kids for about half hour, thats all he was scheduled, but than came back afterwards and we all went out on the field and tossed the football around, told some stories and he asked us to tell stroies about our high school games & experiances, he said he liked high school football and loved the stories, told us to enjoy, after this it becomes to serious and is a buisness, high school football is the best time of your life, great great guy.

Have breakfast at a Mcdonalds in Detroit with Shaw Grisby, Professional fisherman, they were practicing for a tournament at Detroit River and we were pleasure fishing that day, well rainy morning kept us both off the water so we stopped for breakfast at Mcdonald got our food walked over to a take a seat and there sat Shaw all bye himself looken at the morning paper, we said high he asked if we were going fishing once the rain stopped and the conversation began, we sat thier for an hour half telling fishing stories and he was picking our brains as we were locals and he wanted to know where the hot spots were, nice guy, fun morning,

Also have met Kevin Van Dam KVD many times, Great, great person, to me he's the best bass fisherman ever, met his for the first time when my son was 7 or 8 took him to met Kevin, well it was a snowy night, terrible outside, didnt think Kevin would make it and if he did he was gonna do his hour speach and get out of Ohio, anyway Kevin talked for about 2 hours and afterwards made sure he took the time his own time to sign autographs for all the kids not half the kids all the kids, my son asked him a question and Kevin got on his knees and talked to him fisherman to fishermen, answered his question, and talked to him for about 20 minutes asking him things, Since them I've had the pleasure of meeting KVD and he hasnt changed with all the $$$, sponcers, wins, Bass Master Classic wins, he's still the same guy who loves to fish, down to earth good guy, the type of person you root for.

Frank Duffy the old Indians shortstop met him when I was 10, he took my ball cap, and gave me his, still have it....

Have met Ted Nugent a couple time at Achery exabitions Ted is crazy but was very passionate about what he was telling us, wasnt arragent & didnt play the part of a rock & roll celebraty, came accross as a hunter like us a regular guy had a great time.

Met others but nothing special...

I have played golf with Buddy Nix, GM of the Bills. Most of the meetings have been golf related. I have played with Vince Gill and Larry Gatlin....both play at my club as members. I've also played several rounds with Gibby Gilbert while he was biding his time as a local pro, waiting to hit the senior tour, which he tore up for 3-4 years.


Oh, the Ole Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier.


I guess the funny/cool story is maybe 25 years ago my wife had a friend who was the entertainment editor for the local paper and we were given backstage passes to a Pat Boone fundraiser concert. He adopted a local orphanage for children with parents in prison and came here yearly with a number of guests to put on a golf tournament and concert to raise money....he did this for 30+ years. He gets a big salute from me for doing this.


Standing backstage I was watching Pat do his thing and struck up a conversation with a guy and he introduced himself as Billy Joe Thomas. We talked and listened to a couple of acts for maybe 15 minutes. He said he was just part of the crew helping Pat Boone. I didn't ask what he did. He then said he had to go. I continued to watch from side stage when about 10 minutes later the next act was introduced...B.J. Thomas, and out walked the headliner, Billy Joe.


That was pretty cool....Billy Joe is a nice guy.

He opened with my favorite, even if Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head is the signature song. That one won a Oscar.

Can't say that i have really met any famous people although i am a cousin to Jim Lachey (OSU, NFL Chargers, Raiders, and Redskins) and brothers Nick Lachey (98*, EX-Wife=Jessica Simpson) and Drew Lachey (98*, Dancing with the Stars).

I went to high school with Mike Nugent and AJ Hawk if thats worth anything. Nugent was our quarterback at the time.

Also my friends cousin is Bobby Hoying

As a kid: after some Cavs practice at the UD arena I got signatures with my cousin. Not sure what year but it had Shawn Kemp and Wesley Person. My cousin got a pair of Big Z's shoes + autograph.

Easiest way now adays to meet a sports celebrity is to find ones that play video games. I'm sure you could easily arrange a game with a lot of top players.

Centerville alum, eh?

(I graduated from Wayne)

I used to fly all over the country for work. I was standing in line to make a connection in Atlanta, when I felt a "presense" behind me. I glanced to look who had stepped in line behind me. There stood a man that towered at least a foot taller than me, who I asked, are you Bill Russell. In a look that told me he wasn't lying because of it's half-embarrassed nature, yes, he said. We shook hands, and I told him I was to young to have seen him play. I did say highlights I've seen of him were amazing. Planes were boarding, and noone had a pen, so not autograph. I got to shake his hand, and share a laugh though. Something I'll always remember, and embellish when I'm telling my grandkids the story.

Quote:

---

At CBS I sat next to Kellen Winslow's Jr's family - Sr, his wife, and Kellen's wife on the club level.

---

Lucky.....K2's wife is hoootttt.

I stood behind her at training camp when I got into the VIP area a few years back. May have snapped a few pics....





Anyways....

I ran into Michael Jackson. Yes, the dead, strange, gloved Michael Jackson. In a magic shop. In the New York, New York Casino in Vegas. Haha, thought it was funny he was in a magic shop.

They ended up closing the gate down and keeping everyone out. I have some pics, but not great since it was prior to having a digital camera, and I wasn't able to see well the pictures as the throng of people grew.

Excl, I think you need to reread what i wrote.

Nick and Drew are brothers and they are my cousins to me.

I have quite a few stories but here is one of my dad.

This was a few years ago... My dad went to a supersonics game in Seattle against Dallas. Him and an old friend Steve smith (former oorville bb coach from the 90's). Went to see the game. They ended up having seats next to mark Cuban. There was the russian national team that was in town attending the game and i guess .Cuban was interested in a couple russian players. Cuban didnt speak russian.... But One of the assistant Mavs coach new my dad and told Cuban that my dad spoke Russian. The russian translator had food poisoning or something so my dad was asked to help translate for them. They had a great time, got invited to locker room afterwards. My dad said Cuban was very nice and laid back have fun type of person, so the whole night was a great time. I guess that they had such a great time crackn jokes, talkn bb, and other stuff that Cuban started referring to my dad as the "crazy Russian".

One last story for me....
When I was younger in the navy I was stationed in Orlando. My best friend played ball at Georgia w Latrell green! Who was on the magic at the time. At first only a couple magic guys would come on base and play ball in the offseason... Terry catledge, green, nick Anderson, Scott skiles. We played a few pro-am tournaments with them and a few of us would go to the Magic's practice facility and play from time to time. Well NBA all-star weekend wAs in Orlando that year. So me shaw n couple other guys were hangn out w the magic guys. I remember being in the club up n the VIP w all the NBA players. It was crazy. There were so many fans, girls, and more girls tryn to get into the VIP. They kept lookn and talking to us like we were special. I had so many beautiful girls tryn to talk to me I felt like Tom Cruz or Brad Pitt. It was nice for one night to get VIP treatment and act like we were somebody. But I honestly dnt see how really famous ppl do it 24/7. One night was too much for me.

Working with the Texans I've had the privilege of meeting a few famous people.... I met Carl Lewis last year which was a huge highlight for me since I ran track when I was young and idolized Carl.

I remember on one of the first prime time games for the Texans a few years back a bunch of us were standing around chatting before the game and here comes Prime Time Dion Sanders... he stopped and chatted with us for awhile and kept going on how he loved our pants (we were in the Texans' warm up pants) And one point he said he just really "wanted to get into those pants" which just cracked us up.

Last year I was lucky enough to meet several Browns players after they played the Texans. Joe Haden and Joe Thomas were probably my favorite that I met... Haden is just an awesome guy in person and Thomas was sporting a 70s stash! I asked Phil Dawson how many more years he had and without missing a beat he said "I'm just getting started"

But I think my all-time favorite meet was I got to meet both President Bushes a few years ago. George H comes to a lot of the Texans games (though getting less as he is less mobile) but a few years ago for one the Salute to Military game that the Texans do every year both of the presidents came to the game and I got to meet them. One of my buddies has a great picture of the two of them with him. I unfortunately was not able to get a pic with them, but it was still amazing to get to meet two presidents at the same time.

I just remembered two funny stories about George H...

At the games for pre-game a lot of the time we're running around under the stadium trying to get into our spots... so one game that the president was there Barbra was riding on a golf cart and me and a buddy were under the stadium running around to get to the other side of the stadium.... I learned VERY quickly that the Secret Service agents don't like you running up behind the First lady... I didn't realize she was on the golf cart until we got about 30 feet or so to the cart and a secret service agent hoped off... I've never stopped so fast in my life!

Then, it might have been the same game, sometime in the first quarter I went to use a bathroom under the stadium. There are a bunch of single person bathrooms along the halls under the stadium. Anyway, I went to use one and there was a guy in a suit standing outside one but a few feet away. I went to the door and he turned around, held a hand up, and said "he may be awhile". I stood for a second and then chuckled because I realized he was talking about George H.

I was in Vegas for my birthday earlier this year. My wife and I decided to eat dinner at this trendy spot at the cosmo called “STK”. Techno music is pounding from a live DJ, and I am throwing back wine (I usually drink Crown Royal but wanted to look a tad bit sophisticated out in public lol). My wife got up to use the bathroom and she was taking forever so I looked back and saw Randy “the natural” Couture. I am usually never star struck because “people are just people”, bur RC is a freaking bad A$$.

I told the waiter like “Do you know that’s Randy the natural F couture” he was like Randy comes in here all the time and to go say hello because he is really cool. I interrupted RC while he was eating and just said “ I am really big fan and good luck on your son fighting at the Arnold s classic coming up.” He said thanks and had about 20 seconds of small talk. Very cool guy, because if I was famous I wouldn't want to be interrupted.

Side note: That man is huge I am a big guy 6’3 330 lbs and he looked every bit as big as me but just super-duper cut up.

Just some Browns related stories...

Sam Rutigiliano was one of my neighbors growing up.....incredibly nice man....and he is an amazing speaker....when I was running for cross country and went past his house...I would always have to bring his dog "Shiloh"...a big Golden Retreiver back to his house as he would always come chasing after us wanting to play...

Art Modell...yes..I know everyone hates him...but this is actually a good story about the man...anyway, Art Modell had a house that had a driveway outlet on 2 streets. And when running for Cross Country again, our course took us right past and closely ended by one of them. Now to get back to the school, we would have to go onto a main thruway Rt 306..during rush hour...a VERY busy and dangerous road. However Mr. Modell allowed us to cut through his property to get from one side to the other in order to by pass all of that traffic. He also hired several of us to yardwork and the like.

At one time I regularly worked on Al Lerners house in Shaker Heights. When I was roofing, we did all the roof work as well as cleared all the gutters on a regular basis. It was far more modest than you would expect of a man of his means. Even if he did have 3 Bentleys in the Garage....I never saw Al very much, but his wife was very polite.

I have met and shaken hands with, played golf with, and had beers with a number of professional athletes... nothing really unique about any of the encounters though. There is only ONE athlete that I've met in my life that I just felt small standing beside.. and I don't mean physically small, I played golf with Russ Grimm and Joe Jacoby once but still felt like they were just men... but one guy really really seemed larger than life... and that was Jesse Owens. I met him at a function in about 1977 or so. He spoke and then I met him and spoke with him at the social gathering after... Even though I was a kid, I knew enough to feel very insignificant standing beside him.

Damn, Jesse Owens....nice.

There aren't too many people I'd be in awe of if I met them in public. I kid around with my wife, because she is the worst celebrity chaser, that I'd only get excited if I saw Jesus. Everyone else is just a person with problems like me. However...I would get a little twinge of excitement if I saw:

Any current or former member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Olivia Munn, Jeannie Mai & Scarlett Johansson - for obvious reasons
Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen and Shawn White
Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad)
Mario Batali and Tyler Florrence
The guys from PTI (I've watched that show since the beginning)

Oh ya, like I said above, and Jesus.

I offered John Calipari a hot dog at a basketball tournament.


He declined.

It's not much of a story but I play golf every now and then with Tony Peters.

Tony used to play corner for the Browns, then the Skins. Now he's the head coach of Nathan Hale high school here in Tulsa.

Nice guy, bombs it past me off the tee but I kill in on approach shots.

Nice topic. I've been extremely fortunate in my young life to have met a number of famous people/athletes (with no credit to myself...they have mostly been through family friends). I'll only share a few stories so I don't bore everyone lol.


The first one is kind of a running family joke at my expense because we have it on videotape. When I was about 5-6 years old (around 1992) my family went to a picnic being held by our local college's football coach. This was an annual event and he usually brought a few pro players that he knew (they worked one of his camps and he used to coach in college...in fact, now he coaches for the Falcons). At this particular party he brought Dan Marino. There weren't many people at the party and Marino was playing with a few of the kids in the lawn. Eventually it was just me and him throwing the ball back and forth from a short distance. Then he told me to start going out for passes and running routes, and we did this for a few throws. However, one throw went off of my hands and rolled down this huge hill in the back of their house. Instead of going down the hill to get the ball I go back up to Marino and say "You go get the ball. You can't throw good at all." and the entire party died laughing. Obviously I had no idea who he was, but my family has never let me live it down. In retrospect it is hilarious, and his reaction was priceless ... and he did retrieve the ball, signed stuff for me, and was 100% awesome.

Another story is famous in my family because we are all Browns fans. Back when I was in middle/high school my dad and I went to Berea for training camp (the year William Green was drafted). We went on a day where there were two sessions and we were killing time in between the two practices. We went to a restaurant and had lunch when William Green walked in alone. My dad and I were both in shock and were contemplating going up to talk with him. After a few minutes he received a phone call on his cell phone and had a very heated argument with someone on the other end. He was swearing and threatening (and I was shocked he didn't tone it down considering who/where he was). Then about ten minutes later an older man in Browns gear (who we assumed to be a coach) came in and sat down with him. The two of them were discussing what seemed to be the playbook or concepts from the morning, and Green couldn't have been less interested. It was like he wasn't even paying attention and never even looked at the other guy. Totally disinterested. Finally, as my dad and i were leaving I decided to say Good Luck to him as we walked by the table (he was alone again). As I approached him and said "Mr. Green..." he interrupted me and said "Man I ain't signin nothin and I'm tired of bein bothered"...even though I wasn't even going to ask him to sign anything. I realize it would get annoying to deal with "that" stuff all day, but his total attitude and demeanor was awful. From that point on my dad and I knew he would never make it and he would be a "bust." You could just tell.

Other athletes I've been fortunate enough to meet in one way or another:

Many other Browns...too many to list
Peyton Manning
Dallas Clark
Bob Sanders
Eric Moulds
Thurman Thomas
Jim Kelly
Franco Harris
Ben Roethlisberger
Louis Lipps
Yancey Thigpen
Larry Johnson
Lebron James (played against him ... and not too well)
Kevin Durant
Lamarcus Aldridge
Scottie Pippen
Paul Pierce
Bob Feller
Joe DiMaggio
Roger Clemens
Omar Vizquel
Brooks Robinson
Ken Griffey Jr.
Alex Rodriguez
Ryan Howard
Prince Fielder
Arnold Palmer
Phil Mickelson

there are more and I'll remember them all night now...but I've been so lucky

I don't know if this qualifies, but here goes a short one ("Clem? A SHORT ONE? Yeah, riiiight....)

When I was a wee, little kid, (6 months- 3 years old) my next-door neighbor was Elbert "Golden Wheels" Dubenion. He was a student at Bluffton College, and stayed in a 2nd floor walk-up next door to My Parents' tiny little house on Atlantic Ave. in Lima. Commuted every day to school with a Lima-born classmate who owned a car.

As I understand it, Momz & Pops had him over for dinner a couple times a month, where he'd hang out, get a great meal, and play with their newly-adopted son. I only remember him from the TV, when the Bills were on. Pops would tell me stories of him being our neighbor for 3 years, and how I used to chase him around the back yard. I suppose that at that time, I had no technique, and was operating on natural insticts alone.... but still, it's kinda nice to know that I was able to accomplish something that most NFL pros couldn't

As My Pops was fond of telling me, I was one of the few human beings on Planet Earth who could run down, catch, and tackle "Paul" either before or after he played for the Buffalo Bills.

*Interesting side-note: Duby almost became a Cleveland Brown after graduation.


Wheels' Wiki
Duby's story
Bills' Duby Page

Hardly a story, but The Bengals played a charity basketball game at my high school and I got to meet Anthony Munoz and shake his hand.

Quite a massive hand. You don't really appreciate how big those guys are until you're standing in front of them.

I went to HS with and had classes with most of the members of what eventually became Bone Thugs and Harmony. I used to play Bball with Bryon/Bizzy and Steven/Krayzie. I still talk to Bryon once in awhile.

I used to be the. Asst manager of a roller hockey arena that was the home for the Cleveland Lumberjacks Youth Roller Hockey Program. I was head instructor and Director so I worked with a lot of Lumberjacks players who made appearances. At that time the LJacks were the top affiliate for the Pitt Pens so the players coming in we Pens prospects and some of them went on to decent NHL careers. I was a young guy so I partied with a lot of these guys and enjoyed some of the fringe benefits of being around these guys and the pro hockey player groupies. Chris Tamer was a good buddy of mine and I still talk to him occasionally. Petr Sykora was around but he was too young to go to bars with us. I coached Mike Rupp a few times. Got to go to The Igloo in Pitt during a playoff game and was in locker room in between periods when the team came in. Mario(greatest ever),Ronnie Francis,Jagr,ULF, Tom Barasso. Got to tape a stick for Ulf.

Played roller hockey with Jack Lambert, and he was a tool.

Sat with Albert Belle for 2 hours when he came the arena for a card show. Was basically his host for the time has there signing, he gave me a 100 dollar tip at end of day.

King