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Wednesday, March 19, 2003 Page: 1B
When Washington Wizards guard Tyronn Lue can look into a sea of microphones
and television cameras and compare his team’s playoff run with the approaching
war in Iraq, you know this is not one world, as Paul Harvey likes to say.
“We also have a war we have to fight, too,” Lue told the Washington Post.
“The Washington Wizards are trying to make the playoffs. … It’s pretty much
the same thing.”
Given a chance to remove foot from mouth, Lue on Tuesday did not back off
his statement, insisting he fully supports the troops.
This sign-of-the-times vignette reminded me of an experience I had in
December 1990 – just weeks before this country’s first war with Iraq.
With talk of the government reinstating the draft in time for the Jan. 15,
1991, attack date, war was not far from the minds of players – all in prime
drafting age – for the Penn State and Florida State football teams, who
gathered in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for the inaugural Blockbuster Bowl.
The thought of their fantasy worlds as athletes possibly being interrupted
by real world events clearly frightened some of these guys.
“Me and my roommates talk about it a lot,” said Keith Goganious, a junior
linebacker with the Nittany Lions at the time. “You’re talking about a guy
(Saddam Hussein) who’s doing things he should not be doing, the result of
which will affect the whole world. He’s basically nuts.”
The Seminole players I spoke with that day agreed.
“I’ll tell you what, Friday’s just a football game,” quarterback Casey
Weldon said. “But when you’re talking about the world and life as we know it,
it puts things in perspective in a hurry.”
It was refreshing to see so many of the football players – guys who
normally are thought of as little more than spoiled, dim-witted jocks –
understand the high-stakes game facing the world and, just as important, their
roles in that game.
But just as Goganious and I were wrapping up our talk, another Lion player
who had just finished an interview session at the podium, walked by.
Star quarterback Tony Sacca seemed puzzled by the topic of discussion.
“Why are you asking him about the war?” Sacca said to me, all the while
shaking his head in apparent disbelief.
I invited the outspoken Sacca if he wanted to join in. Quickly and
decisively, he shot me down.
“For what?” he shot back. “What does that have to do with this game?”
Sacca was still smirking as he left the room.
Now, Goganious was the one shaking his head.
Another reporter, who wandered over, asked Goganious, who was one of nine
underclassmen starting on defense for the team, about his expectations for the
following year.
“God forbid,” he softly answered, “with everything that’s going on
overseas, we might not even be here next year.”
Reach Kellar at 829-7243 or jkellar@leader.net