NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE PLAYERS ASSOCIATION WESTERN REGIONAL OFFICE mi

January 15, 1988

Irving Louis Horowitz Office of the President Transaction Publishers Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ 08903 Dear Irving: Enclosed, find the issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED with the article about me in it, page 44. I read your, "Monopolization & Publishing and Crisis in Higher Education." Given the "crisis" nature inherent in the monopolization of the publishing industry, it's a good thing we the people have Trans-Action doing its valuable thing. Does this represent a trend generally speaking in the U.S. and capitalist world, i.e., the monopolization of various economic sectors by a relatively few huge corporations? I continue to read Communicating Ideas. As usual, you have hit the mark, timing wise, with excellent analysis of a key social and political issue. The old saw, "information is power" has a strong ring of truth. More importantly, who generates and controls the flow of information is the key issue. I think the impact of television on how we think about the social reality has been underrated. What kind of information the great collective "we" are getting and in what context. I know this is over generalizing but as you recall, we faced the form/substance dialectic with the scab games. How right was Tex Schramm when he said, "it's the uniforms people want to see, not the people inside the uniforms." Another issue is the rising cost of "hard copy" printed matter, magazines and books. I think twice about spending $19.95 for a hard cover book or $2.00 to $3.00 for a magazine. Information is costly, and we are still not

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Western Regional Office: 450 Harrison St., Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94105 • Tele: (415) 546-7866 Irving Louis Horowitz Page Two January 15, 1988 talking about, personal computers, modems and high transmission costs. So then we are left with various elites, with access to information, making decisions or developing perspectives about social policy. I see this every time I do a team visit, a young largely uninformed T.V. generation juxtaposed against an informed "elite" with access to information. I'm not saying pro-football players can't afford the price of a book or magazine, the fact is they don't read much and probably derive much of their information and perspective about the world from television. Yet there is a real understanding of self-interest, but not the understanding of the complexities of how to achieve it. I realize that this is an old problem of intellectuals, technical elites and other "brain workers," being separate from the people effected by the elite's productions. Herman Kahn's criticisms of the New Class bears down hard at this juncture, which seems to stay in place regardless of what information technology is used. Whether this gap is increasing is a key guestion as you point out. Twenty per cent of our adult population is functionally illiterate. Clearly, the opportunity to inform and to be informed as an interactive function, rather than a passive response is a promise the new technology holds. I believe many tax dollars must be spent to not only raise literacy standards but to take the next step and educate to computer literacy. Otherwise most of us will be in the techno-peasant class, and the new Luddites will rise up and smash the terminals. A many facited problem which I'm opening my eyes to while reading Communicating Ideas.

Let me know what you think about the idea of the symposium I mentioned in my last letter. I hope to be back East the end of January. I'll give you a call. My regards,

David Meggyesy Western Director DM:s f r Enclosure Still on the Outside

Nearly two decades ago Dave Meggyesy took on the NFL in rick's bed, his old man is an earnest his scathing book. Now as a union man his struggle continues St. Louis Cardinal about to dehumanize a Dallas Cowboy on a distant Sunday afternoon. BY DAVID REM NICK "I love that picture," says Patrick. "It makes me proud of my father." BOVE HIS BED 14-YEAR-OLD PAT- cal linebacker who announced to the Patrick is a wispy, intelligent kid who rick Meggyesy has tacked up a world that "when society changes in the wears his hair tied back in a ponytail; black-and-white photograph way I hope it will, football will be obso­ he's just the sort of youth you would ex­ of his old man. It's not one of lete." Nor does the picture show the pect to find living in Berkeley, Calif. He the angry images of Dave man who called football a militaristic talks about a "nuclear-free Berkeley," AMeggyesy that people dimly remember "rationalization" for the war in Viet­ reads Carlos Castaneda and goes to a ju­ from nearly two decades ago: the in­ nam, a racist sport "that is one of the nior high school organized on the princi­ flamed, bearded jock raging against the most dehumanizing experiences a per­ ples of A.S. Neill's progressive school, bullet-headed lords of football, the radi- son can face." In the picture over Pat­ Summerhill.

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\ July. Right now the strongest positions are quarterback and receiver. The offen­ sive line, which has only five players, is pathetic. "I can't imagine trying to play NBC WAS STRIKINGLY SUPERIOR these games with players who haven't been in our system," says coach Tom BC WHICH USED TO BE MORE union chief Gene Upshaw and the Landry, who surveys the action from interested in yuks and stu­ owners' man, Jack Donlan. When atop a three-story-high platform. He dio audiences than in hard- Upshaw dropped a small bombshell, makes notes on a clipboard and directs nosed journalism on its revealing that he had talked that day two videotape cameramen. NFL pregame show, beat to a "mystery man" who might be By week's end more than 400 hope­ CBNS up and down the line of scrim­ able to settle the strike, Gifford cut to fuls have phoned the Cowboys, offering mage in coverage of the strike. a commercial and then to an inter­ their services on the field. Bill Westfall, On Sunday both networks expanded view with Mike Singletary of the a Cowboy security guard, turns away a their shows from half an hour to an Bears without asking Upshaw to truck driver who shows up at the gate to hour and jettisoned their traditional identify his secret contact. (It turned the team's facility, but not before the fel­ formats of profiles and game predic­ out to be Pete Rozelle, of course.) low rips open his shirt and declares, tions. The NFL Today on CBS was Producer Mike Pearl must share "Look at this body! And I don't even lift unmasked as little more than the some blame for not ordering Gifford weights." But the Cowboys do sign re­ Brent Musburger Show, while NFL to at least say, Who, Gene? ceiver Clay Pickering, who has bumped Live proved capable of addressing around the NFL since 1984 without ever the important questions. catching a pass and has worked most re­ NBC anchorman Bob Costas ze­ cently as a glazier in New York. They roed in on his guests in Koppelesque also pluck kicker Tom Dixon, who led style. One of the striking players, Jim the CFL in scoring last year for the Ed­ Kelly of the Bills, told him that whole monton Eskimos, from an island off teams may start crossing picket lines Western Canada, where he was working before long. Bob Trumpy and Jimmy in his father's lumberyard. Cefalo, NFL Live's point-counter­ "You can't help but get caught up in point duo—Trumpy sides with man­ the novelty of this," says Paul Hackett, agement, Cefalo with the players— the Cowboys' pass-offense coordinator. raised salient issues. For example, Hackett predicts scab ball will look like Trumpy argued that the owners are the old AFL games—lots of wide-open holding the line on free agency in play. "These teams won't be in the ball­ fear of Al Davis's buying an entire park of the NFL," says Hackett, "but team with the proceeds from his they don't have to be. The kids are so en­ planned move to Irwindale. thusiastic—it's their chance at a dream. Although Musburger delivered a They're fun to coach." strong commentary on the strike two No player is more enthusiastic than weeks ago, on Sunday CBS danced Kevin Sweeney, the former Fresno State around the real issues, such as wheth­ Trumpy got his points across on 'NFL Live.' quarterback who was Dallas's seventh- er the players would cross the picket round pick last spring. Cut on Sept. 7, lines and the reasons the scab games NBC also merited applause for Sweeney was considering retiring from are being played. The story certainly showing a Tigers-Blue Jays game on football. Real estate beckoned. So did wasn't the history of trade unionism Sunday afternoon. A boo to CBS for five NFL teams when the strike broke as told by reporter Anne Butler or a dusting off a videotape of last sea­ out. "I thought it was morally wrong to meet-me-in-Las Vegas routine with son's Super Bowl. CBS's lack of cross a picket line," Sweeney says. "My Jimmy the Greek. Aside from Mus­ imagination—it could have bid for grandfathers were coal miners in Butte, burger and the underutilized Will the Mets-Pirates game, for in­ Mont. But when they went on strike, it McDonough, no one on The NFL To­ stance—demonstrates how cost ac­ was to put food on the table. This is dif­ day would know a hard-news story if countants have taken over at the net­ ferent. These guys aren't laborers. it hit him in the forehead. works. CBS knew that it could get a "I've never felt this secure. You do On a scale of 1 to 10, ABC's strike midsized rating for its Super Bowl your best, and if you throw it in the dirt, coverage rated a 2!4. During half- rehash without spending a farthing you throw it in the dirt. They can't cut time of the final game before the on rights fees or production. Such us. So what if the strike ends and we strike, the Jets-Patriots on Monday reasoning makes this viewer want to are gone tomorrow. We got a second night, Sept. 21, Frank Gifford tossed go on strike. chance. Heck, last week I was out of out cream-puff questions to players —WILLIAM TAAFFE work, watching Leave It to Beaver re­ runs. Now I'm playing quarterback for the Cowboys." •

43 'Patrick is into consciousness-type "I'm gonna play Pop Warner next found a road to Syracuse University, «ff," Dave Meggyesy says. "He's about year for the Berkeley Cougars," Patrick where he hung out with the hip and a thousand miles ahead of me when I says. "Dad says he wants to talk to the learned to read something more than was at that age." coach first. I think he wants to find out playbooks. "But I like football, too," says Patrick. about the kind of football they play. And As a pro with the Cardinals he earned "I sort of like the violence." he wants to make sure I'm ready. He's a good living and the respect of his Patrick was not yet born when his fa­ worried my muscles aren't developed coaches. The people of St. Louis cared ther quit the NFL in 1969 at the height enough yet. But he's not against it. I intensely what Meggyesy did with his of his game and wrote Out of Their think Dad still loves the game. He's just Sundays. There were days when the League, the scathing indictment that always wanted to make it better." game was pure pleasure. "I remember stunned Pete Rozelle into silence. The having an unreal afternoon against the football bosses thought they could ig­ If there was ever living evidence of the Colts, stopping John Mackey," he says. nore and isolate Meggyesy, but his book importance of play in life, it's Dave "We'd played together at Syracuse. I changed the way we think about the Meggyesy. Football has been everything wasn't out to kill him, but when the day most popular spectator sport in the to him. "It opened the world to me," he was over, I just knew I had done the ab­ country. Patrick is proud of the way his says. "It gave it shape." solute best I could do. It was the feeling father fought for the things he believed When Meggyesy was a poor kid grow­ that I'd worked for all my life." in, and yet it seems so long ago. Patrick ing up in Glenwillow, Ohio, and his wid­ Then came the matter of leaving foot­ can't possibly appreciate the fact that owed father beat him for "being just a ball after seven years in the NFL. Re- back then tackling the institution of stupid lefthanded kid," he found escape football was a great deal harder than and solace in football. He found mentors When Meggyesy goes to practice now, it's to stopping Jim Brown in the open field. who would praise and teach him. He wait for a chance to hear player grievances.

• v~ x X \ "x X' \ \ \ \ \ \ \ vvS vVS • s \ X XX *\ S X X^v X V , .-v \ x \ V x V XXX MEGGYESY

After seven NFL seasons, Meggyesy wine-smell of roses. By the picnic tabl^fe came to grips with disillusionment. Meggyesy's wife, Stacy, is breast-feeding' their 2%-year-old daughter, Erin. (NFLPA), a union man who Meggyesy twists open a beer and says, spent the first week of the "The truth is, I've never been a big fan of ^ strike in the San Francisco and the game. I probably didn't watch a Washington offices explaining game from the time I wrote the book un­ issues to players, gathering til 1977. The only way I got back into it support from former players as was I started working as a carpenter, well as other unions, and offer­ and on a Sunday I'd take a break and ing whatever help possible to watch a football game. I watch now be­ the pickets. "Some of them are cause I know guys who are playing and I being very creative on the admire their abilities, but I've never lines," he said with relish, re­ really understood the whole fan vibe. ferring to an incident in Cin­ "Being a professional athlete was so cinnati in which quarterback strange. The real beauty of the experi­ Boomer Esiason lay in front of ence is the actual play, the exhilaration a bus carrying the scab players of it, physically and emotionally. But be­ to practice, and to one in cause you have fans, millions of fans Cleveland in which striking who get so crazy about the game and feel players drove cars at three so deeply about it, you have all these sec­ miles an hour in front of the ondary and third-level industries sur­ ri bus that brought in the substi­ rounding the game—the press, especial­ tute players. It took the bus ly. You have people dissecting your ev­ jecting football was more painful than about 20 minutes to go just one mile. ery move and thought. It would be so any injury. When Meggyesy grew dis­ Meggyesy is remarkably well pre­ amazing if the experience were for its gusted with the game, he divorced it, served. He's 45 years old, trim, muscular own sake. But 10 minutes later there are thought hard about what he'd been and as clean-shaven as a plebe. Gone microphones all over the place, and ev­ through and, a year later, wrote a po­ are the beard and the sleeveless T-shirts eryone wants you to explain thinj lemical book that made Jim Bouton's and the scruffy boots. Meggyesy wears 'Why did you screw up?' 'Why did ; Ball Four seem as tame as The Red an alligator shirt and jeans around the hit that hole instead of the other one?' Grange Story. Meggyesy wrote about house and a tie when business calls. 'How does it feel?' And you have to re­ alumni boosters contributing money un­ But for the photograph on Patrick's spond to all these people who never der the table to college athletes, team wall, there's hardly a clue in the Meg­ knew the first thing about what it feels doctors shooting up players with pain­ gyesy house of Meggyesy's incarnation like. It's not necessarily wrong, it's just killers, coaches pushing athletes to play as No. 60. No trophies, no plaques, no so strange and removed from what could despite serious injuries, players cheating game balls. The modest house is what be the purest kind of experience. It's like on their wives and organizing orgies, sa­ you might expect of a nostalgic, educat­ making love and having to explain it to distic coaches treating players like dray ed flower child. A visitor passes under a someone every time." horses, teams divided along racial lines. front-door sign that reads: MAY PEACE In the 1960s and early '70s nearly ev­ His candor did not make him loved. Of PREVAIL ON EARTH. Back issues of CoEvo- ery institution, from the Pentagon to Meggyesy and another NFL "dropout," lution Quarterly are piled in a corner. In marriage to sports, had its iconoclastic Oakland Raiders linebacker Chip Oli­ the small backyard, there are lemon opponents. Rebellion came late to foot­ ver, New York Jets coach Weeb Ew- trees, birds of paradise and the thick ball. At some schools, players faced off bank once said, "They fell for Commu­ against antiwar protesters. But when nist hogwash and quit football. They football finally got its comeuppance, it joined organizations that will just cost us was fitting that, in an era when the min­ more taxes. These are the things that ing of the Haiphong harbor and the re­ poison our young youth." newed bombing of North Vietnam was But after years of getting over football called Operation Linebacker, a real-life and then ignoring it, Meggyesy has re­ linebacker did the job. turned to the game, a prodigal son not so It was one thing for students to pro­ much chastened and humbled as intent test the war, but here was a ballplayer on making football a thing worth caring sniping at the game that "made" him. In about. For the past six years he has been the locker rooms and boardrooms of the the western director of the National NFL, says NFLPA executive director Football League Players Association Gene Upshaw, "Meggyesy was loookk a on as a guy with two heads, a guy had to be watched." • With the publication of his book, Meggyesy became a well-known counterculture figure. Rozelle saw that Bowie Kuhn had

46 traded unwanted publicity when he gin writing more about the human di­ game in anger, but he did it the way a • mmoned Bouton to his office in 1970 mensions of football, trying to under­ lover leaves a tempestuous affair. The to chew him out for writing Ball Four. stand the sport, not only for the pleasure game had given structure and meaning Rozelle knew better. He ignored Out of and escape it can be, but also for its im­ to his life. Suddenly those exhilarating Their League, and to this day he refuses portance as a reflection of the greater moments on the field, the friendships, to be interviewed about Meggyesy. world. Out of Their League would go out the signals of approval from teammates, Small wonder. Meggyesy wrote that it of print, but its words entered the lan­ all of it was gone. He was depressed at was Rozelle's decision to play NFL guage of sport. times, and restless. games two days after President Kenne­ Time consumes public figures. Once "It's like your biological clock is tied dy's assassination in 1963 that first "be­ it had given Meggyesy his moment, it to football, mentally and physically," he gan to disillusion me with the pros." moved on to the next fascination, the says. "Even in the book I was dealing And those were the nice things he said. next celebrity. Although he was now with football. When the World Football David Harris, who wrote 77ze League: freeze-framed as "the guy who quit and League came on-line in the early '70s, a The Rise and Decline of the NFL, in wrote that book," Meggyesy was young friend of mine knew someone associated 1986, says, "Meggyesy was the first to in 1971, only 29. He had a life to live. with the Portland team, and he pro­ come along and say that Pete Rozelle's And he had a strange hunger inside. He posed to them that I might be interested attempt to portray the league as a still dreamed of playing football. The in playing. I said it was absurd at first, wholesome. all-American engagement truth was that for all the searing things but I started to think about it. of sportsmen was incomplete. That, on he had said about the game, he could not "I was in Albuquerque to do some one level, it was a business and a meat get playing out of his head. Christmas shopping. I was driving back factory, was not something Rozelle cared to have mentioned." Meggyesy's lexicon was sheer '60s, and his political insight was often dreamy and half-baked, but his creden­ tials as an honest, intelligent witness made people think. The book sold 30,000 copies in hardcover and 650,000 paperback. "No one athlete had as ch cultural impact," says Robert Lip- • syte, who wrote several columns about Meggyesy for The New York Times. "He had such passion. That energy that went into making him a killer jock—all that reflexive obedience to authority—was transformed into anger when he felt be­ trayed and lied to." At about the time the book came out the Meggyesys had something much tougher to deal with: personal tragedy. In 1968, Stacy gave birth to Sarah, who was born microcephalic and was institu­ tionalized all her life. She died at age 15. "Dave's critics could be heartless," Stacy says. "We got nasty letters all the time. In the book he admitted taking LSD, Before the strike—and during it—Meg­ home alone in the van, and I was getting and one person wrote him that we de­ gyesy came East to confer with Upshaw. into this fantasy of playing again. I be­ served to get a retarded child after using gan to daydream. I was a linebacker, drugs. It was brutal at times." Life had taken on all the trappings of and the offense was running a tough Soon there were more books like his. a counterculture paradise. He and his play, a kind of sweep where the tight end Soon a better-known player, George family rented a log cabin in the moun­ blocks down on you and they pull a lead Sauer of the Jets, would quit the NFL tains near Durango, Colo., where they back out to block, too. It's a lot like the for reasons similar to Meggyesy's and "got into some spiritual things." They picture on Patrick's wall. In the movie in give Out of Their League more credibil­ paid the rent by working on the cabin. my head I tried to do what the lineback­ ity among those who had thought, as When Meggyesy needed extra money, er is supposed to do in that situation: use had Broncos coach Dan Reeves, that he would give a lecture. up those two blocks so the safety behind "Meggyesy was no great player any- But the difficulty of athletic retire­ me can eat up the play. ^fcr. ~ Soon colleges would start offering ment is well known. Suddenly young "But the way it happened in my ^Rrses in the sociology of sport and use men and women are forced to die a little. mind, I got hit and I flew backward. I the book as a text. Journalists would be­ Meggyesy had walked away from the mean flew! I thought, Better run that

47 HE FASTEST S

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^/?X i M tion was to talk about the love of the ' J V game," he says. "We went 0-11, but it was a great experience to see them ma­ ture and gain confidence even when we were losing. High school football is foot­ # ball in its purest form. It struck me what a crucible for learning it was." The next year, 1979, the head of the ii NFLPA, Ed Garvey, hired Meggyesy to work for the union in San Francisco. "We knew what the league's reaction '^r would be when Ed hired Dave," Up- shaw says. "You still get subtle com­ ments from certain players: 'Wasn't he the guy who wrote that book?' " Ever since, Meggyesy has traveled from team to team in the West, describing what he sees as management failings and dealing with player grievances. movie again. So I went through it again, Scott (left) helped Meggyesy write his book, Most of the players in the NFL were and every time, the same thing hap­ and they still tackle weighty stuff together. in elementary school when Meggyesy pened. Wham! I kept flying backward. had his curious moment of fame. They Finally, a voice went off in my head that a season, he decided to give it a whirl. have little or no idea of the battles he said, 'You are not dense enough.' I Meggyesy once wrote that when he fought, little idea of how different the didn't have it anymore. It was over." was playing ball in high school, he "de­ game is as a result of a slim memoir After that his anger cooled, and the veloped a style the coaches loved. We called Outof Their League. Meggyesys lived happily in the moun­ moved in Oedipal lockstep: the more ap­ But the league knows. "They'll never tains for several years. "The only reason proval they gave me, the more fanatical­ forgive him for speaking out," says Up- we moved back to California in 1976 ly I played." He would do anything for shaw. Jack Donlan, the executive direc­ was that David was a little restless," the coaches, and they knew it. Once, he tor of the NFL Management Council, Stacy says. "We were ready for some­ injured his neck so badly in a "ground- says, "In this league, Meggyesy doesn't thing new." hogging" drill that he could not move it have a very good reputation. He's a radi­ Meggyesy began to teach courses at the next morning. But he would not miss cal who runs off his mouth without Stanford named Sports Consciousness a big game with Warrensville High. Be­ knowing the facts." and Social Change, and The Athlete and fore the game he went to a local doctor, When most people see pro football Society. His students, many of whom who "stuck a long needle into the big players, they see young men averaging were football players, had never had a muscle knot in my neck. When he tried $215,000 a year—according to NFLPA class quite like his. "I had guys like John to pull the needle out, the muscle figures—to "play a game." When the Elway who were from football families spasmed. The needle broke from the Denver Broncos filed into a meeting and traditional backgrounds," Meg­ base of the syringe, and I was left with it room last spring during minicamp, Meg­ gyesy says. "I think what I was doing sticking in my neck. The doctor took a gyesy saw exploited "workers." His was pretty shocking to them." The play­ pair of pliers out of the drawer and message to them was harsh and direct: ers kept journals about what they were pulled it out." Shot up with Novocain, "Players average less than four years in feeling during the season and the read­ Meggyesy played the game. He wanted the game. Look at the amount of money ing they were doing. They read books to be loved. the players generate every year, $875 such as Lipsyte's Sports World, George Such memories shaped Meggyesy's million in 1986, and the players get Leonard's The Ultimate Athlete, Jack year as a coach at Tamalpais High. The around 54 percent of that. Why?" He Scott's The Athletic Revolution and Eu- team had only three experienced se­ was "astonished" by the way league gen Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery. niors, and it was always overmatched by owners have been able to keep average They did "guided imagery" exercises, a the schools it played against. Ostensibly, salaries lower than those in baseball. meditative practice in which the stu­ Tamalpais's biggest accomplishment on Outside the meeting room Reeves dents imagined the feeling of catching a the field was to hold a rival scoreless for waited for his players. He doesn't much long pass or skiing flawlessly down a one half before getting mauled in the like the union. He endures it. Meggyesy powdery slope. second. is another matter. Reeves held his hands At the same time, Meggyesy's oldest Week after week Meggyesy's players way apart and said, "If he's on that end son, Christopher, was playing football at lost, but they were learning something of the spectrum, I'm way over on the Tamalpais High in Marin County. After about themselves. Before games he other. When his book came out, I was the team went 2-8, the coach left for an­ would ask them to sit quietly together playing for the Dallas Cowboys, and other school. When the athletic director and imagine themselves playing an ideal there wasn't a whole lot of discussion asked Meggyesy to take the job for $900 game from start to finish. "My orienta­ about it. First of all, we never thought

52 THE FASTEST

g-reaucing aerodynamics oi : 9000S and the 9000 Turbo is ering that the 9000 s interior so to land-based vehicles: we nous. But much of their electronic maximizes space it's the only import offer the 1988 Saab's. Priced from _ _phistication comes from Saab- aside from the Rolls-Royce Silver about $15,000 to just under $30,000.* Scania's advanced products division, Spur Limousine that the E.RA. rates All the way up to $20,000,000. '"ombitech. as a "large" car, one has to assume there are. So, to all those looking for All of which might lead you to ^TTTATI wder if there are any purely auto- an automobile that transcends the for the 9000S to $28,141 for thi- 9000 Turbo.The $20 million Viggen is not for sale. Mfr's. sugg. retail prices M

Dave Meggyesy was a great professional life when I used illegal drugs, but I petitive? Can we beat the other guy? football player. wouldn't say I was into drugs. At a cer­ The game now is an ode to materialism. "He talks about the painkillers. I've tain time people thought cocaine was It certainly doesn't stand for any spiritu­ never asked anyone to take something pretty benign. Now we know it isn't. al or ethical values. The stuff that sur­ to deaden anything. I did that on my "But drug testing is a control issue. rounds the Super Bowl is just one big own in Dallas because I didn't want to It's the employer assuming the preroga­ corporate self-congratulation. It's so os­ lose my job. It was strictly volunteer. tives of the criminal-justice system. The tentatious it makes you want to puke. Playing in this league was the greatest employer isn't the state. . . . We're fight­ "But a game does have spiritual over­ experience I've ever had. I've had 10 ing this battle for every person who tones. All sports do. The game is a pow­ knee operations, and I'd still do it again. works for a living. There is the tragedy, erful activity that humans do, like mu­ Football wasn't dehumanizing. It was the death of Don Rogers, but every NFL sic. It's a powerful learning context. But tough. Like life. I've never seen the NFL player shouldn't be painted with the it will take a lot to get back to that essen­ Dave Meggyesy saw." same brush. The real drug problem in tial part of it." On his way to the airport, Meggyesy the NFL is in the training rooms. But • On team owners: "In sports there's a asked what Reeves had said about him. Rozelle still doesn't want to talk about tendency to accept things as axiomatic: He smiled at the criticism. "OF Dan's a painkillers." the draft, the right of an owner to keep a fine man," he said. "We just don't see • On race and the NFLPA: "We are player against his will. Capitalists like to things quite the same." a union driven mostly by blacks. In own people. Most owners see players as the NFL a lot of the white guys came chattel, big dumb guys who play a In a way, Meggyesy is a liberal by day, a from conservative or born-again back­ game. .. . The owners know that if the radical by night. He still has criticisms grounds. No matter how big the star, the players wised up and realized that the of the way the league does business, but blacks know the sting of injustice." players are the game and don't need he does the job Upshaw and the union • On football and culture: "Football owners, they'd be in trouble. Owners are ask him to do. They pay him $44,500 to emerged out of Social Darwinism and the only unessential component in the inform and reform. "Dave knows there the industrial period in American histo­ game. Why doesn't someone own Frank is a difference between the immediate ry. .. . It is based on violence, on the Sinatra or the Rolling Stones? It's a real concerns of the union and his idea of a conquest and defense of territory. The mind-body split, a slavery attitude that Utopia," Upshaw says. ball is just a little marker of where you says, 'Look, I'll screw you as long as I Sometimes Meggyesy considers the are. I think the game fits in now with the can until you force me to stop.' It's the things he cannot say on behalf of the whole idea of corporate America. The American ethic. . .. union. Personally, he still speaks un­ values of being aggressive are being test­ "There are some good owners, sparingly of the NFL. If he does have a ed in the business world. Are we com- though. The Rooneys in Pittsburgh have Utopia in mind, it is a long way off, as a sense of decency, because they have a some of his views suggest. A Berkeley family: from left, Stacy, Jennifer sense of history. And Al Davis is com­ • On drugs: "There was a period of my and Patrick, with reclining Dave and Erin. mitted to the game. He'll screw you over in a minute if he can, as all of them will, but at least his players feel that if they perform, they'll be treated all right." Before finishing his comments, Meg­ gyesy referred to a passage in his favor­ ite book about sport, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture by Johan Huizinga: "Play casts a spell over us; it is 'enchanting,' 'captivating.' It is invested with the noblest qualities we are capable of perceiving in things: rhythm and harmony." WYiisrf* Meggyesy knows that he will be for­ ever associated with a more passionate book. "It was an angry book, and those were very angry times," he says. "What I did was take the game of football, which was being used to sell the war in Vietnam, and say, 'Let's examine the game from a typical player's perspec­ tive.' I've had players read it, and they think it's applicable for these times, too. It was every player's story, to a degree, and every man's story about growing up in this culture." •

54 Rethink^j-bur Drink. Mix With GuervoTequila.

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