I See A Pattern

From Peter King's column in CNNSI:

"When life gives you lemons, you've got to make lemonade.'' -- Former New Orleans and Carolina linebacker and assistant coach Sam Mills, who died last week after a 21-month bout with intestinal cancer.

I have covered some good men during my 21 years on the football beat. Anthony Munoz comes to mind. Frank Reich. Mark Bavaro. Jim Breech. Steve Young. Don Hasselbeck. His son Matt. Hines Ward. Kurt Warner. Derrick Brooks. But none better than Sam Mills. We talked 10 or 15 times over the years, including once over dinner before a Panthers playoff game in the franchise's early days. And the guy just wouldn't give himself credit for anything. Jim Mora deserved praise for giving him a chance, Carl Peterson for signing him, Bill Kuharich for scouting him, Dom Capers for coaching him, Rickey Jackson and Vaughn Johnson for freeing him up to be a Pro Bowl linebacker in New Orleans. Mills was just a remarkably self-effacing person -- and not self-effacing in the phony way. He meant every word.

What do Mills, Munoz, Reich, Bavaro, Breech, Young, Hasselbeck (father and son), Warner and Brooks all have in common? All are devout, evangelistic Christians who use their athletic prowess and fame to share the love of Christ. Young, of course, is a Mormon, but very open about his faith. And I don't know much about Hines Ward (but I would suspect he's a Christian too).

What does this mean? It means these boys are light in the darkness...the salt of the earth. You have to really walk the walk to have this sort of affect on a grizzled, cynical sportswriter like Peter King.