 |
 |  |
|  |
The Life of Silver Thomas' injury dogs NFL revelers
Posted: Thursday January 27, 2000 11:45 AM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Silver -- along with his partner in crime, SI reporter Josh Elliott -- is attempting to do the impossible during Super Bowl week. Silver will try to be where all the action is, while still getting at least two hours of sleep every night. Here's today's report: Last night we went to Justin's here (it's Puffy's bar), with Todd Lyght and Co. It's a very upscale place, a mostly African-American clientele, and the coolest place I've been to in Atlanta. It's just great. Todd and I have a lot of common friends and for the most part hadn't had a chance to hang out with them so Tuesday night was cool. Along for the ride was an old friend of mine from when I was hanging out with Dennis Rodman, his name's Floyd. Justin's was just rockin'. I walked in and got a hug from Terrell Davis, which was really good for me because I haven't been back to Denver since I wrote the Oct. 11, 1999, cover story on the Broncos ( "We're finished") and a lot of people wondered if anyone from the team would speak to me again. But Terrell Davis is the most mellow superstar in the world. To get a hug off the bat did me good. Isaac Bruce was there, and we had a humorous conversation about some of Dick Vermeil's quotes in this week's Sports Illustrated. Dick wasn't really happy about some of them and let each of us know in separate conversations.
Marshall Faulk was there also, along with Tony Gonzalez. Tony gave me a chance to relive Cal hoops, which is always good. And Tony's just one of several guys I saw Tuesday night who talked about Derrick Thomas. That kind of cast a pall over an otherwise spirited nightlife. The thought of Derrick being seated for his entire life makes no sense. And nobody on the outside knows who Mike Tellis is, but anyone around Derrick knows what a sweet and mellow guy Mike was. Charles Woodson was in the house. Chris Doleman, wearing a multi-colored sweater out of a John Hughes movie, was in the house. But we couldn't stay too, too long at Justin's. So we went back to the Tongue and Groove. There was a major overflow crowd there, and things got a little hazy at about 2:45 a.m., but I do remember a very large man in a velvet-lined jacket giving me a hand slap. It was Neil Smith. We had about 20 seconds of happy conversation before I had to ask about Derrick Thomas. You just sort of feel like an idiot when you talk about it in that scene. You're out there having a good time and you know this guy's having a heck of a crisis. But if you know Derrick Thomas could talk to you, he say, "Go out and live your life to the fullest." I once wrote he was the NFL's social butterfly, and it's true, he's the life of a party. There were some pretty big names there, as well: Marcus Allen and Natrone Means, but once I looked over to the dance floor and saw Franco Harris just going off. I'm far from awed after doing this job for a few years, but I saw him and I was a kid again. After lunch at CNN Center, it was back to the media hotel. And to the disgust of the hardworking daily journalists around the country, that's where Josh and I waged a ping-pong battle royal in the press lounge. They had just moved the table out there and we made quite a scene. At 6'5" he had three inches on me and took me down four-games-to-one. We worked up quite a sweat and now we're going to shower. Get your minds out of the gutter, we're taking separate showers. Later, I promise you, there will be a rematch.
This evening I will find a St. Louis employee, an inside source, who will tell me everything I need to know. Let's hope I can remember the conversation.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
