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Boomer remembers his dad
Posted: Monday January 03, 2000 10:34 AM Week 12 Awards | The Top 10 Teams |The 10 Things I Think I Think Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag. PITTSBURGH -- As Norman Esiason moved through the overflowing buffet line on Thanksgiving at his son Boomer's house on Long Island, the son good-naturedly chided the father about the growing mountain of food on his plate. "Hey, Dad," Boomer said. "Is this the Last Supper or what?" "Boom," Dad replied, "you never know when you're going to get a meal like this again." Thursday was a great day at the Esiason house. Eleven family members gathered to celebrate the holiday, including Boomer's sportcoated father, who'd taken up residence in the cottage out back -- much to the delight of Boomer, who'd seen his father take in his grandfather late in life at the family home in East Islip. Norman swelled with pride at the sight of his three grandchildren. They ate huge meals. They watched football. They second-guessed the calls. They had a classic family Thanksgiving. Late in the afternoon, Norman Esiason went to feed the two dogs a plate of turkey down by the cottage. An hour he was gone. An hour and a half. The family went to check on Norman Esiason, and he was lying on the floor in the cottage, dead. The medics said it was a massive coronary. "The population of the world is a little thinner today," Esiason said Saturday night. "We've lost a great man." "You have good memories of him?" I asked Esiason. "Millions," Esiason said. "My mom died when I was 6, and every day my dad had to take the train into Manhattan -- that took over an hour -- to work. He worked down in the Wall Street area. He was a safety engineer at job sites in New York City. So during the days, my two older sisters and neighbors took care of me when I wasn't in school. My dad would pray to God I'd never burn the house down. "You know, I never saw him with another woman. I never heard him talk about another woman. I guess he and my mom had the kind of rare relationship where she was the only woman for him. He was so loyal to her, even after she died. "But he was so great to me. He sacrificed so much for me. We'd go to maybe 20 Rangers games a year that his company got him tickets for, some on weeknights. You know what he'd do? He'd take the train into work, then rush to take it back home, pick me up, then take the train all the way back in to the game. Then we'd take it back, and he'd have to get up in a few hours to get on it again the next morning. Those were great days. Some of my most powerful memories were me and him, at Rangers games. The irony of this is how he's given me so many memories, and I was going to give him one Dec. 11, at Madison Square Garden. I'm playing in a celebrity hockey game, in full Rangers uniform. Would he have loved that. "He never yelled at me; he didn't need to yell to get his message across. He didn't hit me much. I don't know why I remember it now, but one time my friend Allen got hit by a car and died at one of my games, and I'll never forget my dad going to him in the middle of the street, poised in the middle of chaos. He told me to go get a blanket, and he wrapped Allen in it, taking care of him before the ambulance got there. "He had great respect for teachers and coaches. One time, when I played for Sal Ciampi, who ran a great football program at East Islip High, he came home from work and I told him: 'Sal pushed me today.' And he said: 'Good. Next time he should push you harder.'" We all grieve in our own ways. After getting his affairs in order Friday, Boomer took son Gunnar to the see the Rangers game. It just felt right. It was right. Boomer, part of ABC's Monday-night crew now, will do the Packers-49ers game tonight in San Francisco, then take the redeye home for the viewing Tuesday afternoon and evening at the Fairchild Funeral Home in Manhasset. Services are Wednesday in Manhasset. "You know," said the famous No. 7, "my last touchdown pass was 77 yards. My dad died at 77. He died on Nov. 25. Two plus five. Seven." OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Cincinnati QB Jeff Blake, who played about as well as a quarterback can play in yesterday's 27-20 Bengals win in Pittsburgh. I've seen Blake twice this year -- early, when he threw for two touchdowns and ran for 90 yards in a one-point loss at Tennessee, and yesterday. He's much better than I thought, much better than I'd seen in recent years. He can make all the throws, the rush doesn't bother him, and he uses his legs very, very intelligently. He's steadily becoming a big factor in the February 2000 free-agent market. Blake threw the deep ball on the first series and found Darnay Scott for 76 yards. He quarterbacked the Bengals to a 24-3 lead. In the third quarter, after the Steelers cut the lead to 24-20, the Bengals had a third-and-nine at their 33, and the crowd was going bonkers. Blake dropped back in the shotgun, looked over the defense and sprinted right for 11 yards; that drive ended in a field goal. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Oakland LB Greg Biekert. It's not often this award goes to a player whose defense was just shredded, as Oakland's was in a 37-34 loss to Kansas City. But Biekert had one of the best games a defensive player has had in the league this season: 11 tackles, four assists, a sack, an interception nearly returned for a touchdown. With the game tied at 20 late in the third quarter, Biekert picked off an Elvis Grbac pass and returned it 36 yards to the Chiefs three; the Raiders scored on the next play. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: St. Louis KR Tony Horne, whose 64-yard opening-kickoff return against New Orleans set up an easy first Rams score 62 seconds into the game. For the game, Horne -- just off his four-game substance-abuse suspension by the league -- returned four kicks for 160 yards. COACH OF THE WEEK: Carolina coach George Seifert. I don't care if the Panthers are in a horrible division. To be 5-6 with that talent (should I put that in quotes, "talent"?) means Seifert's doing one heck of a job. They've scored 22 more points than Seattle, 11 fewer than mighty Minnesota. Nice job by Seifert. GOAT OF THE WEEK: Miami QB Dan Marino, or whoever that was in his uniform Thursday in Dallas. In his 17 seasons, he's never had a worse start than his five-interception, 20-0 loss to the Cowboys. His arm was in mid-May form, and if it looks that weak again next week against the Colts, Jimmy Johnson's got a full-scale quarterback controversy on his hands. 1. Jacksonville (10-1). A good team wins two or three games on the road
that it had no business
winning.
The 10 Things I Think I Think This Week 1. I think, as I always think when I get to Pittsburgh, that Myron Cope is the best radio listen in all of sports. He's got a great new foil, too, in former Steelers lineman Tunch Ilkin. Samples of Cope's broadcast yesterday: 2. I think this means something, and I know it's not good for the Giants: The Bills have two players -- Antowain Smith and Jonathan Linton -- and nearly a third (Flutie) who have more than double the number of total rushing yards of Giants leader Tiki Barber (196). This is modern football. We are entering December. The leading rusher on a team that prides itself on running the ball is averaging 18 yards per Giants game. That is a stunning number. 3. I think Jeff George is making fools out of all those pro scouts who said his off-field selfishness would outweigh what he'd bring to a team on the field. I'm so sick of hearing how damaging guys like George are to the chemistry of a team. What garbage. The guy throws BBs -- accurate ones. Teams in this league fall all over each other to sign Lawrence Phillips -- he's not bad for chemistry, is he? -- and then let George twist in the wind. 4. I think Jim Fassel and Pete Carroll just took giant steps toward the gangplank yesterday. 5. I think every time I watch Steve Beuerlein play, I wonder why so many teams said they'd rather have Trent Dilfer and Erik Kramer and Bubby Brister play for them. Beuerlein makes all the throws. He hangs in there against a strong rush. He's slow, yes. But he's one of the best 15 quarterbacks in the game, and he's the reason such a ramshackle group of Panthers are playing half-decently. 6. I think I like the frankness of Tennessee general manager Floyd Reese, who's happy about Nashville's enthusiastic acceptance of the Titans but realistic about the future. It's easy to accept a 9-2 team. "If we turn around and fall on our face in the second half of the season, it might be a ghost town," Reese said. "We don't know how fragile it is here yet." 7. I think -- though I'm sure it was a dream -- I was watching a chunk of a VH-1 show the other night on the 100 most important people in music in the 20th century. No. Now I remember I was watching it! That's why I turned it off right when they ranked Smokey Robinson ahead of Paul McCartney. Uh, wasn't McCartney in a pretty good band once? And wasn't he, like, co-No. 1? I mean, you know, come on. 8a. I think Bill Cowher is coaching the Steelers on opening day 2000 in Pittsburgh. 8b. I think Kordell Stewart is quarterbacking. 8c. I think Three Rivers fans are booing. 9. I think, walking out of Three Rivers last night, I was heartened to see the sign outside of PNC Park, the under-construction baseball park. It kept blinking that there were 500 days until the opener. The Pirates open there in 2001, and I'm told it will be a sight to behold. By the way, Steelers owner Dan Rooney told me something surprising on the field before the game yesterday. He said the Steelers stadium, on the other side of Three Rivers from PNC Park, is seven weeks ahead of schedule, but they may have trouble shipping in the steel to stay ahead of schedule. "Is the steel coming from Japan?" I asked. He said: "No, I'd be lynched if it was." He said the steel is coming from Texas. Seems the one up-and-running Pennsylvania steel plant doesn't have the capacity to manufacture the steel. 10. I think I'd love to be a fly on the wall this morning in San Diego coach Mike Riley's office when Ryan Leaf walks in to resume what has been one of the most lie-filled, disappointing and annoying NFL careers in recent league history. If Leaf says anything other than, "I'm on my hands and knees begging you to take me back even though I've been a royal dillweed," he's dumber than I thought. Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag.
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