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What a weird week
Posted: Sunday January 30, 2000 02:28 PM
ATLANTA (CNNSI.com) -- I saw the most amazing televised event of my life Friday night. I saw Buffalo defensive end Bruce Smith, on our live TNT Super Bowl show, keel over and fall backward. Live. On national TV. It happened at 11:50 p.m. Smith was a guest on the main set of the annual TNT Friday-night-before-the-Super-Bowl show. I was at a remote studio, actually in the CNN Center. I'd talked to Smith, who I've known pretty well for a decade, over our headsets (while waiting through overtime of the Knicks-Hawks game) about the failure of his defensive coordinator, Ted Cottrell, to get a job interview for any of the head-coaching vacancies this winter. Smith was passionate about it. He was drinking a lot of water. He said the set lights were hot, though the others on the set thought it was comfortable. Smith was wearing a dark suit. Just before the show began around 11, Smith excused himself to go to the bathroom. The host, Bob Lorenz, came to Smith a few times during the show. He asked to go to the bathroom again just before going to a podium behind the set with co-host Trev Alberts at about 11:48. "There was trepidation on my part anyway because I'm not used to being in that role," said Alberts, who is usually an analyst, not a host. "But when Bruce got hooked up again, he was sweating and didn't look well. And he was unsteady, kind of walking back and forth. They said: 'Stand still, we're setting our shot.' He kept moving."
Smith looked shaky on the first question and then, just as Alberts asked him another question about tackle Fred Miller's responsibilities on Titan pass-rusher Jevon Kearse, Smith mumbled something. "All I could see were the whites of his eyes. they rolled back in his head," Alberts said. And then Smith keeled over backward. He appeared to faint. We took a long commercial. Smith got up and appeared okay. He sat in a room near the set for a while, said he'd had the flu recently and was dehydrated. Then he left, saying his driver for the night was going to take him to a hospital to be checked out. The show went on. Smith is apparently okay. His wife told Bills director of public relations Scott Berchtold Smith has checked into a hospital, spent Friday night there, checked out Saturday just fine and is still planning to fly to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl. Weird Super Bowl week. Really weird. I go out Saturday morning before the Hall of Fame meeting -- I am one of 38 selectors -- to get a coffee at Starbucks just down Peachtree, and the sidewalks, literally, are skating rinks. I run into Jesse Jackson last night and (see story elsewhere on this site) he tells me the slow pace of black head-coaching hires stems from "a culture driven by white supremacists." Is there a football game coming? Please? And finally, for the Ten Things I Think I Think: 1. I think I have never seen such a wimpy city in my life. 2. I think it's the quietest I've ever seen a Super Bowl lobby, and the most normal I've ever seen a Super Bowl town. 3. I think it's an indictment of journalism in America that we report on CNNSI.com Friday night the the Rev. Jesse Jackson equates NFL establishment with white supremacists, and not a soul in this town or business notices. 4. I think I look at Mike Tyson and wonder: What is this hair-twirling thing? 5. I think there are members of the Rams front-office who still are chagrined and embarrassed by some of their players' taunting and immature ranting after the NFC title win over Tampa. 6. I think I still like the Rams 24-20. 7. I think the key to this game is how Kurt Warner plays, but I really like the fact that he took a three-hour nap yesterday. True story. 8. I think Jeff Wilkins must be the most nervous guy in this town right now. The Ram kicker has missed six of his last eight kicks, and he has a bum plant let. Relax, big guy. 9. I think I would like to congratulate my nephew, Evan King, for his fourth-place finish in the Pinewood Derby in Connecticut yesterday. Way to go, buddy! 10. I think I'm going to have a turkey sandwich, a small pot of coffee, and a 45-minute nap before heading to the dome. Check back with me at halftime. I'll be back with my Ten Halftime Things I Think.
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