Letters

How interesting that you posed Cecil (the Diesel) Collins standing in front of a vintage steam locomotive. Do you think Cecil's boiler is about to blow again?
—WILLIAM C. THOMAS, St. Louis

Spoiled Rotten
As I read your April 5 article about Cecil Collins (Heavy Freight), I wavered between anger at and disgust at the NFL. Here is another example of a criminal athlete who is coddled and given preferential treatment solely because he's big and fast. If Collins really is a changed man, he should prove he's a responsible adult before he's offered a job. Can Cecil stay clean and out of trouble for a year without a full-time babysitter? Can he provide for his children? Once Cecil's walked the walk, then he will have earned a chance at a job.
C.J. COOK, Robbinsville, N.J.

Is Collins a changed man? No. Still a con artist? Yes. The next Randy Moss? No. The next Lawrence Phillips? Yes.
PAUL BERNARDO, Phoenix

In Sammy's Image
In predicting the 11 most likely players to be the second coming of Sammy Sosa, you made an obvious omission (Son of Sammy, April 5). Raul Mondesi, the rightfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, is younger than Sosa, plays the same position he does, has similar if not better speed, has a better arm and is also Dominican. Mondesi has always had power but, like Sosa until last year, has never had patience. It's no coincidence that Sosa hit 66 home runs during the season in which he started to take a pitch. Mondesi has begun to do the same.
DANIEL GLASS, Los Angeles

Bleeding Duke Blue
How does Jack McCallum figure that Duke's loss to UConn in the national championship game forces the Blue Devils to share Team of the '90s honors with Kentucky (Conn Artists, April 5)? Sure the Wildcats, like Duke, won two national titles in the decade. So let's go to the tiebreakers. First, the Blue Devils played in five title games in 10 years. Kentucky played in three. Duke made five trips to the Final Four, the Wildcats made four. The Blue Devils defeated Kentucky in perhaps the greatest game of all time on Christian Laettner's miracle shot in 1992.
DAN VERDUN, Yorkville, Ill.

I don't mind McCallum's saying that Trajan Langdon's travel with just over five seconds to play was "an ignominious end to the Alaskan Assassin's college career." However, it bothers me that the remark was SI's epitaph for Langdon's collegiate career. It would have been fitting to include the fact that he scored more than a third of Duke's points (25) and hit several key shots, including a big three near the end that kept the Blue Devils close. Langdon is too outstanding a player to allow McCallum's statement to have been your last word on him.
DAN REED, Eagle River, Alaska

As a 1956 graduate of UConn, I've waited for ages to read about the long road the Huskies traveled to become the national champs. I hope I don't have to wait another 43 years for a repeat performance.
RICHARD A. GOLDRICK, Failfield, Conn.

Don't Bother to Ask
I couldn't agree more with Rick Reilly's column about autographs (THE LIFE OF REILLY, April 5). I clearly remember the day I stopped getting them. I was at a Chicago Blackhawks game when I was 21 and received an autograph from an 18-year-old player. I went back to my seat and realized how stupid it was. A few years later I ran into Bears running back Walter Payton while Christmas shopping. We shook hands and I thanked him for the memories he provided on the football field. It was a far more memorable experience.
BRUCE THOMAS, Lynchburg, Va.

Kudos to Reilly for exposing celebrity autograph mania for what it is—sick. It's incredible that people see nothing wrong with invading an athlete's privacy and acting like a jerk. Have some self-respect!
HOWARD K. WELSH, Summit, N.J.

I was struck by John Elway's quote in Reilly's column: "I'd give $100,000 to go a whole day in Denver and not have anybody know who I am." Elway should have thought about that before he used his face in print ads and on TV commercials to make money selling new and used cars.
BRYAN RICHARDSON, Westminster, Colo.