Meet the Commish

Every once in a while you have one of those moments where you say...wow I can't wait to tell the guys about this. That was today. A USO tour came through: The attraction was 2 Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, an actor from the show Heroes (Milo is his real name) - he plays Peter a nurse or something on the show, Jack Lengyel (he was the coach of Marshall right after the incident where the football team died in a crash - they made a movie about it). The real draw at least for me was the NFL side of the tour. Drew Brees (QB New Orleans Saints), Osi Umenyiora (DE NY Giants) and then most important (at least to me) Roger Goodell - NFL Commissioner (third from left, blue shirt and green hat).
For those of you that don't know me that well...I am a huge NFL fan. Things in my life are ordered 1.God 2.Family 3.Country 4.NFL (and sometimes NFL creeps up next to family). I run a Fantasy Football League with mostly the same group of guys for the past 13 years. I'm the Commish of the league so meeting the real Commish was a big deal for me. They were here first thing in the morning so I had to drag out of bed and head over. By the time I got into the theater I was approximately #150 in line. No biggie - I've got nothing but time. They just had one long line and you cycled through all the celebs and had your picture taken with the 3-4 people who were in line next to you. All week I had been prepping my speech for the commish. I had a couple things to talk about, but they were rushing people thru so I had to narrow it down to my most important point.


I finally make it to the stage. Osi is first - he's a real ham and was showing off his super bowl ring. Then the Commish (I felt like a kid in line for Santa Claus). I hold on to his hand to keep his attention and say, "I read what you said about the rookie salary cap a few weeks ago. I agree with you. I think it is important for the game that you do something about it. Keep it up!" He pauses. Kind of smiles and points to the guy next to him (Drew Brees) and says - "Yeah I know - talk to him about it." Then we all have a big laugh. You see the players don't want any caps/or limits on the salaries. They want as much money they can get and I don’t blame them. But the Rookies (especially the top picks) are getting exorbitant amounts of money and they have not even played a single down in the NFL. Goodell says the owners should only pay top bucks for guys who are proven. And I whole-heartedly agree. So I moved on and had my pic taken while I was at the end of the line. It was cool.

The thing that struck me most was how normal the guys looked. They were big people -and I am sure they are in amazing shape, but the players were not much bigger than most of the soldiers. I was glad to shake the Commish's hand and speak my peace. Today was a good day.

Oh yeah - the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff (top ranking officer in the DoD – THE big cheese) was there as well. But I'll save that story for tomorrow.