Newspaper Page Text
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, August 31,1972
Page 20
What's a preseason game?
A big (buck) deal for owners
By MURRAY OLDERMAN
LOS ANGELES, Calif —
(NEA)—The dullest, drear
iest dollar in sports has be
come the pro football exhi
bition game, which the Ro
zelleague still insists should
be called euphemistically a
“preseason game."
Over a period of six
weeks, some four million
fans will have paid top dol
lar, in arenas from Seattle,
Wash., to Tampa. Fla., to see
what are essentially noncon
tests. And they're starting to
walk out on them in the
third quarters as the games
deteriorate into mass wres
tling tag matches. Most of
the time you don’t really
know who’s playing. Or care.
Or even mind the score.
The whole purpose of
these preseason tuneups has
been obfuscated in a quest
for the buck. The owners
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AKIO KAMINAGA (airborne) and Anton Geesink in the match that brought tears to
the land.
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have a hell of a deal. They
don’t have to pay regular
season salaries —only token
wages—to the employes
for this informal exhibition
schedule. Their plea is that
the financial structure of the
sport demands this balance
of payments to balance the
budget.
In fact, Carroll Rosen
bloom's first threads of dis
enchantment with Baltimore
as a football city were bared
when the burghers ignored
the exhibition games the
last couple of years with
studious disdain. Carroll’s
problem was that he was al
truistic enough not to couple
his regular season tickets
with the preseason sales.
That gave them a choice, and
they stayed away.
In cities such as San Fran
cisco, Oakland and Los An
geles, among others, there is
no such choice. You want to
preserve your social status
as a regular season ticket
holder, then you must also
chip in for the three addi
tional exhibitions on the
home schedule.
Right now, the establish
ment can argue, there's no
grumbling — attendance has
been good. What's happen
ing, however, is that the reg
ular season ticket holders
are selling their preseason
portion to friends who aren't
privileged to get into the
championship games. In a
year or two, when the
friends get wise and/or
bored, there’ll be no buyers.
That’s when hell will break
loose.
Ironically, coaches are
contributing to the disen
chantment with the exhibi
tion games because they’re
finally utilizing them for the
intended purpose—to ferret
out their best players and
get them ready for the regu
lar season. Only a zealot like
George Allen of the Wash
ington Redskins goes gung
ho to win them all. Fellow
like Tommy Prothro of the
Rams likes to win just as
much, but he takes the long
range view and preserves
the good health of his veter
ans.
The schedule of pro foot
ball has become an abomi
nable physical ordeal. Just a
generation ago, the schedule
of a major college football
team consisted of just eight
games. This season, if the
Dallas Cowboys were to re
peat as champions of the
National Football League,
they will have played a total
of 24 games (All-Star game,
six exhibition, 14 regular
season, two title playoffs,
Super Bowl).
The injury risk has multi
plied accordingly. You won-
Judo returns to Olympics
By IRA BERKOW
NEA Sports Editor
MUNICH - (NEA) — The
delicate-looking young wom
an in kimono, a translator
in the Olympic Village, said
that her first name, Harku,
means “spring girl” in Japa
nese and that she learned
her English from Elvis Pres
ley records (“I was crazy
for him, isn’t that terri
ble?”) and that, yes, she re
membered when she was a
school girl and Mr. Kamin
aga lost in the judo cham
pionship in the Tokyo Olym
pics in 1964 and how there
were tears in the land.
She laughed now, though,
when she was told what An
ton Geesink had said. Gee
sink was the Dutchman who
had upset Akio Kaminaga in
the open division finals.
“The moment I had beaten
him, the poor Japanese felt
der why the veteran player
who ostensibly has his team
made will endanger limb and
career on an inconsequential
play.
“It’s tough psyching your
self up for these games,” ad
mits Bob Vogel, the veteran
offensive tackle of the Balti
more Colts. “But I have to
give myself a personal pep
talk each time before I go
out there. Because otherwise
you’ll have your head taken
off. You’re up against a kid
who’s trying to win a job. If
you don’t put out, that’s
when yoii get hurt. You got
to hit as hard as he hits
you.”
“You got to want to play,”
says Tom Matte, a 10-year
man with the Colts. “Look,
there are four good young
backs here trying to take
my job away. I can’t afford
to let up.”
it was the most humiliating
event to happen to Japan
since losing the Second
World War,” said Geesink.
“I feel sorry for them.”
Mr. Kaminaga greeted us
at the door of his small,
spare third-floor room in a
tall Olympic Village build
ing. He is now the coach of
the Japanese judo team. He
wore the red team sweat
suit with “Nippon” in white
block letters across the
chest. He is a large round
faced man with beefy hands,
but he is not of the masto
donic proportions of a Sumo
wrestler.
He is 5-10 and at 240
pounds is 20 pounds heavier
than his competitive weight.
He has been retired for five
years. He is 36 years old
and has taken to wearing
glasses because of an “eye
sickness.” He is regularly
employed as a personnel
Yet the players generally
abhor the idea of exhibi
tions. An obvious solution is
to decrease the number of
preseason tuneups to, say,
four. “All I really need to
get ready,” says Bill Nelsen,
the scarred-knee quarter
back of the Cleveland
Browns, “is to play parts of
three games.”
Then, for the exchequer,
the other two games could
be added onto the regular
season to create a slate of
16 games. Would the players
demand extra compensa
tion? “You bet,” says John
Mackey of the Colts, who has
been a leading spokesman
for the NFL Players Asso
ciation.
Consumer resistance, com
ing in a year or two, will
force some kind of change.
A young lady preparing to
watch the Rams and the Oak
land Raiders in a meaning-
manager in a large steel
company in Tokyo but was
asked to coach the Olympic
judo team this year because,
as a Japanese journalist told
me, “we wanted Mr. Kamin
aga to recover from his bit
ter experience and hope he
has learned something quite
valuable from it for the ad
vantage of our current judo
athletes.”
We sat at a small card
table. Mr. Kaminaga con
tinually jogged the few
papers on the table. He is
polite, has little ability for
smiling easily.
Mr. Kaminaga says he no
longer considers that he car
ries a burden for the Japa
nese people, as he did in
1964. “I had to bare my lone
liness after what happened,”
he said. "But I came to real
ize that the experience of
participation, not the win
ning or losing, is the impor
tant thing. So now I look on
the brighter side.”
He says he emphasizes to
his six athletes (one for each
of the Olympic divisions)
that they should not walk
with any unnecessary pres
sure on them. He had suf
fered just such pressure.
Judo has been popularized
by the Japanese. It is con
sidered their national sport
and the rituals, such as ad
versaries holding each
other’s kimono jacket collar
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DU QUOIN, Hl.—Super Bowl, with Stanley Dancer driving, streaks for the finish line - and the
record book ■ to win the second heat and the Hambletonian Steak at the Du Quoin fairgrounds
track. The 3-year-old trotter was sold for more than |1 million to a group of breeders after setting
a heat record for 3-year-olds of 1:56.2 and a 2-heat record for all ages of trotters with a total time of
3:53.4. (UPI)
| We Are Now |
|OPEN AGAIN
a After Our Fire. J
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♦ See Us. We Have Sure *
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George Allen
Gung ho.
less exercise, was torn in
her loyalties. “I don’t know
who I want to win,” she said
to Rosenbloom, the new
owner of the Rams, and Al
Davis, the patron of the
Raiders, “I like you both
personally.”
“Tell you what, honey,”
said Rosenbloom. “You go
immediately before a com
petition, date back thousands
of years to the customs of
ancient combatants.
Judo was selected in
1964 as the traditional
“house sport” for the Olym
pic host. The Japanese were
therefore to be assured of
at least one gold medal. Mr.
Kaminaga was to be that
certain winner. In the lavish
ly ornamental pagoda-like
Nippon Budokan Hall, dis
aster struck. “My opponent
was superior to me in judo,”
says Mr. Kaminaga. “I know
now that it was no disgrace.
Some people were unkind to
me then. But many others
wrote to me comforting let
ters.”
Judo was dropped as an
Olympic sport in 1968. But
a recent growth in interna
tional popularity has brought
it back. In 1964, there were
29 countries with judo teams
in the Olympics. Now there
are 50.
Mr. Kaminaga said that,
no, judo is not a religion in
Japan. It is, though, a com
bination of art, science and
sport.
“Art,” he said, “because
it is done in pure circular
movements; no angle in any
movement. Science because
success is based on the
proper pressures of weight
and balance. Sport because
there are the rules and there
are the competitors.”
WfrA •
Tommy Prothro
Long-range view.
ahead and be for the Raiders
now. Then the second time
we play, you hope like hell
we win.”
The second time would be
in late October during the
regular season, when the
game counts for something.
(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)
Driving
range
to open
The Whispering Pines Golf
Driving Range will open for
business Friday on the Griffin
By-Pass across from the Sports
Palace.
Owner Bob Wright, a retired
Navy officer, said the range has
14 tees and a video camera so
golfers can see themselves in
action and help correct
mistakes they may make.
Until lights are installed next
week, the range will be open
from 9 a.m. to 9 pm. Balls and
dubs will be furnished and local
players will be on hand to assist
beginners. Players will not have
to pick up their own balls. A
bucket of about 50 balls will cost
one dollar.
Wright who grew up in
Douglas County, played on the
Navy golf team and won many
trophies. He hopes eventually to
have the driving range set up
where golfers can practice
practically every shot with
every club.