The Sounds of Silence honored Sweetness Walter Payton

Sweet Silence - Jeff Pearlman wrote the definitive biography of the late Chicago Bears running back, titled, “Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton.” Payton died of liver cancer Nov. 1, 1999, at the age of 46. I was in the press box Nov. 7, 1999, covering the Buffalo Bills at Washington Redskins game. A moment of silence for Sweetness was observed before kickoff. There were no rustling noises, not even a murmur. It was deafening silence other than tears falling to the ground. Moments of silence at sporting events usually produce murmurings and some yakking; it's hard to bring boisterous fans down from 10 to zero. But the Sweetness  moment was the most deafening silence I never heard. 

The Band Plays On - Bobcats versus the Bison – Montana State versus North Dakota State – in the national title game for the Football Championship Subdivision; the game was played in Frisco, Texas. The announcer said, “Everyone stand if you can and remove your hats as the band plays the national anthem.” And everyone removed their hats except for the band, most of whom wore those tall conehead hats with tassels on top. After a million “stand and remove your hats” national anthem moments before a game, I just never caught the irony of the band being exempt. I bet you get some serious hat head under one of those lids. 

Channel 47 - I can’t be the only old coach who counts by 10s on his fingers before adding the remaining number to reach 2025. In a January snowstorm of 1978, I borrowed defensive specialist and distance runner Lance White from Ralph Baird's basketball team on a Tuesday night to run at the Philadelphia Civic Center in the high school invitational two-mile. The banked wooden track was 11 laps to the mile. The location for quarter-mile splits kept changing as Lance hit 72 seconds at each interval. With two laps to go, Lance moved toward the front. He unleashed his Slaughter Neck sneak attack on the gun lap, posting a state record 9:29 for the indoor two-mile. That Friday, school closed down because of snow. Five guys and Coach Fred in a school wagon traveled to the Spectrum for the Philadelphia Track Classic. Cape ran the mile relay, then Lance competed in the high school invitational mile. Another banked track with a Spectrum crowd of 17,000. Lance had the same strategy: Maintain contact, then kick it on the final lap. In gold pants and Columbia blue shirt, Lance won in 4:27 and wrapped up the greatest two races over four days. The athlete with no jump shot had jumped the best distance runners in the Mid-Atlantic region. We had an electric ride home and spun out a couple times. I threatened to drop Lance at Argos Corner. He said something about wild dogs, so I delivered him to his front door. 

Clear the Calendar - NFL Wildcard Weekend is the best three days to watch pro football from a warm house on a big screen with a refrigerator filled with beef byproducts. Fold in the semifinals of the endless playoffs to determine the Division I college national champion, and it’s sensory overload. All that before taking into consideration those who drink and gamble to excess. Meanwhile on the island of Greenland, the Inuits are just trying to stay warm.    

Snippets - Linda Carter, 82, of Potomac, Md., finished the Hair of the Dog 5K in 47:29. Very impressive, a real Wonder Woman. Cape’s JV boys’ basketball team is currently 1-4. Hard to know what any of it means as there are no posted box scores. Seven of 11 rostered players are freshmen. The JV girls’ basketball team is 4-0, all wins by blowouts. There are box scores posted on capevikingssports.com, evidence that the site actually works if results are input. Anejah Grace of Cape won the high jump in 5-feet even at the Ocean Breeze Freedom Games on Staten Island, N.Y. Addison Bowman was second in the pole vault at 10-6, while Elena Booth placed sixth in the shot put at 27-3. Anna Bockius (Padua) won the 600-meter run in 1:32.9. Paige Ballinger (Padua) placed third in the 3,000 meters in 10:25. Wrestling is among the most difficult of sports to compete in collegiately. Max Agresti of Salesianum was Beast of the East and state champion in 2022. Agresti now wrestles at 197 for Harvard University. As a freshman, he was 8-6. This season at the Cliff Keen tournament in Las Vegas, Jacob Cardenas of Michigan won by 15-0 tech fall over Agresti in 1:26. How does that even happen? Agresti placed fifth at the Keystone Classic Nov. 24. Last season, Jackson Dean (Caesar Rodney) wrestled for the University of Pennsylvania at 157. He had a 5-8 record. Dean was a three-time state champ in high school. Cornell wrestling is the top of the totem in Ivy League wrestling, currently ranked No. 12. Go on now, git!