Word: players
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Among them, of course, William Perry, 23, the least accomplished member the defense, the least essential attachment to the offense, the most famous football player in the world. "I thought I'd just come in and play behind the All-Pros," flects the Bears' 6-ft. 2-in., 304-lb. regular defensive tackle and part-time running back. "You know, play a little short-yardage defense, some special teams, make a few tackles hopefully. But to end up on offense and stuff, scoring touch downs and everything, being on a team that's 17 and 1 too. It's just...
Coach Ryan says, "He's improving, but he's got to lose some more weight. If he reports in shape next year, he could be a player. Otherwise, write him off." That would be terribly hard now. As much or as little as Perry is, he personally never claimed to be anything more. This may have been his dignity and surely was his grace. "The Perry thing, as much as anything," Ditka says, "made people think, 'Hey, these guys are having fun.' It was kind of flukish, the way it happened." If the Perry thing gave a sort of melancholy...
...logical thoughts were ingrained," Harris says, "emotional reactions discouraged. The funny thing is, you know how to play the best when you can no longer play at all. Even watching games now, the emotions of football flow through me, but I'm still in my mind a thinking football player. People around me boo and cheer and really don't understand." When no penalty befell Lambert, the Steelers soared, the Cowboys slumped. It struck Harris as a betrayal of ideals, and yet he was consolable later. "You have something to look forward to only if you do lose. After...
...suppose they shaped me, but I have never consciously drawn on them." Even the Super Bowl cannot call him back. "It doesn't particularly interest me. To some degree, it's inescapable for everyone, but I won't go out of my way to watch it. For a football player, I guess I'm not much of a football fan. To tell you the truth, Inever quite understood the whole magic vision people see around sports...
...stadium." Vacating football was more complicated, like dropping a longstanding character. "To put it aside," says Dryer, "you almost have to give up the fact of who you were. I couldn't be an athlete in my mind the rest of my life, so I left the football player behind. Within a year, it was like I never played sports...