Thursday, November
28, 2002
Winning and losing
put into perspective on Thanksgiving
By STEVE WILSTEIN
AP Sports Writer
Ask Tiger Woods what
he's most thankful for this Thanksgiving and he doesn't mention
his victories in the Masters and the U.S. Open this year, all
the other titles he's won or the money he's made.
For Woods, Thanksgiving
is a day to get away from golf, join his family in California
and give thanks that his father is still alive.
Earl Woods, 70, the
man who taught Tiger to play, has had more than his fair share
of health problems in recent years: heart bypass surgery in 1996,
prostate cancer two years ago, diabetes.
Tiger rarely talks
about his father's problems, but they're never far from his mind.
"I'm awfully
thankful just to have him still here and still kicking and fighting,"
said Woods, who won his fifth straight Grand Slam of Golf in Hawaii
on Wednesday.
If fans could sit
around a Thanksgiving table with sports stars, they would hear
them talk less about winning or losing and see how many of them
really do appreciate the lucky life they have.
"Success comes
and goes," Dallas running back Emmitt Smith said. "I'm
thankful for the opportunity to be able to breathe, to wake up
and see another day. That's good enough for me."
For some, like Smith,
Thanksgiving is a working holiday or another day on the road,
when most Americans are with their families.
"In our situation,
the team becomes like a family to you," said Phil Jackson,
whose Los Angeles Lakers played Wednesday night in Orlando and
are in Memphis on Friday.
Detroit Lions rookie
quarterback Joey Harrington will rush to Thanksgiving dinner in
Portland, Ore., after playing at home against New England. It
will be his family's first Thanksgiving without his grandfather,
Bernie, who died in March at 82.
"Grandpa would
always sit at the head of the table and start talking about how
wonderful our family is," Harrington said. "You never
really got a chance to appreciate it until you went away and came
back. When I went to college, I understood what he was talking
about. We would always put a stopwatch on him to see long it would
take for him start crying _ he always had the waterworks going."
New England offensive
guard Joe Andruzzi will give thanks again that his brother Jim,
one of the first firefighters who went into the World Trade Center
last year, escaped after saving people on the 20th floor. Andruzzi
has had his own problems this year, including a mysterious virus
that forced him to miss most of training camp and a knee injury
that has sidelined him for four games.
"I thought my
career was over with that virus," he said. "I'm thankful
for a whole lot of things."
Tony Gwynn is thankful
for his easy transition away from playing baseball for 20 years
and into coaching at San Diego State, where the stadium bears
his name and his son, Anthony, is one of his top players.
"I'm doing exactly
what I want to do," Gwynn said. "I'm having a ball.
My knees are good, mind is bright, kids are doing well. Life is
good for me right now."
Gwynn also is busy
supporting charitable projects in the San Diego area and just
finished his 11th annual fund-raising golf tournament.
Washington Redskins
linebacker Eddie Mason and his wife, Sonya, provided feasts to
450 needy families through their Faith Foundation. Blowing out
his knee in 1996, being out of football and going through hard
times financially for a few years gave Mason the motivation to
help others when he came back.
"It really humbled
me," he said. "I don't play this game just because of
football. "I want to try to use it ... to impact people's
lives."
Health is precious
to every athlete, and few can appreciate it more than Pittsburgh
Steelers quarterback Tommy Maddox, who was carted off the field
Nov. 17 at Tennessee and was paralyzed for more than half an hour.
The experience, and
some encouraging words he heard last Sunday, made him realize
how lucky he is.
"A coach for
the Bengals came up to me and said, `We don't realize what we've
got because we're always worrying about what we want and the things
we want to achieve, when the things we already have are pretty
good,'" Maddox said.
Losing, even as often
as the 1-10 Bengals have, doesn't mean players are sulking around
the dinner table.
"It's a great
life," Bengals cornerback Artrell Hawkins said. "I know
people who'd give their first-born child to be here."
Jerry Rice, still
among the NFL's best receivers at age 40, said he counts his blessings
every day.
"Oh yes, indeed!"
Rice said. "I'm still productive, I'm still explosive. I
can still run with those young guys. Before every game, I drop
down to one knee to give thanks."
After the prayers
on Thanksgiving, the day pretty much comes down to the eating.
St. Louis Rams coach
Mike Martz loads up his plate and slathers gravy over everything.
"Then I put
a towel over my head so nobody can get splattered," Martz
said, "put my face down and shovel as fast as I can. Now
that's Thanksgiving."
___
Steve Wilstein is
a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to
him at swilstein@ap.org
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