QB1 (17 page)

ESPN: Minnesota thinks they’re the best team
in football. How are you going to play the best Defense in football
tonight?

CW: Playing it by the book, against a
blitzing defense you run, but we haven’t seen a blitzing defense we
couldn’t beat. Please, all you defense coordinators out there,
blitz us. Tony Reilly licks his lips when he sees blitz.

ESPN: Finally Coach, what about this
quarterback controversy in San Francisco? You have two of the best
QBs in football now. What do you do? Who do you keep?

CW: What controversy? I’ll be honest with
you, I don’t think about it. I don’t compare the two. I just don’t
think about it. I go with the team we can put on the field. I’m
concerned with Minnesota right now. I don’t know what’s going to
happen in the future. We’ll deal with it when we have to.

ESPN: Good luck, Coach.

CW: Thank you.

It was a perfect night for football. 62
degrees in a virtually calm San Francisco stadium. The crowd had
been partying in the parking lot all day for the early evening
game. There was an electric playoff atmosphere.

San Francisco took the opening kick off. On
the second play of the game, a Minnesota defensive lineman put his
hand up and tipped the ball thrown to the Tight End on a crossing
pattern. The ball hit the receiver in the shoulder, bounced up in
the air and into the arms of the Defensive Back who ran it 30 yards
into the end zone untouched. 7-0 Minnesota in the first three
minutes of the game. That took the air out of the crowd. Reilly
walked off the field expressionless, the same way he did when he
threw touchdown passes.

Again, San Francisco took over and on the
first play from scrimmage, ran Best up the middle for 8 yards. On
second and two in the hurry-up offense, Reilly saw the DB back off
of Oliva. He immediately changed the play at the line and fired it
out to him at the line. The bigger Oliva shook off the Corner and
took it for 27 yards. At midfield, they gave it to Best twice in a
row and set up 3rd and four at their own 45. Again, Minnesota
showed blitz. Terrence Brown, as the slot receiver found the wide
open spot in the zone coverage and Reilly found him for 18 more.
Minnesota was getting to Reilly, but he was getting the ball off
before getting buried. San Francisco gave Best the ball 3 times in
a row and a first down at the 19. Oliva made a toe tapping catch in
the back of the end zone to tie the score.

Minnesota went 3 and out the first time they
got the ball on offense. Their powerful running game was getting no
traction. The teams traded the ball back and forth. On a pass
interference call and a 20 yard run, Minnesota kicked a 45 yard
field goal as the 1st quarter ended.

When San Francisco got the ball back, Oliva
ran under a last second desperation throw just before Reilly was
buried. Oliva broke two tackles and went in for the score.

“Every time Tony Reilly sees single coverage
on Oliva, he’s throwing it to him,” said the color man. “And he is
toasting one of the best cornerbacks in the game.” The stadium was
bedlam.

San Francisco Defense continued to hold the
Minnesota offense and again Reilly went to work, running Best and
throwing to open receivers in a zone defense. The Minnesota defense
had now been on the field twice as long as the San Francisco
Defense. They just had no answer for the no huddle spread offense.
On 3rd and three at their own 40, Reilly openly signaled a go
pattern to Oliva. Reilly took the snap, looked at Oliva running a
deep slant, freezing the Safety and then firing to the other side,
to the receiver who turned just in time to see the ball on top of
him. He was forced out at the 11 and Reggie Robinson powered the
ball into the end zone two plays later for 21 to 10.

With Minnesota in their two-minute offense,
San Francisco picked off the Minnesota future hall of fame
quarterback and kicked a field goal to end the half 24 to 10. They
cruised to an easy 41 to 17 victory, with Minnesota only scoring in
the last two minutes. They had completely dominated Minnesota. They
would have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. They were
on a mission.

Chapter 35

Roger and I picked Liz up in the morning and
rode over to the office. Introduced her to Velma, who was unusually
gracious to her. Liz had been expecting the worst after what Roger
had told her about the “who-ares” comment. Eddie Tonnelli and
Torley Shin were there. “Okay, what do we got?” I asked to start
the meeting.

Tonnelli said, “We got a women who loves to
talk on the phone. She’s mostly talking to girlfriends, but there
are a number of guys she’s regularly speaking with, too.”

“No calls to Tony Reilly?” I asked.

“No, but I’ve got a theory on that.”

“Well?”

“Separate phones. They buy a couple of cheap
phones just for talking to each other,” said Tonelli.

“Could be,” I said. “What do you think,
Roge?”

“Make sense to me. You just throw them away
when you’re done with them. Professional athletes are counseled
never to have phone records or texts that can come back and bite
them,” he said.

“How do you know?”

“I called Rosenbloom.”

I said to Liz, “See, I told you he was smart.
Anyone else got anything?” Everyone just looked at me. “So, Lydia
Isackson starts having an affair with Tony. They communicate using
cheap cell phones to keep it a secret. Tony leaves his wife. Tony
is in the middle of contract negotiations and he decides to get out
of town. Heads for sailing around Baja. Tony or Lydia decide to
break it off and she murders Tony for dumping her? Or, she decides
she doesn’t want to move to Miami? And how does she know he’s
arriving that night? He texts or calls her? She writes
Alhamdulillah on the top of his car to throw off an investigation.
What did I miss?”

“A crime of passion…okay we’ve seen it
before,” says Tonelli, “but she murders him because she doesn’t
want to move to Miami?” says Tonelli. “That’s pretty weak.”

“Agreed,” I said. “I’m thinking out loud
here.”

“There was a call from the Team headquarters
to her cell phone the night of the murder,” says Torley.

“Why would they be calling her?” I ask.
“Could it have been her husband calling her from there?”

“There are a number of calls from
Headquarters to her cell,” says Torley, “three or four a week.”

“Do we have his cell phone records?”

“Yes,” says Roger. “Paul Isackson calls her
from his cell often. He doesn’t make a lot of calls.”

I shake my head. “We haven’t got anything.
All we have is that they were probably having an affair.”

“Go talk to her. Maybe, wear a wire,” says
Velma. “Ask her if she murdered Tony Reilly and then shadow her.
Tap her phone. See what she does.” She takes a deep pull on her
Pall Mall. “Irv used to like to stir things up when he didn’t know
what was going on.”

“The more we talk about this,” said Liz, the
less sure I am about this whole thing.”

“You and me both,” I said.

Chapter 36

Roger and I were waiting by Lydia Isackson’s
car outside the Palo Alto Golf and Tennis Club when Lydia Isackson
walked out at 2 PM. She said, “Hello boys,” when she saw us.

“Hello, Mrs. Isackson. We were wondering if
you might have a moment to speak to us.”

“For you two,” she said laughing, “anytime
and please call me Lydia.”

“I have a car over there,” pointing at the
limo.

“Your office?”

“Pretty much, lately.” She climbed in and
Roger and I followed. You’re a tennis player?” I asked.

“I am. Keeps the weight down.” It never
ceases to amaze me how women are never satisfied with their bodies.
Lydia Isackson’s was perfect. “Lydia, we have been doing some
digging into Tony Reilly’s death.”

“Yes, I know.”

“It’s come up that you and Tony apparently
were having an affair.” Lydia Isackson looked at us with a puzzled
expression.

“Who told you that? It’s not true.”

“Tony told a couple of different people that
he was.”

“Well, I don’t know why he would say
something like that.”

“These are very believable, independent
sources, Lydia. I think it’s true. I’m hoping you’ll tell us
anything you know about the death of Tony Reilly.”

“I wasn’t having an affair with Tony Reilly
and I don’t know anything about his death.”

“Lydia, this is going to come out. We have
the cell phone records of the calls between you and Tony. Too many
people know about you and him for it to remain under wraps for
long. I work for the Team. I will do my best to keep you out of
this, but I need to know what happened.”

She stared at me. “Do you think I killed
him?”

“It’s a possibility,” I said. “The spurned
lover, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

She sighed and began, “We started seeing each
other after the Championship. I called him up and asked him to make
a charity appearance and we got to talking. He came over for lunch
the next day and it started. A month later he moved out of his
house. I was considering leaving Paul when he got cold feet. He
said he was reconsidering. I was very upset and disappointed, but I
wasn’t going to kill him. Then, he left for a month. I didn’t hear
from him. He called me the night he was returning and said he had
decided to try and get back together with Elizabeth. I wished him
luck. It was over. It had been a month and I was over it. The next
day he was dead. I have no idea who killed him. That’s it.”

“Who else besides you knew he was coming home
that night,” I asked her.

“I don’t know, the Team, his agent,
Elizabeth?”

“Elizabeth didn’t know. His agent didn’t have
specifics on when he was returning. You’re the only one who
knew.”

“Oscar Tierney knew, there must have been
others.”

“How do you know Tierney knew?” She thought
about it for a moment.

“I told him.”

Chapter 37

An article in Sports Illustrated for the
January edition: “Tony Reilly Is Cool” by Drew Sullivan, Sports
Writer, The Boston Globe.

"Tony Reilly is cool. That’s what I said as I
watched him put another touchdown pass on Jimmy Oliva’s fingers, in
a corner of the end zone, a pass only he could possibly deliver. I
watched Reilly jog expressionless to the sidelines, giving the
goalposts a quick glance back. It reminded me of a gunslinger
walking away from a day’s challenge, after taking care of business.
He ignores the players slapping him on the helmet and back. He sits
down, puts headphones on and starts talking to the booth. He’s
oblivious to all the congratulations on the sidelines. A few
players say something to him but most leave “Ice” alone. He’s
working.

Why do I think Tony Reilly is cool? What’s
cool? Maybe it’s something along the lines of talent combined with
class? How about, cool is primarily an attitude of self-assurance?
It’s composure and self-control, but it’s also admiration or
approval. Where does the ironic detachment figure in here? The
problem is ‘cool’ has no single meaning. Cool is elusive. It’s a
word used all over the English speaking world and its meaning is
vague, but always positive. I like, “Cool cannot be manufactured,
only observed.”

I decided cool is whatever I say it is. “Cool
can only be observed by those who are themselves cool”. Since I
know, I’m cool, I’m going to give you My Ten Coolest Guys list.
This is done in no particular order.

10. Steve McQueen- Coolest actor ever, always
played the cool guy. The Great Escape is still one of my all time
favorites. The Bullitt car chase is the standard. I met McQueen
during the filming of The Thomas Crown Affair, filmed in my
hometown, when I was a teenager. It was summer and he was learning
to play polo for the movie. Drove a motorcycle and a dune-buggy
around town that summer. He was cool.

9. John Lennon- Musician who founded and led
the Beatles. Seeing them on the Ed Sullivan Show as a kid, I knew
cool when I saw it. Twist and Shout. Imagine. He was outspoken
about the hypocrisy he saw around him. I continue to discover how
cool he was.

8. Bobby Orr- One of those players you had to
watch when he was on the ice. He changed hockey. He was a
defenseman back in an era when the defenseman position was a
defensive player. Orr remains the only defenseman to have ever won
the season scoring title. He scored the winning goal in both of the
Bruins championships. He refused the salary of the Chicago
Blackhawks after he was traded and injured, because “I didn’t earn
it.” He’ll always be cool for me.

7. Ted Williams- Best hitter in baseball
history. I idolized him as a kid and saw him hit a few. Served as a
fighter pilot during WWII and Korea. Here’s his “Bobby Orr” story:
“In 1941, he entered the last day of the season with a bating
average of .39955. This would have rounded up to .400, making him
the first man to hit .400 since Bill Terry in 1930. Manager Joe
Cronin left the decision whether to play up to him. Williams opted
to play in both games of the day’s doubleheader and risk falling
short, explaining that “If I can’t hit .400 all the way, I don’t
deserve it.” He singled in his first at-bat, raising his average to
.401, and followed it with a home run and two more hits in the
first game. Williams went 2 for 3 in the second game, for a total
of 6 hits in his last 8 at-bats, for a final average of .406. No
player has hit .400 in a season since Williams. He fought with fans
and the press throughout his career. In his last at-bat at Fenway,
he homered, then, as usual failed to tip his hat to the standing
ovation. Too cool.

6. Larry Bird- What did you think? I was
going to give it to Magic Johnson? No. If you haven’t guessed, I’m
from Boston. Bird was Red Auerbach’s favorite player. He considered
Bird to be the greatest basketball player of all time. The working
man’s player. His rivalry with Magic Johnson led a resurgence in
basketball during the 80’s. He’s white but he’s cool.