I am Ken. And I am a Forty-Niner fan. I feel this confession is important. I am one of the frustrated faithful.
Football has not been kind to Niner fans for a bunch of years. We were reminded of this last night when Jerry Rice's #80 jersey was retired. There stood Joe Montana behind him. Steve Young had been on the pre-game. Those were the days.
But the glory days have long been over for the Prospectors. Forget about championships, wins have been hard to come by. And we had no chance at all last night facing the New Orleans Saints, right? Well, we had a chance. And when we scored the TD and replay gave us the 2-point conversion to tie the reigning Super Bowl champs with a little over a minute to go, I didn't even cheer. I felt it was inevitable.
When the Saints' 3-pointer knuckled through with no time left on the clock, I turned off the TV, kissed my wife, and went to bed. (I stayed up late for this? Games are 2 hours later here in Missouri than in my old California home.)
The Niners played great most of the time, and indeed could have beaten the Saints ... if it hadn't been for several bonehead plays. Oh, well. This is my reality. And at least I'm not a Cowboys fan.
But there was a highlight for me ... not in the game, but in the pregame show. I don't usually watch it, but since my Niners were making a rare Monday night appearance I turned it on.
The highlight came from something commentator Mike Ditka said. I can't believe I would ever be impressed by something said by Iron Mike, the legendary player and coach of the Chicago Bears who many fans loved to hate.
Talking about Singletary, perhaps the best middle linebacker ever, who played for him on the Bears, Ditka actually talked about his Christian faith and his character.
He said that Singletary was a man "driven by his faith.'
Ditka said that Singletary has made it clear that the priorities of his life are "faith, family, and football," in that order. And then Ditka said what really mattered. He said that Singletary lives what he says.
Near the end of the segment, Ditka said that as good as Singletary is as a football player and coach, "he's even better as a person."
High praise. High-light!
