Put in LaMonica!

     One of the passions in Dad's life was football. The Sunday afternoons during football season when I was a kid were filled only with the television and a game of professional football being watched. Dad's eyes were glued to the TV. At the Heinrich Road house, which was very small, you couldn't get from the back door to the bathroom without crossing the living room and hence passing between Dad's eyes and the TV. He would get impatient if I made too many trips to back and forth.

     Some Sundays during football season, Dad moved the radio from the top of the refrigerator in the kitchen to the end table next to him in the living room. He would have one game on the TV and another on the radio. This seemed totally bizarre to me. I realized as I got older that if the Buffalo Bills were playing a home game, they would only be on the radio – and Dad wanted to hear what the Bills were doing and watch whatever other game was on TV at the same time.

     And Dad would yell at the games while watching. The yelling scared me because I would think he was really mad. But really Dad was just hoping the coaches could hear him and appreciate his advice or take to heart his insults.

     I tried to sit in the living room with Dad sometimes when the games were on and absorb the rules or understand the attraction football held for him. The commentators' voices were boring drones – all I heard from them was “he's back to pass....he throws......and it's.......incomplete.” Really? How mind numbingly boring is that!

      In the early 60's, Jack Kemp was quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, and Daryle LaMonica was the second string or backup quarterback. Many times during those seasons when both men were on the team, I would hear Dad yelling at the TV or the radio “Put in LaMonica!”

      After a while LaMonica was traded to the Oakland Raiders where he was not only the first string quarterback but led the team to many a victory.

      If only the Bills' coaches could have heard the lament from Heinrich Road during the games – perhaps the Bills themselves would have won a few more before trading away their second-string player!

213 20150801 Put in LaMonica!