Irreverence, With A Modicum Of Responsibility

After a day of being inundated with obviously fake press releases and stories, TigerBlog would like to point out something that he should have mentioned related to April Fools' Day.

The point is not to get someone to believe something plausible. The point is to get someone to believe something completely implausible.  

A school may start a new Division I program in a sport? A popular show was canceled? Where's the creativity?

Do you want to know where the creativity is? It is right HERE.  

Oh, and if you didn't know to do it already, take the first letter of each word in the subhead and see what it spells. 

TigerBlog was right. The more implausible, the better. 

TB hasn't read that piece in a very long time, and yet he remembers back to when it first came out. He and everyone he knew believed every word of it.  

The author was George Plimpton. If you don't know anything about him, he was a pretty fascinating human being, even if he did go to Harvard. 

Plimpton spoke at the Daily Princetonian banquet back in March of 1969, which was 60 years ago and 16 years before the Sidd Finch story. Here is what the newspaper wrote about Plimpton's talk: 

George Plimpton, Paper Lion and graduate of the Harvard Lampoon and the Boston Celtics training camp, told an audience of 90 at last night's 93rd annual Daily Princetonian banquet that "irreverance with a modicum of responsibility" is the key virtue in college publications. Plimpton, looking like a cross between a tall Johnny Carson and a suntanned Ted Kennedy, entertained his audience with anecdotes of his experiences as America's most famous literary "impostor." His best seller, Paper Lion, is an account of his sojourn with the Detroit Lions football team. Currently he is playing with the Boston Celtics to gather information for a book on the pro basketball team. Before joining up with the Celtics, he was coached by Princeton's Bill Bradley. "Bradley is a polite man. Even after a month of practicing with me, he still called me 'Mr. Plimpton.' "When I practiced set shots sometimes he would say 'Very good, Mr. Plimpton,' but most of the time, 'Too bad, Mr. Plimpton.' " 

If you don't get the "Paper Lion" reference, it refers to one of the books that Plimpton wrote about his own athletic exploits. Actually, make that unathletic exploits, since he wasn't a very good athlete. 

That's not something that prevented him from seeing how an average adult would do against the very best in a sport. He started out by pitching to some of the best players in Major League Baseball back in 1960 for what became a book called "Out Of My League." TB had never heard of it until yesterday, and he ordered in on Amazon. He'll let you know how it is.

Meanwhile, a few years later, Plimpton tried out for the Detroit Lions as a quarterback. The book (and movie starring Alan Alda) was called "Paper Lion."

When he was first at Princeton (and a lot younger), he wanted to emulate "Paper Lion" with the Princeton football team during its 1994 training camp. Back then, the players actually slept in Caldwell Field House, but TB was going to draw the line there. 

His hope was to be a running back for one play, to see what it would be like. He had no illusions of breaking one for 50 yards or anything. He wanted a simple hand-off up the middle, just to see what getting hit would be like. 

Then he'd write about it. How simple, right? 

Well, it started out simply. It was okay with the coaches. It was okay with then-equipment manager Hank Towns, who had to actually teach TB had to put on all the gear. And his uniform number? It was to be 42. What else would he wear other than the number that 10 years later would be retired. 

You know who wasn't okay with it? University Risk Management, even though TB said he would sign a waiver. Nope. No go. 

To this day, TB can still remember how he just couldn't get the practice jersey over the shoulder pads. Who knows how to do that if they've never played football? Turns out you had to put the jersey over the pads before putting either over your head. 

Also to this day, TB wonders what would have happened. He is pretty sure that he would have gotten positive yards. 

Ah, but it's okay, for two reasons. First, the reality is that he likely would have broken something. And second, he made that whole thing up. 

See? The more implausible, the better. 

Now that's irreverence, with a modicum of responsibility.