When news came out about these two Miami Dolphin linemen suddenly out of pro football..one quitting because his teammate kept bullying and threatening him, the other kicked out of the league for doing the bullying and threatening, brought to mind a similar story about a high school classmate of mine; Gene Vostad. Gene was a great football player and when he graduated college he got a tryout with the Minnesota Vikings playing center. The story goes that when taking the hike, quarterback, Gary Cuozzo would slam his hands up into Gene’s groinal area with such force it was beyond the protection of any cup. After a while of enduring this painful indignation, according to what we heard, Gene said that’s enough..turned around, cold cocked Cuozzo and left the field.
I thought, in light of what happened between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin, this would be an interesting tale of hazing to tell from a personal point of view. So I called Gene, who I haven’t talked to in a long time, for his permission to blog about it. “Well, no Doug” he said. “Because it’s not true. That rumor has been going around for years but there’s not a lick of truth to it. I have no idea how it started. I didn’t care for Cuozzo all that much but never touched the guy.”
I should have known better. Gene is a gentle giant..tough as nails, a Vietnam veteran and an Army reserve Colonel but he’d never take a cheap shot.
Speaking of separating truth from rumor, from now through the end of the month we are going to be inundated with accounts of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination which occurred in Dallas, Texas fifty years ago; on November 22nd 1963. In fact the TV specials have already begun with Rob Lowe starring as Kennedy on the History Channel movie depiction of Bill O’Reilly’s book, “Killing Kennedy” and a two part JFK profile runs this week on PBS. I’m looking forward to seeing some of them…absolutely dreading others because I know a few just won’t be able to contain themselves and be digging up tired old conspiracy theories that seem designed to whip the conspiracy nut jobs into a frenzy. Oh, oh…did I hit a nerve?
Are you one of the 56% of Americans who still believe that Lee Harvey Oswald had lots of help pulling off the murder of our president..maybe from Russia, or Cuba, the mob, Lyndon Johnson or some other far fetched conspirator? What part of the Warren Commission report do you take issue with? The magic bullet, the missing bullet, the pristine bullet..the angle of the bullet..Oswald’s marksmanship, Oswald’s ability to fire the shots in such short time, Kennedy’s head went back after being hit?
If you saw Oliver Stone’s movie JFK in which he made a hero out of the embarrassingly inept prosecutor, Jim Garrison, you saw the truth twisted by Stone that went way beyond dramatic license. Kevin Costner’s portrayal of Garrison was such that the end result of the film was a noticeable shift in the public’s view of the assassination and renewed suspicion that our government wasn’t telling us all the facts about it.
Ten years ago, on the 40th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination, ABC did, what I believe to be the most exhaustive and very best examination of Oswald, the conspiracy questions and the shameful presentation by Oliver Stone.
Ten years ago, as many 80 percent of Americans did not believe Oswald acted alone. Since then, as more people have seen honest undeniable factual reports such as ABC’s “Beyond Conspiracy” in 2003, the number of doubters, according to a recent AP poll, is down to 56 percent. So there’s still a good chance more than half of you think I have my head up my posterior.
Judging from the number of comments I’m getting lately, there aren’t that many who give a rip one way or another but I’m going to keep writing anyhow.
I would ask, though, that you take some time to watch this program. Believe me, I had lots of questions, myself about the assassination too and no, I wasn’t swayed by the dramatic music in the presentation or the convincing voice of the late Peter Jennings.
It’s just that sometimes the truth isn’t as dramatic as Oliver Stone or any of the other conspiracy nuts would have you believe it is.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYmLf749K5U[/youtube]