by Pete Bowen
Before the game, the San Francisco Coach, Charlie Warren, was interviewed by ESPN.
ESPN: Welcome Coach. It’s been a crazy season for you, going 1-2 to start the season, losing your starter and backup quarterback in the first half of game four, coming from behind to win that game, and then running off 9 in a row.
Coach Warren: It’s an old cliché, but we’ve been taking one game at a time. It’s been an incredible run, but we’re focused on the game tonight.
ESPN: What were you thinking when your two quarterbacks went down that day?
CW: I was thinking we were screwed. (Laughs) There was so much going on with the fight that broke out after the second injury. Remember, we not only lost our second quarterback, but our safety Brian Reed was tossed. I just said to Tony Reilly, control the ball and let’s get out of the half.
ESPN: Half time and Tony Reilly comes to you and says let’s go hurry up and spread the field. Up till then, the team wasn’t using that offense often.
CW: Tony knew exactly what he wanted to do. What we were doing wasn’t working. He convinced us he could do it. I said, let’s give a try and the rest is history. That afternoon, Tony Reilly took over the offense and made me look like a genius.
ESPN: (Laughing) Did you know you had a such a talented player buried on the bench?
CW: Of course not. I knew I had a talented student of the game who worked his tail off every day at practice to be a better player, but I never imagined he had come that far. I also knew that we were capable of playing with any team in the league. Tony’s performance that day was simply incredible. Since that day, he’s just gotten better.
ESPN: Your offense and defense has gotten better throughout the season. Why the big turn around?
CW: The leadership of this team has stepped up and I’m referring to individual leadership with the likes of Tony Reilly, Matt Benson and Reggie Robinson. People, who are inspired, inspire others. This is the easiest team I’ve ever coached. I have to make these guys go home at night. They are quietly confident that they are the best team in football and they can’t be stopped. I rarely say anything to motivate this team. You know why?
ESPN: Why?
CW: I don’t have to. They motivate themselves and each other. Winning is contagious. Every coach should get an opportunity to coach a team like this once in his life.
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.
&nbs
p; 5. Frank Sinatra- Is it “Old Blue Eyes” or “Chairman of the Board”? From a different generation, Frank was always cool. Leader of the “Rat Pack”, he did it his way.
4. Jack Nicholson- He first came onto my radar in Easy Rider in his first big acting break. But as Randle P. McMurphy, in the movie adaptation of my favorite book, Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, he hit his stride and never looked back. A hard drinking, hard living certified bad boy, Nicholson continues to amaze with the likes of A Few Good Men (“You can’t handle the truth”) and as the Irish mob boss in The Departed. I never thought much of his choice of teams (Lakers and Yankees) but as an actor, Nicholson is cool.
3. Jack Johnson- It took the filmmaker Ken Burns-produced documentary about Johnson’s life that drove home just how cool this guy was. He was the first black heavyweight champion of the world in an era when that was almost impossible to achieve. He was one of the first celebrity athletes. He loved white women, fast cars and tailored clothing. Muhammad Ali often spoke of how he was influenced by Jack Johnson. “I’m Jack Johnson. Heavyweight champion of the world. I’m black. They never let me forget it. I’m black all right! I’ll never let them forget it!” Jack Johnson was cool.
2. Miles Davis- You can’t make a cool list without including the “prince of darkness”. In 1954, his Birth of Cool album gave its name to the “cool jazz” movement. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll noted, “Miles Davis played a crucial and inevitably controversial role in every major development in jazz since the mid-‘40s, and no other jazz musician has had so profound an effect on rock. Miles Davis was the most widely recognized jazz musician of his era, an outspoken social critic and an arbiter of style - in attitude and fashion - as well as music.” The man invented cool.
