I actually caught this past Sunday morning “Outside the Lines” story on text messaging and recruiting. Nothing that was completely revealing. Text messaging has been a fairly well-known recruiting tool by coaches for the last couple of years. Though, I did not know about the prohibitions on texting freshmen and sophomores.

In recent weeks, ESPN contacted several highly recruited high school athletes who receive text messages, as well as their coaches and their parents. They describe an atmosphere where college coaches frequently text message recruits during their freshman and sophomore years. That has the attention of those who enforce the NCAA’s rules, because the same rules that allow text messages to high school juniors and seniors, prohibit text messaging to freshmen and sophomores.

Benn specifically told us he received text messages on several occasions from Penn State, Virginia, and Maryland as a sophomore. While Virginia and Penn State denied any improper activity regarding Benn’s recruitment, a Maryland associate athletic director told us she’s “spoken with the coaches involved with the recruitment of this young man. Each indicated they had not contacted Arrelious Benn at an inappropriate time.” Shortly after ESPN asked the schools about potential violations related to text messaging, Benn contacted us and changed his story saying he was never text messaged by those schools as a sophomore.

Ohio basketball standout Delvon Roe, a 6-7 sophomore forward who plays on the same AAU team as Kosta Koufos, said the text messages from college coaches started his freshman year in high school. Roe appeared taken aback when he recounted that he received a text message from Michigan on his second day of his freshman year: “Is this a joke or something?”

…

When the University of Michigan was contacted about what Roe told ESPN, the school admitted he had been sent a text message too early and started an internal investigation. “This appears to be a secondary violation,” Michigan said in a prepared statement. “We are still reviewing the matter before a final report is sent to the NCAA.”

“They have the obligation to report that to the enforcement staff of the NCAA and to be handled by that appropriate group to see what type of penalties would be placed on that institution and or coach,” Lyons said.

But text messaging freshmen and sophomore prospects is not the only recruiting violation that has become a common practice. At a recent Charlottesville, Va., AAU tournament, Middletown (Del.) sophomore Jarrett Mann told us recruiters from several schools, specifically the University of Delaware and Georgetown University, text message him and his family.

“Georgetown University texts my mom, I want to say every day, every single day,” Mann said. I don’t see a problem with that because I have high interest in the school.”

But even text messaging the parent of a sophomore is against NCAA rules. Mann’s mother later told us in a phone call that Georgetown text messages her once or twice a week, not every day. Neither Georgetown nor Delaware would respond to our requests for interviews about Mann’s recruitment.

The interesting part of the televised story was the panel discussion that included some reporter from Indianapolis, Jamie Newberg of Scout.com and Memphis B-Ball Head Coach John Calipari.

I may distrust Calipari and his snake-oil charm, but the guy is so good with media appearances. He not only sucked up much of the airtime discussion, but actually directed some of the questions for Bob Ley. He dominated and impressed in the panel. This incredible mix of disarming frankness while being at ease and mixing in absolute bulls**t. While pretending to be tech ignorant with crap claims like barely being able to check his e-mail or turn on his computer, he openly said that his assistants use text messaging all the time.

He expressed surprise that the NCAA hasn’t policed it yet, and thought that they would eventually. The reason he said, is that coaches are simply not capable of moderating their own behavior without a rule against it. They are all, always looking for that edge in recruiting. It’s hard to disagree with that viewpoint. Coaches are always trying to push as far as they can.

When asked what he thought about texting he said it was a nice tool, but that a far more effective recruiting is still getting face-to-face with the kid, or doing shows like this “where I can be your sidekick, Bob.”

He’s good. Real good.

Expect texting restrictions that limit the when they can text more than the quantity. Limits that say not during school, practice and games. An effort to reduce the total volume sent because of limited hours. Of course, any smart assistant will still prepare the text messages throughout the day, but put them in a draft box to send at the right time.

Well, it does make some sense.

When word spread that track star Mycaiah Clemons was transferring from Virginia Tech to Pitt, it didn’t take long for Internet message boards to do the mathematics.

That means Toney Clemons now has two sisters at Pitt (Mycah Clemons will be a senior) and puts the Panthers in the lead for the Valley stud receiver. Right?

“Everyone keeps asking me about him coming to Pitt,” Mycah Clemons said. “I can’t influence him. He has a lot of options. He’s got to make his own decisions.”

Clemons, who won the PIAA Class AA long jump and 110-meter high hurdles titles Saturday, said he has scholarship offers from Pitt, Akron, Cincinnati, Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue.

I hear other schools are close,” Toney Clemons said, “but the ones that offer early, those are the ones who want you.”

As for his family influence, Clemons doesn’t deny that he comes from a tight-knit family, but added that Michigan receiver Steve Breaston (Woodland Hills) is a cousin.

That helps explain the Michigan Breaston jersey at a camp. Family-wise that makes it Pitt or Michigan, but Clemons seems interested in exploring the entire recruiting process. I wouldn’t be surprised if he holds off until at least November.

I’ve previously mentioned how the NCAA/College football coaches are going to do their best to shut down the appeal of all the combines and camps by banning the presence of coaches and prohibiting them from taking place at a school facility.

The reasoning is to prevent football from ending up too much like basketball recruiting with more emphasis on the AAU teams and the tournaments. In this case, the recruiting sites and apparel companies that sponsor the overwhelming and ever growing majority of them.

It is also ostensibly a quality of life thing for the coaches by keeping them from having to attend less events on the recruiting trail. It is also about trying to keep the recruiting sites from connecting with the kids and getting information about the recruitment — reducing the knowledge of who’s recruiting him, how hard and often

The last couple of weeks, there have been articles about the Metro Index Camp run out of Western PA by Joe Butler for some 26 years.

“The big conflict of interest is the weekend combines and how they’ve got coaches on the road 10 weeks out of the year,” Iowa assistant Ken O’Keefe said. “Guys with young families aren’t even getting back home. I think it’s a giant sacrifice. It’s putting an undue strain on a lot of people. We need to get the whole environment under control.”

O’Keefe noted that he has been a subscriber to the Metro Index scouting service since 1986, when he was an assistant at Allegheny College, and values the ability to watch prospects perform on a weeknight instead of sitting in a hotel room.

“Metro Index is not the reason they’re looking at this rule,” O’Keefe said. “Joe does things the right way.”

Although combines can draw hundreds of players, they often are slowed by testing in the 40-yard dash and pro shuttle times, of vertical leaps and in the bench press. Metro Index camps are more football-oriented, testing only in the 40 and pro shuttle and spending more time on drills. While major-college programs can discover a gem – former Blackhawk star Jeremy Bruce received an offer from West Virginia after a standout performance at the Nike camp in 2004 – coaches view some camps as a waste of their time.

“There’s a lot very well run, like this one, but there’s a lot of others that are just money markets,” said Rodriguez, who attended Metro Index with assistant Tony Gibson. “You get 600 guys and no true evaluations. Coaches become obligated to go to them, but you don’t really get anything out of it. It’s out of control.”

Metro Index stands to be collateral damage. The legislation can’t really exempt certain camps, and they definitely get kids to come because the college coaches attend and watch. Metro in addition to running football skill drills, also runs a subscription service coaches subscribe to for the information and charges kids to attend. Something the recruiting/apparel camps don’t do.

The other thing is the coaches quality of life argument. That the coaches have to attend because of every other coach attending. Even if they aren’t seeing anything new. It’s about staying even/competitive with other schools in recruiting.

“Coaches only have so many months to be home on the weekends and enjoy their families,” said Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. “We’ve said enough is enough. There are so many of these camps now that coaches feel obligated to try and get to every one of them in order to remain competitive. The quality of life for our coaches is the primary concern. This is America, if someone wants to host a combine that’s their right and we won’t stop them. What we’re saying is coaches won’t be there.”

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt echoed the sentiments of Teaff and many of the coaches who attended Metro Index in early May. He said coaches can arrive at the same conclusions about players without wasting time traveling to combines all over the country.

“This is the smartest thing the NCAA has ever done,” Wannstedt said. “We can’t coach at these camps, we can’t talk to the kids or their families, so all we do is stand there and watch a bunch of guys in shorts run over bags for two hours. There is no reason for us to be there. We could get the same info without being there.”

Other coaches like WVU’s Rich Rodriguez are not wild about the whole combine camps because they are hosted at campuses not named WVU. Pitt has hosted these camps from Metro, Scout.com and Rivals.com. You have Ohio St. and Penn St. both hosting Nike camps. The major competition all get to have the kids come to their campus for a visit that doesn’t count as a recruiting trip. Another perceived competitive disadvantage.

All the camps and their sponsors point to how some kids get noticed at the camps that they otherwise would have slipped past. How the kids would have ended up at a smaller school or in a lower division. Mind you, still on scholarship but at IUP instead of Iowa is the argument. Because, you know, it’s for the children.

Remember last summer, there were some hints that Tyler Palko could be a darkhorse Heisman candidate? As College Football News.com tries to find things to discuss during the dim time counted down their 100 most likely Heisman candidates. Here’s where Palko clocked in.

47. QB Tyler Palko, Pittsburgh — With protection, Palko showed in 2004 that he can be quite the sharpshooter. However, he spent most of 2005 ducking for cover a few seconds after dropping back to pass. And the early exit of Greg Lee means he’ll be without a reliable deep threat for the first time since becoming a starter.

The issue is still the line. Even with no protection and a bad start, Palko still threw for 3000 yards. The potential is there with the receivers. The question still remains as to whether he’ll get any protection and time to throw.

Not affiliated with the Pittsburgh Steelers, so that argument won’t really fly in the area.

This is just too good.

West Virginia men’s basketball coach John Beilein was cited Tuesday for disorderly conduct at Pittsburgh International Airport after he refused a police officer’s command to move his vehicle and berated the officer, authorities said.

Beilein, 53, also was issued a parking ticket for leaving his vehicle in a “No Parking” area outside the terminal, said Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt.

The coach was allowed to leave after being cited, Moffatt said.

…

An officer spotted Beilein’s vehicle parked illegally about 1:35 p.m. and told him he had to move, Moffatt said.

Beilein refused and started berating the officer, saying that he didn’t have to move the vehicle because he was the West Virginia basketball coach, Moffatt said.

The disturbance drew a crowd, and Beilein was given the citation and parking ticket, Moffatt said.

Beilein disputed the police account.

“The information contained in the citation is an inaccurate representation of the events at the Pittsburgh airport,” he said in a statement released through the university.

[Emphasis added.]

Lies! Lies! Lies!

Is it just me, or is the music being used by TNT for the NBA playoffs, “Remember the Name,” by Fort Minor the same tune that ESPN used for the Big East Basketball Tournament this past March?

I would swear that it is the same song, but I haven’t found anything to confirm.

It must be the trend now to send press releases to the schools about the All-American and All-conference squads before actually putting the information out there for the preseason publications. Lindy’s, Athlon, Sporting News and now Blue Ribbon Yearbook has it’s All-BE team.

Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm was projected as the offensive player of the year, Pitt defensive back Darrelle Revis was tabbed the defensive player of the year, and Louisville’s Deantwan Whitehead as named newcomer of the year.

West Virginia led the way with seven picks, followed by Louisville (six) and Rutgers (four).

Not sure what Pitt players made the squad. Blue Ribbon doesn’t actually release its tome (almost 400 pages) until July.

As previously noted Athlon Sports will be one of the first publications to put out its college football preview. They somewhat-released their All-American squads and like Lindy’s last week make the same call with H.B. Blades and Darrelle Revis.

The newly released Athlon Sports college football annual is the latest to praise Pitt’s defensive duo, naming Revis a first team All-American and Blades a second-team pick. The pair was named to Lindy’s All-America squad last week.

Athlon also lauded Pitt’s incoming recruits, rating the Panthers’ 2006 class as the best in the Big East and No. 11 nationally. Five Pitt players were listed among the nation’s Top 100 Incoming Freshmen, including tight end Nate Byham (No. 25), receiver Dorin Dickerson (No. 36), receiver Elijah Fields (No. 57), offensive lineman Joe Thomas (No. 66) and running back Kevin Collier (No. 99).

Just to clarify, the recruiting rankings Athlon uses are actually from Scout.com.

One of the articles in this year’s mag is ranking the first year of the 23 new coaching hires from 2005. N0 shock that Charlie Weis of ND is at the top. Coach Wannstedt clocks in down at #16.

The first month of the Wannstedt era was a debacle, but the Panthers battled back from a 1–4 start, won four of their last six and ended the year with a winning Big East record.

Greg Robinson at Syracuse came in at #23.

A personality like Ironhead Heyward will provoke a lot of memories from columnists. This is one of the better stories I’ve read. Chicago Bears training camp in 1993.

I was standing next to him after a Bears practice when two elderly white women approached using delicate steps.

The conversation unfolded this way:

“May we have your autograph?” one of the women whispered.

“Why, sure!” Heyward said, with pure joy and excitement.

“I think you’re going to be my favorite Bear,” one of the women said.

“I’d love that,” Heyward answered. “And you two will be my favorite fans.”

“Ooooh!” both women responded.

“I see you have a camera,” Heyward continued. “Let’s take a picture together.”

And he stood in the middle, arms around each woman. Both asked me to take the shot. I obliged.

Three of the biggest, warmest smiles ever filled the frame.

Heyward afterward gave each woman an enduring hug. He planted a loving kiss on each one’s cheek.

I heard one of them say as they walked away: “That’s the first time I’ve ever been kissed by a black man.”

The other offered: “What a charmer! What a guy! Imagine if every professional football player treated fans that way. I’ll never forget it.”

If you ever met Heyward, no surprise if you left feeling the same way.

I’ve been reading stories like this. There’s acknowledgment of Heyward’s excesses as well, but most seemed to be of the opinion that the goods far outweighed the bads.

Of course for some, like the NY Post sports grump Phil Mushnick sees a chance to take a whack at him and now ESPN college football color analyst Mike Gottfried.

While Heyward’s death wasn’t a big story in terms of time and space provided it, he was a significant historical sports figure. In 1988, Heyward made for the perfect storm example of the academic, financial and social fraud daily committed in this country in the psychotic quest to win ballgames.

Growing up in Passaic, N.J., Heyward was more inclined toward trouble than school, but what did it matter? He was a big, fast RB. The University of Pittsburgh gave him a full, free ride.

At Pitt, Heyward wasn’t much for school and was arrested several times. But none of that kept him from playing for Pitt.

Weeks after Heyward rushed for 130 yards in Pitt’s loss to Texas in the 1987 New Year’s Eve Bluebonnet Bowl, Mike Gottfied, now an ESPN college football analyst and then Pitt’s head coach, announced Heyward could no longer play for him and Pitt. Heyward had signed with an agent – Bruce Allen, son of famed NFL coach George Allen – thus, Heyward was done.

While Heyward was through, Gottfried wasn’t. He ripped Allen for taking advantage of Heyward, adding Allen had “deprived Heyward of a free college education.”

Noble sentiment. But Heyward hadn’t been to a class at Pitt for the entire previous semester. And because no one could recall seeing him in a classroom the semester before that, Heyward may have helped win games for Gottfried and Pitt without having attended a class for an entire academic year.

Still, Gottfried blasted Allen for taking advantage of Heyward and for depriving him of a college education. That’s why Gottfried, for colossal gall, alone, is no less a significant contributor to sports history than Heyward.

I do wonder about the consistently negative sportswriters. Nothing is ever good, and you wonder if it is even possible for them to enjoy sports any longer.

UPDATE: Pitt has info on the funeral arrangements. The family is asking that instead of any flowers, people consider donating to the Southeastern Brain Tumor Foundation.

A good article in the P-G today by Paul Zeise about Coach Wannstedt and the Pitt coaching staff recruiting effort for year 2.

Wannstedt has been on the road again this May, and this time the situation is much different.

The Panthers are coming off a losing season, and Wannstedt must deal with the fact that three of the four BCS winners — Penn State, West Virginia and Ohio State — are within three hours of Pitt’s campus.

Conventional wisdom would hold that Wannstedt has little chance of duplicating last year’s success. But Wannstedt, based on his experiences thus far, disagrees. He said if anything his chances for success are even better this year than they were last year for several reasons. The biggest one being that he has a much better understanding of what it is he is trying to sell.

Pitt’s losing record has not been an issue, he said, because people understand the roster has some holes that need to be filled, which the team’s struggles clearly highlight.

“Last year, we were selling dreams and frankly didn’t fully know what we were dealing with because we were new,” Wannstedt said. “And people also know now that we really do mean business. They see we are genuine and they respect our work ethic. They see we really have made a commitment, especially in Pennsylvania, and they are more excited about what we’re doing now then they were last year because it is real.

“I can say this with all honesty — the reception for us has been even better this year than it was last. We’re going to get six or seven more commitments heading into the fall and we’ll be off and running again.”

While Wannstedts’ track record of success as a recruiter is hard to argue with, there are a few signs that his second time around won’t be as easy.

This almost seems to be building on this post from Chris Dokish last week on recruiting. Last week saw several recruits targeted by Pitt choose WVU, ND and PSU. Figure any decent beat writer, and I happen to think Zeise is quite good, pays attention to the message board discussions and blogs these days (even if they don’t want to admit it). They can find out what is on the mind of the fans and what things they want to know more. So what you get is an article discussing the matter with more detail, information and quotes. Helping to bridge the gap from discussion and speculation to information and fact.

Wannstedt also is being very proactive to maintain the Panthers’ recruiting momentum and the enthusiasm surrounding the program, which remains very high. That’s a big reason he spent the spring evaluation period — coaches get four weeks in the spring to evaluate prospects — on the road with his assistant coaches.

Most head coaches, especially those at established programs, stay home in the spring, saving their road trips until later in the year when they are able to make school and home visits with prospects.

Wannstedt, however, believes the work he does on the road in the spring is building a foundation for another successful signing day for the Panthers.

“I need to be out on the road right now to help get things established,” he said. “A few years down the road, once we get things up and running like we want it to be, like we know it will be, maybe I sit back a bit and do it the way other head coaches do it.

“But I just don’t think it would be fair for me to push my assistants out the door and make them do the hard work of rebuilding things. I want to be there to help. I also never get tired of selling people on our great city and our great university.

“I am far more excited about our future now than I ever was at any point last year.”

Anyone really feel like arguing against it right now? I suppose there is the feeling that he is burning his visits too soon and it could cost Pitt some blue-chippers who wait to decide and get those final visits from another school.

I think Wannstedt makes a compelling case that he needs to be out there early and often to keep selling the program, his staff and coming to Pitt. Overall, it is also hard to argue against the early returns.

Apparently The Sporting News leaked its All-Big East Preseason team to the schools before it has even made it a release on its own site.

The Sporting News obviously thinks West Virginia and Louisville will dominate the Big East football competition this fall.

Seven players from each of those two schools are on the 2006 Sporting News All-Big East preseason first team.

What’s more, TSN has three Mountaineers and three Cardinals on its second team. There also are seven from each on the All-America checklist. That publication couldn’t have put these two national powers any closer in its projections for the upcoming season.
…
Brohm was named Big East offensive player of the year and Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades defensive player of the year.

Pitt and South Florida placed three players each on the all-league first team, Connecticut and Rutgers two each, and Syracuse one.

Obviously, that means Brohm was 1st team QB. Apparently WVU’s Pat White was the 2nd team, meaning Tyler Palko didn’t make the cut.

My educated guess for the 3 Pitt 1st teamers: Blades, CB Darrelle Revis and P Adam Graessle.

A little snippet from the Philadelphia Daily News:

Mike Rice, one of Phil Martelli’s assistants at Saint Joseph’s, says he is “seriously considering” an offer from Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon to become Dixon’s associate head basketball coach. Rice, a Pittsburgh native, came to St. Joe’s in 2004.

So at this time, there is no official word. There is confirmation that the job is his if he “wants” it. Considering he sent the resume to Dixon, I’m guessing the only thing that keeps him at St. Joe’s is a raise and promotion like when Pitt had to retain Barry Rohrssen from leaving to join the St. John’s coaching staff a couple years prior.

According to the e-mail bylined by Chris Dokish from Pittsburgh Sports Report, Coach Jamie Dixon has made the hirings for the vacancies in the various coaching spots.

The associate head coach position that was vacated by Barry Rohrssen when he left to become the head coach at Manhattan, will reportedly be filled by St. Joseph’s assistant Mike Rice, Jr.; while the director of basketball operations slot, previously held by the promoted Orlando Antigua, will be filled by former Panther player Brandin Knight.

Rice is a Pittsburgh native and son of former Duquesne head coach Mike Rice, Sr., who is now the play-by-play announcer for the Portland Trailblazers. The 37-year old Rice spent the last three seasons at St. Joseph’s under Phil Martelli, who hired Rice after seeing him excel as the director of the Eastern Invitational Basketball Camp in New Jersey. The Eastern Invitational bills itself as the biggest and most influential exposure camp in the United States, with over 900 coaches from every level attending yearly.

Prior to Rice’s stint at the Eastern Invitational, he served as an assistant for 10 years at the college level with stops at his alma mater, Fordham, as well as Marquette, Niagara, and Chicago State.

According to the report, Knight may not actually join the team until the end of the summer.

I don’t know enough about Mike Rice to sound like I know what I’m talking about, and I have other things to do and enjoy today. Superficially, it looks like a damn fine hire. He seems to have a lot of NJ and Philly connections that are vital to Big East recruiting.

I’ll try to have more later.

Bob Smizik with a decent remembering of Ironhead Heyward.

“He was a great father,” said Charlotte Heyward Blackwell. “The boys are all extremely gifted athletes. He was very hands on, very involved. He wanted them to know he was there for them.

“He had a stroke in March of 2005 that left him partially paralyzed on his left side. It was a setback. But even in his wheelchair, he was lively. He didn’t let it hold him back at all. Even when he lost the ability to walk, he was out there in the wheelchair, letting them know he was there.”

Cameron is a serious athlete. He’s a 6-foot-7, 270-pound junior defensive tackle at Peachtree Ridge High in Suwanee, Ga. He’s heavily recruited by major schools, including Pitt.

“He hasn’t made up his mind,” said his mother, a Pittsburgh native and Pitt graduate.

“We remained best friends,” said Charlotte of her ex-husband. “It was a joint custody with not a lot of rules. We both served as parents. We both did the driving. We lived about a mile apart.”

Cameron played his first two high school seasons at Whitfield Academy, about 35 miles from home. After his father’s stroke, he transferred to his neighborhood school, Peachtree Ridge. Under Georgia rules, he would have been ineligible. But the family petitioned the state governing board and he was granted a medical hardship to play so his dad could watch.

When it was clear that Ironhead did not have long to live, Peachtree Ridge coach Blair Armstrong was considering moving Senior Night from the end of the 2006 season to the start of it.

It wasn’t to be. Cameron Heyward won’t have his father with him for this final season. But the memory lives on of a great dad, an outstanding football player and one of the sport’s world’s unforgettable characters.

Former Pitt offensive lineman, Matt Morgan is trying to stick with the Buffalo Bills. He was signed out of college as a free agent by the Rams in 2004 and was on their practice squad. Last year he was on the Rams regular roster for at least part of the season.

Tyler Palko was working one of the high school QB camps at Bloomsberg University this weekend.

“You’re going to have expectations and sometimes you meet them sometimes you don’t,” the soon-to-be fifth-year senior quarterback said. “We didn’t have a very good team last year to handle that. I think sometimes you have to experience the lows to kind of wake you up.

“It does jolt you. Who wants to start off 0-3 coming off a BCS game? But (we did) and you’ve got to learn how to deal with it.”

Palko was among the featured instructors Saturday at George Curry’s Quarterback Camp, run by the former Berwick and current Wyoming Valley West head coach with the help of several of the state’s top high school and college sideline bosses.

More than 300 athletes from grades 4-through-12 participated in the annual event, held Saturday for the first time on the campus of Bloomsburg University.

Whereas Penn State’s Anthony Morelli and Pat Devlin were no-shows, Palko has been loyal to Curry’s camp, which the West Allegheny High School grad has been attending since the seventh grade.

“You tighten up your fundamentals,” the 6-foot-2, 220-pound left-hander said. “It’s a neat thing to be around and see guys grow. I think that’s why people continue to come back to his camps, because you get a lot out of it. Coach Curry’s very good at what he teaches in the fundamental aspects of playing quarterback.”

…

He hopes to follow the example set last season by his friend Michael Robinson at Penn State.

“He was in the same position. They didn’t have a very good season and they came back and, shoot, they’re in the Orange Bowl. So it happens to people and I think it makes you a better quarterback to experience highs and lows and mediocrity. I think coming off a 5-6 season we’re excited to get back into it and that’s what we’re looking forward to.”

Palko expressed disappointment at not being able to play in a game against the Nittany Lions during his college career, adding he hopes the series between the two rivals will resume one day.

“It stinks not playing them because it would be a fun game. It’s not like a hatred thing. You want to play in big games, that’s a big game. I think it’s going to get back on track, I really do, just because of (the efforts of) coach Wannstedt.

“I think they’re going to find some happy medium down the line. I wish it could have been when I was here, but I’ll come back and watch it.”

Along with everyone in the state.

Watching the Suns-Mavs playoff game.

They just discussed how Tim Thomas was friends with Ironhead. — they were both from NJ. He has his name and number on his shoes for the game. They showed a close-up.

You have the standard obituary article, with more attention to his NFL career. But as with any life, there’s a lot more. A life like Craig Heyward has many other stories and things for which to remember him. There is the great Zest commercial, which DeadSpin links to a parody/imitation from YouTube.com, because at this time no one has uploaded the original.

There are those in New Jersey who remember his high school days.

Heyward, a big, powerful running back, was voted one of the Top 10 offensive players of the century by The Star-Ledger after rushing for 5,142 yards and scoring 74 touchdowns for Passaic. He was first team all-state in 1982-83 and also played linebacker, leading Passaic to two North Jersey, Section 1, Group 4 titles. Passaic won The Star-Ledger Top 20 trophy as the state’s No. 1 team in 1983.

Tom Elsasser coached Heyward at Passaic High from 1980-82.

“He was physically dominating,” Elsasser said last night. “He turned 14 years old on the first night he played varsity football and ran for three TDs against Memorial of West New York.

“He was 5-11, 215 as a freshman and could run a 4.5 40. What separated him was his size and speed. He started for me as a fullback and was a tailback in his junior and senior years.

“I remember one day I brought him home to Monroe Street in Passaic and all the little kids in the neighborhood ran up to him when he stepped out of the car and they would be chanting and tease him,” Elsasser said. “He would stand there and then jump at them and they’d run away and he’d laugh, and the kids would come back again and try to get him mad. He was like a folk hero to the little kids in the neighborhood.

“I remember seeing him when he was either in the fourth or fifth grade, he was much bigger than the other kids, holding a basketball over his head and the other kids trying to jump up and get it.”

…

Friends who had visited recently with Heyward, including one-time NFL quarterback Bobby Hebert, a former teammate in New Orleans and Atlanta, did not expect his death to come so quickly.

Hebert told ESPN.com two weeks ago that he was apprised that the tumor had wrapped itself around Heyward’s brain, that further surgical attempts were not planned, and that the once-mighty fullback would likely survive another three to five years.

“The one thing he’s still got and that hasn’t changed a bit,” Hebert said at the time, “is that devilish sense of humor of his.”

Heyward’s humor and gregariousness were probably the thing those who interacted with him most often cite.

Of course, his Pitt career was quite outstanding.

Mr. Heyward, 39, died yesterday morning at his home in Atlanta. Cause of death is unknown, but he has been in ill health since he was diagnosed with a benign tumor, which was partially removed, in 1998. Mr. Heyward had a recurrence of the tumor last year, and some of his former teammates have been asked to donate money to help pay his soaring medical bills.

Mr. Heyward was one of the most popular and productive running backs to play at Pitt, accumulating 3,086 career yards and leaving school after his junior season to become a No. 1 draft choice of the National Football League’s New Orleans Saints in 1988.

“The thing I liked about Ironhead is you never had to worry about his effort,” said former Pitt wide receiver Bill Osborn, who also was from New Jersey and was recruited to Pitt the same year as Mr. Heyward. “When we would line up, you knew he was going to give maximum effort every time. He was a tough, hard-nosed guy who loved life.”

“He was the perfect teammate,” said Thomas Jefferson High School coach Bill Cherpak, one of the linemen who blocked for Mr. Heyward. “You loved [having] him on your team.”

His cause of death is presumed to be the return of the same brain tumor that ended his NFL career in 1998 and caused the host of physical ailments leading to a portion of his brain being removed to try and remove the cancerous tumor.

Heyward’s health steadily declined after learning two months ago that the same tumor that ended his NFL career as a Colt in 1998 — known as a chordoma — had returned. Heyward underwent surgery at Emory Hospital in his hometown of Atlanta, but doctors were unable to completely remove the tumor.

Heyward, a father of three, was blind in his right eye and required a wheelchair after suffering a stroke two years ago that left him partially paralyzed.

“I got a call at 4:30 or 5 that he had passed away,” said Blair Armstrong, who coached Heyward’s son, Cameron, at Peachtree Ridge High School. “He was in a hospice when he died.”

Crap. Thinking about this makes my Dalmore 12 year-old taste like some cheap Ballantine.