Fredgirl met hall of famers and didn’t know it

Fredgirl story - A decade ago (could have been longer), I was sitting in the press box overlooking Lincoln Financial Field covering an Eagles Monday night game. My daughter Carrie was on the sidelines with a photo credential and camera rig around her neck. I told her at the end of the third quarter that we were leaving to beat the traffic and dodge drunk drivers. I spotted Carrie between two athletic guys, a Black one and a white one, both wearing suits. The three of them were chatting and conversing, just smiling and having fun. I watched Carrie say goodbye, then she looked up and waved at the press box as if to say, “I’m going; I’m going. Relax already!” We dodged spent whiskey bottles and empty beer cans like running backs high-stepping through tires at practice for the slow drive to South Broad looking for the I-95 South sign. “Hey, Dad, did you see those guys I was talking to? I think they were former players. Did you recognize either of them?” “Yes, that was Michael Irvin and Steve Young. They’re big-time network guys and hall of fame guys. I’m sure they found talking to you refreshing. I spent the game sitting next to Steve A. Smith.” “Who’s that?” she asked. “Quite frankly [his show name], who cares,” I answered. So Irvin evidently ain’t got no game – for now – after allegedly saying something so offensively vile during a 30-second encounter in public to a woman working at the Renaissance Hotel owned by Marriott that NFL Network pulled him off Super Bowl coverage and yanked him from Friday’s “First Take” show with Screaming Stephen A. Smith. Irvin “quite frankly” admitted to being out drinking and didn’t remember talking to the woman. Recovering alcoholic analyzers are acutely aware that if you don’t remember what you said, then you have no idea what you didn't say. 

Seaside community - Ten years ago at a Presidents Day luncheon at the Sheraton South Hotel hosted by the Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association, I was privileged to present  P.J. Kesmodel, Cape’s head coach for girls’ lacrosse, as the 2012 Coach of the Year. I said, “I’m Fredman from Sesame Street by the Sea where everyone has multiple muppet disorder.” What I meant was that we lived in an interactive community where we all played multiple roles and kept bumping into each other along the flyways, waterways and byways of Sussex County. Tim Bamforth will receive the Herm Reitzes Award for Service to Sports Monday, Feb. 20. I will introduce “my boy Tim” to the room and remind people it’s nice to see someone do community service without being sentenced by a court of law or to embellish a resume or as clock hour  requirements for induction into the honor society. The dogs of community service share and contribute their talents because it’s just who they are – they know no other way. Herm Reitzes Award winners I have nominated include Marion Lisehora in 2007 and Tony Fazio in 2014.    

Delaware Girls’ Wrestling - There will be an all-girls wrestling event Sunday, Feb. 19, at Smyrna High School, beginning at 10 a.m. There will be two mats down and weight-class designation will be by the honor system. Wrestlers will be grouped by age and weight in an effort to get a minimum of two matches. DWOA officials are donating their services to help promote female wrestling in Delaware. Matches will be three periods of a minute-and-a-half each. I’m thinking of going to take photos and calling it church.  

Snippets - The Bears of Mercer University (Chloe Schaffer) women’s lacrosse team will play at Virginia Tech (Ella Rishko) Saturday, Feb. 18, two Cape girls facing off early in the season. McDaniel College men’s lacrosse (Finn Forcucci) will host St. Vincent (Brody McMahon) Saturday, March 18, in Westminster, Md., at Kenneth R. Gill Stadium. Both Finn, a freshman, and Brody, a senior, are long pole defenders. Sitting matside through hundreds of wrestling matches since the pandemic masked then unmasked us all. I’m close to blood and barfing in buckets, cotton plugs pushed up nostrils, not to mention rogue cases of impetigo and ringworm, what some locals call “the wigworm.” Yes, you better believe I’m vaccinated and boosted, and ready for all kinds of weather. Go on now, git!