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The Way I See It
FORMER University of Hawaii defensive lineman Nick Ma'afala was beginning to think he was beating his leukemia late last year. He was working out and gaining back some weight. Ma‘afala needs bone
marrow transplantBut on Christmas Eve, the 33-year-old's white cell count was high enough to signal that his battle with the disease is not over.
This week, he's taking chemotherapy and radiation treatments again as his younger brother, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, and other family members, stick by his side at St. Francis Medical Center.
Nick needs a bone marrow transplant and older sister Leimomi, 36, is his match. She will begin the donor process on Friday.
It's a tough time for the family. Chris lost most of his season to a broken foot.
The family is appealing for platelet donations in connection with the marrow transplant.
Anyone interested in helping may contact the hospital at 547-6403 Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
NOW, something that annoys me.
Reading Brian Billick's remark during a tirade against the media this week that "all charges were dropped against Ray Lewis" really crystallizes NFL values, doesn't it?
I wonder how the Ravens' head coach can not even remember the outcome of his star player's highly publicized legal saga. Maybe Billick was confused or maybe he thinks being convicted of obstruction of justice doesn't count.
And how can he not understand that because Lewis is the most celebrated player in Super Bowl XXXV there is no shelter from self-generated controversy?
Lewis is profiting beyond belief from an event that charges $76,667 per second for commercial air time and is seen by 120 million people. Why shouldn't he answer questions?
Lewis referred to his journey from jail to NFL Defensive Player of the Year as a "fairy tale."
Well, I think he's a tremendous athlete and you have to love watching the way he goes after the ball. But I also think "fairy tale" is hardly an appropriate description for the linebacker's reversal of fortune.
The more I look back at coverage of the Lewis double-murder trial, I realize how much smoke hasn't cleared from the case.
There was the limo driver who first implicated Lewis in the brawl that ended with the brutal stabbing deaths of Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker, and then changed his story.
And there were the acquittals of Lewis' co-defendants Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting.
Billick, in probably the most heated attack ever on the media at a Super Bowl, called it a non-issue.
Yep.
And if O.J. Simpson was still active in the NFL at the time of his acquittal, he'd have gone right back to the playing field, maybe even a Super Bowl. His coach would be telling us to forget everything but football.
I imagine Paul Tagliabue would have welcomed Rae Carruth back to the league as he did Lewis.
Carruth's girlfriend, Cherica Adams, pregnant when she was shot several times in 1999, fingered Carruth before she died as the driver who forced her car to stop so that a gunman could pull up and let her have it.
Carruth got 19 years for conspiracy to commit murder.
And I suppose that's a fair trade these days. A football career for a life.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.
Email Pat: pbigold@starbulletin.com
