Sidelines
WITH eyes misting and mustard blazers blazing, another class was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame yesterday. And it will get another rousing ovation tomorrow at the annual Hall of Fame Game. We felt the Hall of
Fame pageantry firstBut we saw them here first.
We got to be there when this class was still first awed by the honor, when Jim Kelly, Dan Hampton, John Stallworth, Dave Casper and the late George Allen (represented by his son Bruce) were just trying it on for size.
They sat in a tent at Fort DeRussy, dining together, basking in the glow of their newfound fraternity. It was Pro Bowl week, and the NFL was introducing its newest Hall of Famers to Hawaii, and to the world.
I remember how cool I thought it was, and how they obviously agreed. They lavished praise on those who helped get them there.
"I played on a couple of teams without good coaches and good players," said Casper, with his round face and rice bowl haircut. He summed it up best: "And I didn't do very well on those teams."
Hampton, the mountainous bear of a man, came to life in front of a microphone. He joked about getting his enormous cranium measured for his Hall of Fame bust. "It took a little longer on me," he said.
And then they left the tent and went out into the sun, the heat, the light. The people surrounded them and the Brothers Cazimero played.
They were new Hall of Famers, and they were in Hawaii.
The day felt bright and good.
No parking. A sure sign of the significance of an event. (Or, a sure sign that you live on Oahu.)
But I couldn't stay away from the Dragon Boat races yesterday at Ala Moana Beach Park, and was not disappointed. Sun, sand, barbecue smoke. Team cheers of the "Whoa, Bundy!" variety. Elegant serpents gliding on blue sea while one lucky contestant gets to set the pace with a "Ben Hur" beat.
But the best part was a few steps mauka on the grass, where one family was playing a full-on kickball game.
Kickball! And they were mostly adults, too. It was beautiful.
When it comes down to it, all sports go back to being 8 years old, running barefoot in the grass.
We haven't heard his name much yet, but I expect receiver Justin Colbert to have a big year for Hawaii football this fall.
During practices in the spring he was in such a zone I had to ask him about it. He just looked like a senior, everything was so smooth and just right. Like he had somehow found a way to give full effort effortlessly.
He said that he knew the offense so well he was feeling it. He was feeling it without knowing it, if you know how that feels.
And when you reach that point, Grasshopper, nobody can stop you. You can only stop yourself.
Can Hawaii volleyball be too talented?
The quick answer is, No, you dummy! Who would ask a stupid question like that? You want as much talent as you can get! Everybody knows that.
But it will be interesting to watch Margaret Vakasausau juggle those assignments and see how Dave Shoji keeps such a high-performance engine humming smoothly. There are so many good players on that team it may be a challenge to use them all to their full potential and best overall effect.
But then, that's why Shoji's trophy case is already full.
Nice Channel 9 story the other night about Mario Fatafehi and Steve Grace at Arizona Cardinals training camp. You can't go wrong putting Fatafehi on camera with his personality. I went to Manhattan, Kan., to do a story on him when he was a great player at Kansas State. We started talking story, and the next thing you knew every reporter in Kansas was surrounding us. They had never heard a Wildcat player talk or laugh so much since disciplinarian genius Bill "Gag Order" Snyder took over as coach.
From the mailbox: "Let's keep lobbying for a U of H stadium."
From the mailbox: "I think it was Pogo 'Pogue.' "
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com