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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
A Chad hopes to sway
another electionTAKE heart, Hawaii fans. Big days are ahead. Timmy Chang has just received his first big endorsement in the race for the Heisman Trophy.
A major, national, ESPN television-appearing columnist has started up the bandwagon and he's leaning on the horn.
Of course, said columnist happens to be Norman Chad, best known for being a friend and guest of Tony Kornheiser ("Thank you, Norman") and for being almost as funny.
In his college football kickoff yesterday, Chad picked Chang as his choice for the Heisman, and Mount Union (Ohio), a Division III school on a 42-game win streak, as his No. 1 team.
Did I mention Chad was funny?
Still, this is national recognition. This is big-time. This is great. This is fun. Chad -- the first sub off the "Pardon the Interruption" bench -- is pushing Timmy's candidacy pretty hard.
In fact, he voted for Chang last year, Chad wrote.
But that didn't quite work out.
"Alas, while Carson Palmer was waving to the crowd last December as Mr. America," Chad wrote, "I was making a conciliatory call to Chang, who was shut out by the Heisman electorate in a season in which he completed 349 of 624 passes for 4,474 yards. (Indeed, I was the only person to vote for Chang. But I was not a registered Heisman elector, so they threw out my ballot and sent me Lee Corso's e-mail address.)"
That's all any of us want. Lee Corso's e-mail address.
And if that isn't fun enough, the Star-Bulletin's Football Fever contest is starting again soon. I know this because yesterday was the annual Football Fever photo shoot.
You'll recall that last year we took pictures of all of us chasing a car down the street. At one point, me, Lanai and Augie posed in the trunk of the car, Augie with a pair of boxer shorts on his head.
This year, the shoot was much more dignified, although it included KITV's Kanoa Leahey taking off his shirt at least four times. (No, Kanoa was not going "Fabio" on us. They gave us white shirts to wear, then told us to turn them inside out, to hide the beer logos. Then, no, white shirts would not look good to the camera. Better switch to black shirts. Then ...) It was sexy.
As usual, it should be a fun year with myself, sports editor Paul Arnett, Kanoa and Robert Kekaula from Channel 4 and radio funny guys (and TV stars) Lanai and Augie on your panel.
I want it on record that after finishing dead last in 2001, last year I rebounded to lead the field.
You may ask what my new strategy was. Well, I carefully take into account tendencies, streaks, weather. Then playing surfaces, matchups, gut feeling and uniform color.
Then I ask my wife.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com
