In 1982, the NFL was changing, although most scribes who covered professional football were years away from recognizing what a young sportswriter already saw. This author, big and beefy and already sporting a glorious red mustache, hailed from Los Angeles and moonlighted as a backup offensive tackle on the BYU football team. He wrote the following sentence, as part of a series of freelance articles for the Provo Daily Herald:
The name of the NFL game is pass.
The kid who wrote that sentence stood 6'3", weighed around 230 pounds, accumulated zero college statistics and played only in spring games through three seasons. He majored in physical education. He counted Jim McMahon among his teammates.
