Monday, Deecmbor 12, 1C33
Pago 4
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Saturday's news that all U.S. combat troops will be
withdrawn from Grenada this week should help
silence those critics who have condemned our
involvement in that tiny Caribbean island.
When the United States invaded Grenada Oct 25,
Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill and many of hb
democratic colleagues warned that we probably
were in for a long occupation of the island. But
President Reagan promised to bring the troops
home by Christmas.
No official announcement has been made, but The
Associated Press quoted Pentagon and White House
sources as saying the 915 paratroopers from the
82nd Airborne Division would be airlifted back to
Fort Bragg, N.C., this morning. About 1,100 support
troops are to be flown home by Thursday, the wire
service reported.
A force of 300 U.S. soldiers most of them mil
itary police will remain to help keep thing in
order until the new government gets itself estab
lished, but for all practical purposes, our military
involvement in Grenada has ended. President Rea
gan has kept his promise.
Many people, here and abroad, compared the
American invasion to acts of expansionism by the
Soviet government
But you can bet one thing: Had the Soviets
invaded Grenada instead of the United States,
troops would have stayed on the island to make sure
the puppet government remained firmly in place.
Most of the foreign leaders who condemned the
invasion, including British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher, quieted down once weapons were disco
vered on Grenada, indicating Cuban and Soviet
intentions for the island.
But for those leaders who still have some doubts,
the Reagan administration's decision to withdraw
the troops should settle things once and for all
the decision to invade Grenada was notbased on .
any desire to take oyer the country.
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Mae watlu a pesfed; eMtag
This is a rotten time to think about anything
serious. It's almost Christmas. So I thought for my
last editorial column of the semester I'd sit back,
relax and think about the perfect Christmas party.
I drive up in a Mercedes. I figure, hey, this is a
WMMd1Wnpi..l.lillll WPWWWM , mM
Editorial
Policy
V.
Bill Allen
Unsigned editorials represent official policy of the
fall 1083 Daily Nebraskan. They are written by this
semester's editor in chief, Larry Sparks.
Other staff members will write editorials
throughout the semester.
Editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of
the university, its employees or the NU Board of
Regents.
daydream anyway, so I might as well go all out
Impeccably dressed, I waltz into the room carrying a
bouquet of roses and a bottle of fine Kentucky sip
ping whiskey. Now, I expect to get several letters to
the editor telling me that you dont have to drink at a
party to have a good time. To which I respond: true,
and you dont have to have a party to drink, or have
a good time for that matter, or is it Thursday? By
then they are usually so confused they leave me
alone, which is all I really want from people who
claim to have all the answers anyway. Fve never
claimed that.
Anyway, I have a lot of friends who choose not to
drink, which I think b great, and some of them are at
this party, not drinking, even though myself and
several others arc. So you see, I dont have a drinking
problem. It's the only thing I do welL
I start talking to a good friend, and we shake
hands and repeat each others names real cool like. I
put the bottle of whiskey down on the bar and grab a
beer. That's all I drink usually, but it looks kind of
ridiculous driving to a party in a Mercedes, walking
in with a bouquet of roses, and carrying a 12-pack.
Which reminds me, I still have these stupid roses,
which look really ridiculous when you have a bottle
of beer in the other hand. Ace the roses.
Ill start again. I drove up not in a Mercedes, wear
ing jeans and a sweatshirt, carrying a 1 2-pack and a
bag of potato chips. There, that's more like it. It's my
kind of party now.
Someone gets the bright idea to put on an album
of Christmas favorites. I think it was the same guy
that put on the Rodney DangerHeld album earlier.
(Terrific, now 111 get letters from the Dangerfleld
fans). But this b OX because it is Christmas, and
we're starting to get lubed by now. We all sing along.
A woman comes over and puts her arm around me. I
guess some people are more lubed than others.
Cczvzzd ca Page 5
Jim Brown is what profootball needs
Sportswriters around the country
liave been chuckling in print for the
last week or so. The cause of their
amusement is Jim Brown, the former
pro football star.
Brown is cracking everybody up be
cause of what he had the nerve to say.
wv"J Bob
tXi Greene
that if Franco Harris of the Pittsburgh
Steelers or Walter Payton of the Chi
cago Bears should break his all-time
National Football League rushing
record, then he will come back and
play until the record b his
Brown is 47 years eld.
"I have the greatest respect for
Franco Harris," Brown said. "But he b
just hanging around to try to break my
record.'
"Even if Franco beats my record by
500 yards, I will come back."
Brown, who played nine seasons for
the Cleveland Browns (from 1C57 to
1085), is the all-time NFL rushing
leader with 12,312 yards; the all-time
NFL touchdown leader with 126; and
the all-time NFL 100-yard-plus-giimes
leader with 58.
But Harris and Payton are creeping
up on that first record. And Brown is
ready to make sure they, dont take it
away.
"1 plan to talk to Al Davis (owner of
the Los Angeles Raiders)," Brown said,
to see if his team would give me a
chance and get my playing rights from
the Browns ... I have started to work
hard on my physical conditioning.
"I'm just doing this because I'm tired
of hearing questions about my record.
I dont want to wait until I'm 50 to
comeback."
Brown's comments have struck
many observers as ridiculous. How
could a 47-year-old man even think
about competing as a running back in
the NFL? ,. V' '
Wen, I think it's wonderful. Too
many old-time football players react to
the prospect of their records being
broken by saying something along the
lines ct, "I hope that young fellow
makes it I had my time, but that was a
longtime ago, and records are made to
be broken. I'm pulling for him to beat
me." - :'. .
Not Jim Brown. That wasnt his style
when he was a pkycr, and apparently
it's net his style now.
If you ever saw him play chugging
out of the Cleveland backSdd, his
number 32 dirty from the mud, the ball
held almost carelessly with one hand
down by his waist you know there
was no more exciting siht in all of
"sports. Brown had that undcHnatla
mc'ic. that" almost no pro athletes'
today have: the ability to draw a sta
dium full of eyes to him even when he
wasnt directly involved, in a pby. All
you had to do was look Brown in the
face and know that he was different
from the rest; different and special' ; .-
He wasnt one to let America watch
his talents slowly deteriorateDuring
his last season, 1 S5, he was as gpreat as
ever, that year he gained 1,544 yards "
and was the league's most valuable
player. But instead of doing what most
athletes would do - hold out for a
bigger contract the next season he
decided to walk away from football
altogether. He had proved he was the
master of that game. Now he wanted
to be a movie star.
Well, he's been a movie star, al
though probably not as great a star as
he had hoped. And at 47, he doesnt
want anyone taking his records away.
I dont know about you, but one of
the few things that could persuade me
to buy a ticket to a pro football game
these days would be the promise of
seeing Brown in person one more time.
NFL attendance and TV ratings are
slavish nowadays, and no wonder,
who wants to see a bunch of guys'
whose main conceois whether
enough money is left over from their
tax-shelter investments to keep them
in recreational drugs?
All the odds say the youngster i
would tear Brown to bits. But I
wouldnt bet on it And even if they did,
there would be people standing in line
at ticket counters all over the NFL just
to see Brown going up agsinst the new
players. In a sport Increasingly devoid
of true excitement, the mere presence
of Brown would bring back the thrills.
With typical diplomacy, Brown had
, this to say about Franco Harris:
; "If anyone .wants- to test my speed,
they can put me up against Franco
anytime. I may be 47, bat I can still
beat him. Franco's made a great con
tribution to the game, he's a great back
. . . but at this point in hb career, he's
running out of bounds, just going for
yards, for records. I dent take him
seriously anymore." : ,
The Cleveland Browns still own the
rights to Jim Brown; technically, he is
on the team's reserve-retired list Club
president Art ModeU, when informed
of Brown's recent statements, said
with a smile:
"If Jim Brown electa to come back,
and since we 're on a budget cut, we can
save money became we still have his
chin strip and hclr.ct"
ModeU msy have t:ea joking, but
there are minions cf us who get posi
tively giddy ct the mere prospect. If
Brown returns to pro football, well all
be return ir to the ticket booths, too.
Whether or net he manr cs to keep his
rushing records, hell do more for at
tendance than all the bare-midriffed
cheerleaders in Texas.
.... 1 23 Tribune Costr
fTidkmt Inc.