When our son interviewed Alan Page on April 27, it brought an old hero of mine back to life, only this time it was real life.
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| Alan Page football card. Noah has one that he graciously signed. |
Like many 40-somethings, I followed the Vikings through their glory years of the late 1960s and 1970s. It was a team filled with many gritty players, but the real star was Alan Page.
He played defensive tackle. He wasn’t the biggest player or the strongest. He definitely wasn’t the flashiest. But he was the quickest, the cleanest, the most determined. When you needed the big defensive play, Alan Page came through.
In my young mind, Alan Page was quite simply the best football player ever, the heart and soul of a big, strong, honest football team.
Bob Hertz, Willow River, remembered one game on Thanksgiving against Detroit. Page was called for roughing the passer. It was a bad call, and you could tell Page was angry.
A player today would storm around and get called for unsportsmanlike conduct and a 15-yard penalty. Alan Page just got even. He sacked the quarterback on the next two plays, then intercepted a pass and ran it in for a touchdown.
Maybe that’s how it went. Maybe Bob’s fertile mind has improved the legend. But Alan Page was that good.
Noah came to like Alan Page vicariously, through me and through his Uncle Randy. Randy’s middle name is Allen, and he was such a big Alan Page fan as a kid that he preferred to be called Alan.
Noah loves football. He’s a straight A student when it comes to football. When he read about Alan Page, his young football instincts told him that here was perhaps the best defensive tackle that ever played. Better than his modern day Viking hero at the same position, John Randle.
| Alan Page, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice |
My respect for Alan Page went beyond the football field. I voted for him when he was elected in 1992 for Minnesota Supreme Court justice. I felt proud when he was elected, because he had somehow confirmed my faith in him. But my respect rose even more when Alan Page agreed to an interview with an 11-year old kid.
How many past or present sports superstars would do that? Most are too busy endorsing tennis shoes, or shunning publicity, or wallowing in it.
And it skyrocketed when I heard a tape of their conversation. Alan Page knew he had an adoring fan at his feet. He had many opportunities to brag and swagger and laugh at Noah’s innocent questions.
But his answers were patient and precise, and they drilled home a central point the way he used to drill running backs: the importance of education.
He must know what comes from the mouth of babes, because some of Noah’s questions beat anything Sid Hartman could throw out, and so did Alan Page’s answers. Two of them stand out.
One was when Noah asked, “What advice would you give kids that play sports?”
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| Our boy reporter. |
Time and again, Alan Page turned his answer toward the importance of education. I had to smile in admiration. I wanted to shake his hand. Because this is something we struggle with almost every day, with our two kids.
And here was Alan Page, Noah’s hero, MY hero, talking about the very thing WE talk about and work on almost every night. It was so encouraging to hear Alan Page say it so sincerely and clearly.
The other question that stands out was, “Do you think pro athletes of today should be role models?”
Alan Page could have pontificated on that in Charles Barkley fashion. But his answer was as simple as it was wise. “Whether I think they should be or not, we probably treat them that way. I think that professional athletes make reasonably good heroes because of their athletic abilities, but they don’t necessarily make good role models.”
I still don’t really know Alan Page. But he is no longer just my hero. He’s my role model too, and my son’s, and that is good.
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