Took him 3 minutes to announce the Vikings pick and it jogged my memory, so here is the story:
Met him a number of years ago in a restaurant in Vancouver. My wife (gf at the time) and I were out on the patio having dinner, when I recognized RB Ed Marinaro (Minnesota Vikings / Cornell U. / Hill Street Blues) sitting one table away with some sycophantic agent looking dude. Ed was wearing dark sunglasses after the time they were really necessary (dusk), so I'm thinking, "oh brother". My wife decides she wants to get a photo and our waiter was pretty busy, so I walked over to Ed and asked if we could get a picture. He hemmed and hawed at the prospect of being recognized, while his dinner companion nodded at the eventuality of Ed being noticed by his fans who would want a photo with him. Finally he threw up his hands and said ok, so I said, thanks and handed him the camera while telling him that the button was on top and to make sure to press it firmly. He smirked and his buddy laughed at the audacity of the situation. I took it all in and turned back to sit with my wife for the photo. He continued to smirk and shake his head, but took the picture and then handed the camera back to me as I said thanks and smiled. Now, I was a fan and knew that he grew up in New Milford, NJ, held the Ivy league record for rushing at Cornell at one time, as well as unpaid parking tix on campus, and was the runner up for the Heisman in 1971 - lost to Pat Sullivan. He played for 6 years for Minn, NYJ and Seattle and then became a TV actor. I went back to eating with my wife, occasionally noticing Ed and the other guy laughing over what had just happened, but there was no chance I was going to let on that I knew who he was. To me, he was just a guy who needed a little wake up call. We finished our dinner and I said thanks again for the photo to Ed before we left. It was the perfect end to a perfect evening ...
Met him a number of years ago in a restaurant in Vancouver. My wife (gf at the time) and I were out on the patio having dinner, when I recognized RB Ed Marinaro (Minnesota Vikings / Cornell U. / Hill Street Blues) sitting one table away with some sycophantic agent looking dude. Ed was wearing dark sunglasses after the time they were really necessary (dusk), so I'm thinking, "oh brother". My wife decides she wants to get a photo and our waiter was pretty busy, so I walked over to Ed and asked if we could get a picture. He hemmed and hawed at the prospect of being recognized, while his dinner companion nodded at the eventuality of Ed being noticed by his fans who would want a photo with him. Finally he threw up his hands and said ok, so I said, thanks and handed him the camera while telling him that the button was on top and to make sure to press it firmly. He smirked and his buddy laughed at the audacity of the situation. I took it all in and turned back to sit with my wife for the photo. He continued to smirk and shake his head, but took the picture and then handed the camera back to me as I said thanks and smiled. Now, I was a fan and knew that he grew up in New Milford, NJ, held the Ivy league record for rushing at Cornell at one time, as well as unpaid parking tix on campus, and was the runner up for the Heisman in 1971 - lost to Pat Sullivan. He played for 6 years for Minn, NYJ and Seattle and then became a TV actor. I went back to eating with my wife, occasionally noticing Ed and the other guy laughing over what had just happened, but there was no chance I was going to let on that I knew who he was. To me, he was just a guy who needed a little wake up call. We finished our dinner and I said thanks again for the photo to Ed before we left. It was the perfect end to a perfect evening ...
