Once A Dragon Always A Dragon

The NY Football Giants have sold what legacy they claim to have about being a stand-up organization to a bunch of thugs and criminals just so they can win football games. The irony was not missed by me that on the same day Plaxico Burress kissed his good fortune goodbye, a man who worked for 50 years to shape the lives of young people retired.

To those of you in my area this will mean something personal. Warren Wolf, the only football coach the high school I went to ever had retired yesterday. I grew up in a football crazed town because of Coach Wolf. As a kid I went to every school sponsored football camp I could and I played for one year but quit because I was small, slow and disliked pain. But that doesn't mean I didn't learn.

I seriously disliked high school and almost everyone I encountered during it, especially people older than me. That was me more than them. I was not proud of anything except the Brick Dragons football program. As I grew away from my school years the one constant was always the Dragons and Warren Wolf, and that I was connected to them both just because I was an alumni.

Many years later I helped Coach Wolf put together the school's first on-field video system and I was impressed by his demeanor. He was really a likable guy. Coach Wolf went on to serve as mayor, freeholder and assemblyman and this is where I encountered the non-football Coach Wolf. As a member of his own political party I worked against him for mayor in 1992. There were a lot of reasons for this that had nothing to do with Wolf. Wolf was defeated and his political career pretty much ended then - at least in the public eye. I always felt a little dirty for working against him, especially when it turned out the people I was aligned with were as crooked and inept as they come. But that's politics.

But all during this, Coach Wolf was a gentleman and his even manner and affability overwhelmed the utter meanness he was up against. Years later, while I was running my publishing company we crossed paths again. He had written a book about another New Jersey coaching legend and I worked on a proposal to publish it. He remembered me from our political days together and I never heard back from him, but he was a complete gentleman even though I'm sure he felt he had reason not to be. He just let it drop and didn't do business with me, which I completely understand. I had an "I-told-you-so" coming to me, but he trusted me enough to have figured that out on my own.

I didn't play football for Coach Wolf, but I learned valuable lessons from him nevertheless and for that I am grateful to be a product of his high school and his town. I hope his retirement is long, healthy and peaceful, and if I see him in the stands at a Brick Township High School football game next year, I'll be sure to shake his hand and say "thank you."