Man, this is a day for sad sports stories in the NYT.
George Sauer Jr. passed away in May.
He caught eight passes in the Jets’ upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. In six seasons with the Jets, Sauer caught 309 passes for 4,965 yards and 28 touchdowns. But after the 1970 season, when he was 27, George Sauer retired, criticizing a sport that he described as having a “chauvinistic authority,” “militaristic structure” and that he termed “inhumanly brutal.” He briefly returned to play with the New York Stars of the World Football League three years later, but after that, Sauer’s football days were over.
What makes this story interesting is that Sauer, according to people who knew him, was a really smart guy who may have never wanted to play football in the first place; what he really wanted to be was a writer.
On a slightly more upbeat note, there’s an interesting piece by Frank Bruni in the paper of record. Vetri, a very well regarded Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, transformed itself for three nights into Le Bec-Fin, a legendary restaurant that closed (temporarily?) in 2012.
I like the idea of recreating legendary restaurants for a few nights. I’m not sure what Austin restaurant I’d like to see do this; I think that needs some more consideration than I am currently able to give it.
And since this isn’t behind the paywall, i’ll link to it: the Austin Police Department has fired another officer. What did he do? Well…bad guy broke into someone’s home and stole their pickup and gun. Police chased the bad guy. Bad guy wrecked the truck, fled on foot, and broke into another house.
As police converged on the home, he began backing out of the garage in the homeowner’s car.
In a disciplinary memo, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said [Christopher] Allen [the fired officer – DB] fired four shots into the car’s window as it backed out of the driveway before chasing the car down the street on foot while firing an additional 10 shots, forcing other officers to take cover.
This has gone to the arbitrator:
According to the opinion, Allen acknowledged that he shouldn’t have fired all 14 shots but contended that he complied with the department’s deadly force policies because the suspect was an imminent threat to the public.
And the arbitrator said:
…that sustained violations of use of force policies have consistently resulted in termination, and that Allen should have been expected to avoid approaching the vehicle containing a possibly-armed suspect.
Though he said Allen seemed like a “thoroughly decent individual and dedicated police officer,” he decided there was no justification to overturn his termination.
I think the take-away here is: hit what you aim at. And always be sure of your target and what’s behind it:
The chief said Allen’s actions violated several departmental policies, including determining the objective reasonableness of force, and that he was a more of a threat to the public than the suspect.