FROM MIKE PATRICK ... TO "SNUFFY" ... TO JOHN CENA

 Of all things …

Say goodbye (It’s been good to know you.) to … MIKE 

PATRICK, one of the best -- and least egotistical -- 

national sportscasters, who died Wednesday. He was 80 

… From 1978 to 2006, we wrote a radio-TV column fpr 

The Times-Dispatch. And I can say, without reservation, 

he was a delight … always pleasant … and seldom 

without something interesting to say … We got to know 

Patrick when he did ACC football for Jefferson-Pilot in 

1984 (with KEVIN KILEY) and 1985 (with HAVEN 

MOSESand Richmond’s KEN WILLARD) … He later 

spent 36 years with ESPN, probably best-known for 

Sunday Night NFL Football until replaced in 2006 by AL 

MICHAELS … Like Michaels, he did everything well 

… Good man, Mike Patrick. R.I.P.

Many thanks to The NFL Channel for this tidbit of 

information … in the 1940 draft No. 11 overall was

 GEORGE “SNUFFY” STIRNWEISS by the Chicago 

Cardinals … “out of North Carolina … so why is he 

wearing a baseball uniform? Because he never played a 

NFL down. He signed with the Yankees,” … and played 

second base in a 13-year career that started in Virginia 

with the Norfolk Tars and ran through New York and St. 

Louis (Browns), ending in Cleveland (1952) … What

 KYLE BRANDTand the other network know-it-alls 

probably didn’t know was that Stirnweiss coached 

football at Red Bank, N.J., Catholic High School a year 

or so before dying in a freak train accident en route to 

New York City in 1958 …. How freak(y) was it? Well … 

the engineer failed to observe a signal to stop. The track 

ahead was under repair ,,, and the train wento into 

Newark Bay, killing 47 among them Stirnweiss. He was 

39 years old.

Say it isn’t so … On his way out from a life of make-

believe. JOHN CENA decided to leave the WWE the 

way he came in – as a bad guy. Some of you might 

remember the rassler, who spent most of his 20-year-plus 

career as the quintessential baby face, started as a rap-

spewing villian, which didn’t last long, thankfully, 

because Cena was not very good at it … The decision to 

turn him into a good guy was a master stroke … and he 

became such a hero (for his work with the Make-a-Wish 

Foundation) that, until now, any thoughts about Cena 

going to the dark side of the business were quickly 

discarded …. Don’t be surprised if this turn doesn’t last 

long … that Cena finally will walk away to another job of 

make-believe (Hollywood actor) the good guy he was 

meant to be … Not to worry. The writers will figure it 

out, and do right by him.

Until next time ...