I was disappointed as anybody. This was a chance to meet Joe Montana, a Legend forever cemented into NFL history. And not only meet the guy, but to show him around Japan, eat yakiniku, maybe even take some purikura with him. But it wasn’t meant to be.
Family comes first and you can’t fault a guy who decided to stay home to help his son(who will play quarterback in college) get ready for the season.

As unfortunate as this news is, we’re still really excited for the upcoming festivities. Lou Holtz, Tim Brown and Chris Zorich among others will be attending. Not a bad lineup if you ask me.

Lou Holtz is of course Legendary in the College Football World, it will be a pleasure to finally hear him speak in person. I’ve heard raving reviews from people who attended an ACCJ Luncheon the last time Lou came to Japan.

One person in particular told me that they were invited to the luncheon not expecting anything exhilarating. He figured, good food, alcohol, can’t be that bad right? When Lou came on stage to talk, 40+ middle aged men turned into little pop-warner kids. The passion with which he spoke was unbelievable. He could remember a play from 20 years ago from down and distance to wind speed to every single second from the snap to the end of the play. And this was all spoken through memory. Never mind the food and alcohol, “We were about to put on some pads and hit somebody…how Lou made us feel was unbelievable.”

My first impressions of Tim Brown were actually pixelated. When I first started playing video games on my Nintendo or Sega Genesis, I realized how ridiculous Tim Brown was. He played receiver, he returned punts and kickoffs…the man did everything. He was right up there with Bo Jackson in terms of un-stoppableness. In real life, there wasn’t much difference. He played his entire career with a quiet demeanor, but put up great numbers every year. And that’s what separated him from the crop of primadonna receivers beginning to come into the league…he was a class-act. Tim brown was also old-school. He caught passes over the middle, he ran after the catch, he didn’t wear gloves(tape on the fingers) and the most old-school of all, he wore huge shoulder pads. If you compare those pads to the little slivers of Styrofoam they put on now, he looked like a robot from an episode of Gundam.

I actually met Chris Zorich once in Chicago when my dad took me to my first football game. I was about eight years old at the time and Chris came and said hello when we were having dinner at a nearby restaurant. Apparently I asked Chris, “Do you like Mike McCaskey?” McCaskey was the president until 1999 and was under fire for questionable decisions in the front office. My dad told me later on that I had Zorich on the ropes with that question, no wonder he didn’t come back to talk to us. I’m sure Chris doesn’t remember that episode but I’ll find time to apologize about it anyways!

Anyhow, even with Joe Montana not being able to attend, I’m excited about meeting Lou, Timmy, and Chris. It shows how committed they are to expanding American Football, and promoting it in a country where most Americans don’t even know they have Football over here.