Athlete Run-In: The '72 Dolphins Get Even More Desperate

Today's first athlete run-in story is timely because it concerns a retired player on a team that's in the news right now: The 1972 Dolphins. You know, those guys who hang on to being the only undefeated team like they cured polio or something? Kind of a sad group. It therefore didn't surprise us to hear this story about old Dolphin Jim Kiick, from "doobie" in Trenton:

So a few years back, my neighborhood had one of those major "block sales" that included several streets in my area. Always willing to unload junk, I set up shop. At about 9:00, some guy walks up to me and asks if I had any old football cards. I told him that what I had out was mostly late 80's-early 90's stuff, but I'd see what I could do for him. I ask him if there's anything in particular he's looking for, and he tells me that he's looking for his old football cards. Intrigued, I ask him who he was.

It was Jim Kiick. I thought he was pulling my leg at first so I went along with it. I mean, why would a member of the '72 Dolphins show up at my house, especially during a friggin yard sale? When he left, I bolted into the house and went looking for Jim Kiick pictures on the Internet, preferably a new one since this Jim Kiick was clean shaven, but the early 70's he was one hairy SOB. Fortunately, I was able to find one of him signing at a card show. It was him.

Since it was a neighborhood sale, I was able to track him down walking down another street. Being that I live in the suburbs of Trenton, football celebrities aren't that common, so I had to ask him what he was doing around here. He said he was in a partnership with Ron Jaworski in a local firm, and he was walking around with Joe Pisarcik. He never did come back for the cards, but I think he was just dropping his name to see if younger folk like myself ever heard of him.

We imagine every member of the 1972 Dolphins doing this, every weekend, at every garage sale.

Athlete Run-In: Kirk Hinrich, Gryffindor [Deadspin]