Bottom of the Bird Cage 5/29

On the 149th day of the year we celebrate the birthday of the state of Wisconsin, which became the 30th of the United States in 1848.

On May 29, 1903, Bob Hope was born in England. On this day in 1917, President John F. Kennedy was born. It was on May 29, 1942 that Bing Crosby went into a studio and recorded “White Christmas” one of the best selling and most played songs in American history.

And on May 29, 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest point on Earth at 29,028 feet. The 33-year old New Zealander and the Sherpa guide reached the top of the world at 11:30 that morning, after camping that night on the side of the mountain at 27,900 feet. When Hillary woke up that morning, he found his boots frozen solid outside the tent and it took two hours to thaw them out.

The pair carried 30-pound packs as they made their final ascent. Once they got there, they spent just 15 minutes, taking pictures like the one at the right of Norgay. Then they came back down the mountain. One of the first people to greet them was a lifelong friend of Hillary. “Well, George,” Hillary said. “We knocked the bastard off.”

From the Philadelphia Daily News:
What Lisa McHale would like you to know is the way it once was, not the way it ended. Because it is vital to her that you know her husband Tom as she will always remember him - the intelligent, principled, fun-loving man she fell for so long ago back in college.

Away from the violence that unfolded each Sunday on the football field, where he played on the offensive line for 9 years in the NFL for the Eagles and two other teams, the 6-4, 290-pound Tom McHale could fill up a room with his presence. Good guy: Loved his wife, doted on his three boys, and remained loyal to his old pals from childhood. Lisa remembers she was “instantaneously crazy about him” and that would never change, even as she now catches herself saying: “I just wish you could have known Tom when he was Tom.”

Gradually, he became a stranger to her. In the years that followed his departure from the league in 1995, during which he opened some restaurants and worked in real estate in the Tampa area, McHale began taking OxyContin and other drugs to quell the pain that had settled in his joints.

“Physically, he had the body of a far older man,” says Lisa, who by 2005 became aware that “something was terribly, terribly wrong.” Tom had lapsed into a depression. The man who once embraced life with such energy and enthusiasm became withdrawn socially, what Lisa would later describe as a shell of his old self. He told Lisa he was hooked and entered rehab but he relapsed, again and yet again before Lisa asked him to leave in May 2008; Tom had begun using while the children were in the house. Within a week Tom had died in his sleep from an accidental drug overdose at the apartment of a friend. He was 45.

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Don’t miss this package of stories by the Daily News on the bodily trauma among professional football players and the research and study that is now going on to try to help these men. There should never be any doubt in the minds of the league owners and the NFL Players Association about this work. Today, an NFL player can play for seven years and never have to work again. But will he live to see 60 and what will be the quality of his life?

From Boston Herald columnist Ron Borges:
Much was learned about Tom Brady yesterday when he finally appeared in front of a media mob for the first time since his left knee fell apart.

We learned he’ll go buy a bicycle helmet if the editor of the Globe really insists since that financially strapped newspaper came up with enough cash to pay a reporter mileage (and probably lunch) to ask why he was photographed without one this week as if it was a criminal offense.

“Do I need a helmet?” Brady asked. “I do? I’m not even going very fast down there. I’ll get a helmet.”

This may come as a news bulletin to some editors across town, but this is a guy who is chased by 300-pound men filled with bad intentions for a living. So, falling off a bicycle may not strike him as all that threatening.

We learned his wife isn’t pregnant - or if she is, well, gee guys. “One is enough,” Brady said. “I got dogs.”

We learned his knee feels great, his psyche feels great, his past was great, his future looks great. Everything is great except spending 24 minutes talking to 20 more media members (96) than he had teammates on the practice field (76) yesterday during the Patriots organized team activity.

“I’ve been looking forward to this, guys,” Brady said, forced smile to follow.

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This is a good piece on Brady’s return to work this week. Some 100 media types were on the Patriots practice field on Thursday in the first public glimpse of Brady since he suffered the serious knee injury in the 2008 season opener against the Chiefs. Part of what comes with being a three-time Super Bowl championship quarterback is having every part of your life dissected in public. Brady seems to handle the situation about as well as it can be handled.

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
The drama-driven Dallas Cowboys they most certainly are not. But even with the usual off-season saga involving former quarterback Brett Favre now centered 300 miles to the west, the waters surrounding the 2009 Green Bay Packers are far from tranquil.

There’s a general uneasiness from the veteran defensive players about the new 3-4 scheme, punctuated by the deafening silence from Pro Bowl defensive end Aaron Kampman. On Thursday he again declined to talk to reporters about his switch to outside linebacker.

And now wide receiver Donald Driver has joined safety Nick Collins in taking issue with his contract, according to sources. Receiver Greg Jennings still doesn’t have his new deal, but he practiced, so things look more optimistic on that front. Business as usual in May? Not exactly for the low-key Packers, who strive to maintain an aura of stability.

But it’s far from panic time, also. Not with 96.4% (82 of 85) of the players either practicing or on their way back to full health.

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The Packers are making the switch to the 3-4 defense and DE Aaron Kampman isn’t happy about becoming an outside linebacker on first down. Switching defenses, players changing positions, players staying away from OTA sessions, nearly 100 percent participation otherwise … it sounds like what’s happening with the Packers is a mirror image of what’s going down with the Chiefs in this off-season.