Mike Lupica Talks Jets, Feets, and Words

Contrary to what Imus thought, his buddy Mike Lupica, of the New York Daily News, was named Sportswriter of the Year in New York, not in all of America. “You probably are the best one,” Imus said, sweetly. “Now that Jim Murray’s dead.”
 
Before getting to the serious stuff, because Lupie’s versatility affords him the ability to think about both sports and politics, Imus asked his guest to comment on this Sunday’s NFL playoff game between the Jets and the Patriots.
 
“They played very well in the second half against a not great Colts team, but you know what?” Lupica said, takling about the Jets. “They won the game, and now they get a chance to be as good as they say they are, and they want to be, against the New England Patriots, who have been the best team in football for at least ten or 12 weeks.”
 
Which reminded Imus of a saying his close friend and mentor Bill Parcels often invoked: “You are what your record says you are.” On second thought, “Maybe he’s not my close friend,” Imus said, and paused. “I know him.”
 
Unlike some other people, like the host of this program, Lupica does not think Jets Head Coach Rex Ryan is stupid for running his mouth all week. “He’s one of those modern coaches who thinks he can still send ‘messages’ to his players through the media,” Lupica said. “What he’s saying is, ‘We can’t possibly be as bad as getting beat by 42 points on December 6^th, so the only possible explanation for that was that I had a bad night.’”
 
Though the Patriots beat the Jets 45-3 just a few weeks ago, Lupica thinks this weekend’s game will be very good, regardless of Ryan’s strange sexual predilections, as evidenced by videos on the internet of himself and his wife engaged in foot fetish fantasies.
 
“Are we talking about a flat out freak here, or what?” Imus wondered, trying to discern whether Lupica, a sports insider of the highest order, knew anything else about Ryan’s strange habits.
 
But all Lupica would say was that he thought it odd that Ryan, a rising assistant coach in Baltimore last spring when these videos emerged, would do something so reckless. “It makes me believe that if nothing more comes out, good,” Lupica said. “But I can’t assume this is going to be the end of it.”
 
As for more serious matters (yes, there are more pressing items in America than Ryan’s tootsies), Lupica observed that accusations of harsh rhetoric causing Saturday’s shooting rampage in Arizona have produced nothing but more harsh rhetoric.
 
“You never know what brings this sort of madness into action, and to blame it on rhetoric is like trying to find some sort of political reason for Columbine in 1999,” he said. “You can’t look at just what we know about the shooter in Tucson, and apply any sort of logic.”
 
And having been close friends with the I-Man for more than 20 years now, Lupica is accustomed to throwing logic out the window.
 
-Julie Kanfer