Saturday, July 25, 1998

Aikman goes extra mile for one young fan

By NICK GHOLSON

Scripps Howard News Service

WICHITA FALLS, Texas - At a Dallas Mavericks game last season, a cameraman spotted Troy Aikman's face in the crowd and flashed it up on the big screen for all of Reunion Arena to see.

Many in the crowd booed.

Now I can think of a whole lot of reasons for fans to boo at Mavericks games. When people pay top dollar to see a 7-6 center score seven points and pick up six fouls, they've got a right to hiss and moan. And when you're given a basketball team that appears in the playoffs about as often as Haley's Comet appears in the sky, you've got a right to boo your brains out.

But boo Troy Aikman? Why, because he hasn't won a Super Bowl for you in two years?

Listen, Cowboy lovers, if you don't like your quarterback, put him on the NFL trading block and watch how many teams start foaming at the mouth. Just about every one of them would gladly take Aikman off your hands.

OK, so I'm prejudiced. When you're talking quarterbacks, I think Aikman is about as good as it gets. How many Super Bowls has Brett Favre won? One. John Elway? One. How about Dan Marino? Not a one. Drew Bledsoe? Ditto.

Aikman has quarterbacked the Cowboys to three Super Bowls and won all three, and sorry, but I just can't think of a better way to measure greatness than Super Bowls.

But I am not here today writing about Aikman's greatness as a quarterback. If you honestly doubt that, then somebody is probably reading this to you anyway.

No, I'm not going to write about the 2,568 completed passes, the 29,388 passing yards, the 158 touchdowns or the MVP trophy at Super Bowl XXVII.

Instead, this is about Troy Aikman the man, the role model, the guy who took just a couple of minutes out of his busy schedule to give a little 9-year-old kid something to remember for the rest of his life.

Dylan Anderson set up his "Free Kool Aid for the Cowboys" stand at his grandparents' house last Monday, just hoping to get a glimpse of some of the football players as they teed it up on the No. 12 hole at the Country Club golf course.

"Here was a little boy who never even expected to get an autograph," his grandmother, Frances Anderson, told me.

Dylan got a whole bunch of autographs. Several of the participants in the annual Cowboys golf outing stopped by to talk to him, take pictures and sign his football. But Aikman went the extra mile.

The single biggest celebrity on this football team stopped by for some chit-chat and a little lemonade earlier in the day. Then later on, he returned in Santa Claus style and gave Dylan all of the things in the "goody bag" given to the golfers.

There was a shirt, a cap, a golf glove, sunglasses and other trinkets in a Nike duffel bag. Christmas in July for this wide-eyed fourth-grader.

Boo that! I dare you.

"You would have thought he had died and gone to heaven. He hasn't stopped grinning," said grandma, who also admitted it was the most exciting day of her life.

A small step for one man. A giant step for man's kindness.

Time will dull Aikman's memory of last Monday, but years from now, Dylan will be telling his own grandkids about the day he met the Cowboys quarterback up close and personal.

"He'll never forget it," Frances Anderson said. "And from now on, we will be the staunchest Cowboy fans in the world.

"You know all the complaints we've been hearing about the Cowboys the last few years. Well, they are just the kindest, gentlest, nicest people in the world. This grandma is still bubbling."

Aikman has also set up an organized system this summer to ensure that 50 or so kids get his autograph after every practice. A man who has had to sacrifice his privacy for the privilege of being the starting quarterback on the most popular football team in the world has done all he can to give of himself to the people in our community.

If you just have to boo, then boo Albert Belle or Robert Alomar or Lawrence Phillips.

But not Troy Aikman. He deserves only your applause and admiration.

(Nick Gholson writes for the Wichita Falls Times Record News in Wichita Falls, Texas.)