Last night, I had a nightmare.
I had Nigerian Nightmare.
“Get up fool!”
I sat up like a shot.
There, standing at the foot of my bed, was a very large man in very big shoulder pads. He looked angry.
“Arrowhead Addict forgot my birthday.I turned 50 yesterday and you all let it go by without a word.”
I looked at #35. He did not look 50 to me.
“You’re right,” I said. “We…I dropped the ball,” I said thinking of the welfare of my staff.
“You can’t fumble the ball in this league son. You fumble in this league and you lose,” said Chiefs great Christian Okoye.
“How can I make it right,” I pleaded?
He said nothing. He just tossed me a football.
The next thing I knew, I was standing on the goal line at Arrowhead Stadium, alone. The sky was black but the scoreboards were alive and bright. I looked up and read one.
“One last touchdown with Christian Okoye” it read.
When my eyes returned to field level, I saw three men. Center, Mike Webster, QB Steve DeBerg and FB Christian Okoye. Webster snapped the ball to DeBerg, DeBerg handed off to Okoye. The Nigerian Nightmare was coming right for me. I knew this was my punishment. I knew that I was not to move. Okoye let out a war-cry as he neared me. He lowered those massive pads.
When I came to, DeBerg and Webster were gone. Okoye hoisted me to my feet.
“Anything else I can do for you Mr. Okloye,” I choked, spitting grass out of my mouth.
“Tell my legend,” was all he said and then he was gone.
Before I had even a moment to consider what he meant, I found myself in the stands. Only the field looked different. Suddenly, players lined up for an opening kickoff. It was the 1989 Chiefs and Colts. Only they looked different too. What I saw amazed me.
And then I woke up. Relieved that it was all just a dream, nay, a nightmare, I opened my computer to start putting together the Morning Fix. I was shocked to find an email from an unknown sender. There was a link.
It took me to this.
Happy Birthday Christian Okoye. Better late than never.
Props to AA Twitter follower @bigdaddyt_rav37 for the heads up about Okoye’s birthday.