Michael Jackson may have taken his final moonwalk but the whacko coverage won't stop no matter how many of us have had enough. These Off The Wall tributes have crossed over to the sporting life.
Yesterday, the Canadian Football League fined Toronto Argonauts receiver Arland Bruce for "excessive actions" during his remembrance to Michael Jackson after scoring a touchdown.
After scoring on a 21-yard pass that put Toronto ahead 6-0, Bruce removed his helmet, shoulder pads and uniform top, then laid down in the end zone. Bruce said he was honoring the memory of Jackson by pretending to be buried.
But here's a Thriller trip down memory lane for local sports fans. The King of Pop helped both bury and resurrect professional Football in New England.
The Gloved One had a hand in bankrupting the Patriots and pulling the plug on the Billy Sullivan years in Foxboro. But the Sullivan family's loss would turn into the ultimate gain for Patriots fans, because several deals later, crafty businessman Bob Kraft ended up with the team.
The rest is like that Jacko album: HIStory.
The last dance for the Sullivans began in 1984 when Billy's son Chuck, the team's vice president and supposed brains of the operation, won the right to promote a reunion of the world's sensational superstar, Michael Jackson, and his five second-string brothers, Jermaine, Jackie, Randy, Marlon and Tito. It was dubbed the "Victory Tour," and it turned into an epic financial defeat for the Pats.
The tour kicked off July 6 at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs, and ended on Dec. 9, after six shows at Dodger Stadium, now home to another hair-raising oddball by the name of Manny. Appropriately, not one of the 55 concerts during the 20-city tour was in Foxboro. Although some people cashed in, including, no doubt, Chuck's not-so-silent partner Don King, this golden goose left the Sullivans with nothing but rotten eggs pouring down their faces.
The tour was a huddle of greed and glitz and reportedly very little harmony between Michael and his brothers. The Patriots lost more than $20 million in the investment, and Chuck Sullivan was bankrupted by the deal, according to many published reports.
Former New York Post columnist Mike Marley recalls in examiner.com King's reaction to working with Chuck Sullivan. The boxing huckster reportedly would make jokes about how gullible Sullivan was and cracked that he was "Charley The Tuna."
Marley also noted how King told him he lost respect for Harvard University after dealing with Sullivan.
"I thought Harvard was the light on the hill," King told Marley. "Then I met Chuck and said this (xxxx) went to Harvard!"
The financial losses continued to blitz the Patsies and goofy TV razor czar Victor Kiam and Fran Murray got control of the team in 1988 after another court loss for the Sullivans. But because the Sullivans put the stadium up as collateral, they were forced to hock it at a price more suitable to Kraft's liking.
He closed on the stadium purchase on Nov. 23, 1988, and in 1994 Kraft seized the moment again and bought the Patriots from Budweiser heir James Orthwein.
Kraft had stopped Orthwein from moving the team to his St. Louis base and he soon bottled up one of the most successful teams in modern history.
Under the Kraft dynasty there have been five trips to the Super Bowl and Foxboro has been turned into a giant ATM as a sports Disney Land. And none of it would have been possible if Michael Jackson and Chuck Sullivan hadn't become dance partners.
A Forbes magazine feature story on Kraft from September 2005 gave a revealing look at how Kraft ran to daylight in his quest to buy the team thanks to the Sullivans taking the big sack in the Victory Tour.
Legend has it that Mr. Kraft still keeps a poster from the Victory Tour among his mementos.
So, let's all give a final moonwalk salute to the King of Pop. Thanks to him, and Chuckie's nightmare, Bob Kraft's Victory Tour was as easy as ABC.
