Johnny Manziel is winning over hearts and minds everywhere; even outside of Cleveland. However, that doesn’t include former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Not yet anyway.
Condi Rice, a big sports fan, revealed her favorite athletes and more in an interview with OZY. Rice talked about what it’s like to be on the playoff committee and who could potentially turn her from a Browns fan to a Colts fan.
Rice on her favorite athlete – “My favorite athlete, athlete, where I think ‘oh my goodness’, is Dr. J… I think Julius Erving transformed basketball. I love Magic Johnson, I love Michael Jordan, but when I think who turned basketball into the sport that it is today, Julius Irving because he was so tremendously talented and gifted and he made it exciting. He made it fun to watch… And then I have to say Johnny Unitas.
Ok, no Johnny Manziel on that list, but as a Browns fan…well, she has this fall to get on the Johnny Manziel bandwagon, all Browns fans do. And when you live in the society that we do, i.e. ruled by ESPN, well you must adopt a strong position on both Johnny Manziel and Lebron James, since the WWL will ram both of them down your throat incessantly. As for her list of favorite athletes, well that’s the equivalent of rooting for pizza, or something with melted cheese in/on it as your favorite food.
Rice on her spot on the playoff committee – “I’m excited to be part of the playoff committee. And that’s a great committee. It’s got some wonderful people on it and we’re working hard. We’ve already met several times to talk about criteria. What we want to try and do is to instill a sense of confidence that the process is a fair one. Even if you don’t agree with the outcome… You know, number 5, number 6 aren’t going to agree with the outcome. But at least people know we took it very, very seriously and worked really, really hard to produce the best outcome we possibly could.”
· On the NFL team she roots for – “These days though, I’m still a Cleveland Browns fan, but I’ll tell you something, Andrew Luck could make me into a Colts fan.”
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks, a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, has been featured in numerous outlets including NFL.com, Forbes and the History Channel. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)