Gridiron.

Hellcats · week 2 · 1981

The long way round: Rocket Spiralman goes for 125

Hal Vandergrift, veteran beat

Rocket Spiralman QB
Hellcats

I have been doing this long enough to have written off men like Rocket Spiralman, who was drafted on a medical gamble that three clubs would not take. 125 yards is the league's way of saying nothing is settled. He is 26, and he is unfailingly polite and completely unknowable. It counts the same as anybody else's.

He has 2,513 yards from scrimmage in two seasons, and thirty-five touchdowns. None of the others were this good. Two of those shirts belong to somebody else now.

He is from Cattaraugus Falls, New York.

Hellcats, 2-0, and two weeks gone. Hakeem Jones is in year four of it.

Calls his grandmother before every game and after every loss.

This feature ran in the paper in week 2 of 1981. The rest of the season is there too.

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