Teaching RB's "Body Control"

As a RB - John Riggins had GREAT "body control". This is my FAVORITE Riggins story (he was a "CHARACTER"):


Riggins' uncourtly words created no hard feelings
BY PAUL WOODY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Saturday, July 2, 2005

Of all the things that have been said to and about Sandra Day O'Connor during her 24 years on the Supreme Court, one comment stands above all the rest.

"Come on, Sandy baby, loosen up. You're too tight."

Those words were uttered by perhaps the only man who would have had the nerve, John Riggins, then the iconoclast running back for the Washington Redskins.

Riggins made that comment to O'Connor at the Salute to Congress dinner, sponsored by the Washington Press Club, in January 1985.

No one ever accused Riggins of using performance-enhancing drugs on the field. But Riggins was known to consume performance-enhancing liquids off the field, and apparently he had had his share during the dinner.

Riggins and O'Connor were seated at the same table. And Riggins did more than just offer those words of advice, across the table, to O'Connor during the dinner.

At one point, after complaining of back pain, Riggins walked around a bit, then crouched beside O'Connor and her husband, John.

Riggins eventually dropped to one elbow, then stretched out on the floor and slept through a speech by then Vice President George H.W. Bush, snoring occasionally.

Riggins, not Bush.

The next day, Riggins sent flowers to O'Connor and the other women at the table. Years later, Riggins described his behavior that night as "boorish."

O'Connor must not have had any hard feelings. The Washington Post reported that in the summer of 1992, when Riggins made his debut as an actor in a playhouse in the Washington suburb of Olney, Md., O'Connor presented him with a dozen roses during a curtain call.

Whether she whispered, "Come on, Johnny baby, loosen up," is not known.