This one’s tough. It really stings. Ernie Accorsi lived a full, vibrant life for 84 years before passing away last Saturday. He was so many things— a sports fan, a sports writer, and a sports executive. He even created some questions for the “Colts Quiz” that Eddie presented to his fiancées the night before their wedding in “Diner.” He started as a fan, became a colleague, and eventually a close friend to the legendary John Unitas, who once inspired Ernie to say: “God had a good day the day He came up with Johnny U.”
Beyond all that, he was a true gentleman and wonderful company. I feel fortunate to have called him a friend for the last three decades.
Reflecting on these mournful times, countless stories come to mind. There are so many—each told in a unique way that only Ernie could manage, or perhaps he was involved in a way that made them unforgettable.
Here’s one from about 20 years back when Ernie was still the General Manager of the Giants. I got a call from my friend John Feinstein.
“Do you have Ernie Accorsi’s number?” he asked.
Typically, journalists only ask such things if they believe the person in question would be okay with receiving a call. Nowadays, many sports figures have a go-to question when they receive calls out of the blue—“Where’d you get this number?!?”—which can quickly lead to a dial tone.
I assured John that Ernie would be eager to chat with him, maybe even for an hour or two. Ernie had read nearly every sports book published in the last 75 years; I told John he might even quote “Season on the Brink” and “A Good Walk Spoiled” back to him.
So, I was caught off guard when an hour later, I got a call from a furious Ernie Accorsi. By the time I answered, he was already raising his voice.
“I just got a call from someone who said they got my number from you. They claimed to be ‘John the Fan.’ How could you give my number out to fans?”
I tried to clarify, “Ernie, I swear I didn’t do that.” But I had indeed shared the number with John Feinstein.
There was a pause before he hung up. A couple of hours later, he called again, sounding a bit sheepish.
“So, regarding that call? I was frustrated because the connection was poor, and I thought I heard ‘John the Fan.’ It turned out he said ‘I’m John Feinstein, and I’ve been a fan of yours for years.’ The part between ‘John’ and ‘fan’ must’ve gotten lost.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I would have called you back sooner…” he admitted, trailing off.
“…but you’d been on the phone with Feinstein for the past two hours, hadn’t you?” I added, finishing his thought, and we both laughed again.
That was Ernie, the man who brought the Cleveland Browns close to their first Super Bowl (three times) and later helped lead the Giants toward a third Super Bowl title before passing the baton to Jerry Reese. Given his long history with the Colts, you can understand why he was so pleased during his retirement when he said, “Colts, Browns, Giants. Only the classics for me!”
I joked, “Maybe you could take it easy and come back to work for the Packers as an intern.”
He chuckled and then shared another story, of course. He never thought anything would come between him and the Colts, the team he had cheered for as a child in Hershey, Pa., gathering enough knowledge for Eddie’s famous Colts Quiz. But on May 2, 1983, while watching a Celtics-Bucks playoff game at home, he saw a special report flash on the screen: Robert Irsay, his boss, had traded John Elway to the Broncos after falling for a bluff.
“I can’t recall much of what happened next,” he said, “except that I threw my remote across the room, and that the Bucks won the series against the Celtics that night.”
That was Ernie Accorsi. He was a sports guy through and through, and he was my friend. I already miss him a lot.
