Denzel, meet Spider.
Some celebrities solely must go by their first names. That’s definitely the case for legendary actor Denzel Washington. And it was true within the Nineteen Sixties for former New York Giants security Spider Lockhart.
Sooner or later, lengthy earlier than Washington was an Academy Award-winning main man, the 2 crossed paths.
Washington, whereas lately discussing his new film “Highest 2 Lowest” with NBC, recalled a childhood reminiscence of the day he met Lockhart, a two-time Professional Bowler who performed for the Giants from 1965 to 1975.
“I went to a clinic as a kid, one of those youth football clinics at the old Yankee Stadium,” Washington mentioned. “I met Spider Lockhart. Yeah, I’ll never forget it.”
Lockhart, a Dallas native whose first identify is Carl, performed at North Texas State College earlier than being drafted by the Giants within the thirteenth spherical of the 1965 NFL Draft. He spent his whole 11-year skilled profession with the Giants.
“One of the great names in all of sports,” Washington’s co-star Jeffrey Wright mentioned.
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Lockhart died of lymphoma in 1986 on the age of 43. The Giants honored him by sporting a “Spider” patch on the entrance of their jerseys throughout their 1986 Tremendous Bowl-winning season.
Lockhart was certainly one of many sports activities legends to play on the hallowed grounds of the unique Yankee Stadium – which was constructed for Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees in 1923 and in addition served as the house of the NFL’s Giants from 1956 to 1973.
Wright puzzled why such an iconic venue is not standing, having been torn down when the brand new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009.
“I’m just over here wondering why they tore down the old Yankee Stadium,” Wright mentioned. “Well, it’s like consider the Roman Coliseum, they haven’t had a ballgame there in thousands of years, that thing is still sitting there.”
“It’s still sitting there,” Washington mentioned of the practically 2,000-year-old area that was inbuilt 80AD. “Yeah, but the facility, the infrastructure.”
“Yes, I guess they had to move on to something. I guess pieces were falling on people’s heads,” Wright mentioned with fun.
“Yeah, that part,” Washington added.
