Resurrecting The Champ Page #5

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- Why?

Betty in there.

She come out here, she whoop us both.

- Who's Betty?

- Betty used to be my wife.

Well, she probably still is.

I thought lona was your wife.

lona was my first wife.

You got a wife?

Yeah, I got a great wife. Joyce.

We went to Columbia together.

She works at the paper too.

She was a grad student,

I was a sophomore and-

She got pregnant.

We're separated now though.

- Oh, she done kicked your ass out, huh?

- Yeah.

What for?

Champ, when I figure that out,

maybe I can fix it.

Mmm. I'll tell ya, you know, w-w-women

ain't gonna never tell you what's wrong.

And if you don't know,

that's just too bad.

Yeah. That sounds about right.

- You love your son?

- Yeah. Yes, very much. Very much.

Yeah, you gots to love 'em, don't ya?

Gotta love 'em more than anything

in this whole world!

You gotta love 'em, like-

How they say, um, mucho grande.

- That's right. Mucho grande.

- Mucho grande.

My son, BobJr., with my first wife, lona

- He tells everybody I'm dead.

Why's that?

Is he ashamed of you

because you live on the street, or-

Oh, it's, uh, probably

'cause I left him and his mama.

- Really? How old was he?

- Six.

So, that was what, like,

I mean, come on, Junior, get over it.

Move on with your life.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I like to come back here

to-to-to Five Points...

and-and just look at the house

and, uh, imagine Betty inside.

And-and just look at the house

and, uh, imagine Betty inside.

But-But-But I can't go in.

My feet say go, but my head say no.

Look. You have to promise me, you

ain't gonna mess with Betty, all right?

'Cause if you do that, th-then you

be gettin' in my personal business.

Okay. Okay.

Promise.

- Dad?

- Yeah, buddy?

- What kind of dog is Snoopy?

- Uh, he's a beagle.

- He doesn't look like a beagle.

- Well, that's what he is.

Keith's got a beagle,

and she doesn't look like Snoopy at all.

Oh, really? Thank you very much.

- Is that true?

- Can we get a beagle?

I don't think that's really my call.

Especially when I'm not in the house.

- Here's your favorite table, sir.

- All right.

Come on.

Let's get out of here.

Dad, look. John Elway.

Can I meet him, Dad?

Can I talk to him? Please, Dad?

Um, you know what?

It's really not that cool

to go up to celebrities in public.

But he's not a celebrity.

He's your friend.

Even still. Okay?

Why can't you just talk to your friend?

It's a grown-up thing, buddy.

Let's go see your mom. Grab your jacket.

Come on. Let's go.

Hey, hey, hey. Teddy.

- Hi, Mr. Elway. I just came to say-

- Hey there, son.

- Hey, John, how ya doin'? Sorry.

- Oh, no worries.

- What's your name?

- Teddy.

- Do you play football?

- Yeah.

Except my hand's not big enough

to hold a real football.

Let me see. Other hand.

I give you three years. Your hand's

a lot bigger than mine was at your age.

Well, we gotta go.

I'Il-I'll say hi toJoyce, okay?

- O-Okay.

- Bye, Mr. Elway.

I hope you go back

to the Broncos next year!

He's a really nice guy.

We could have stayed there longer.

You know what, buddy?

That's just the way it is, okay?

Come on. Get up there.

You have all these cool friends...

and I never get to meet any of them.

You know what? You're right.

Let's fix that.

Good ol' Rocky comes with another right,

and I go, boom, up like this!

Yeah. That's just the way it happened too.

Remember, Marciano was the only

heavyweight champ to retire undefeated.

- Wow.

- Yeah. He died in a plane crash.

Say, man, 'bout how old are you, huh?

What? Like, 15?

- I'm six.

- Oh! You look 15.

You wanna know how you grow up

to be big and strong like Champ?

Every morning when you get up...

gotta roll your sleeve up like this

and...

blow.

Yep.

And-And-And-And see, it ain't so much

about how old you are, all right?

It's-It's all about your conditioning.

You got to build up your legs 'cause you

gonna need them for a long, long time.

And-And you got to live right.

You have to live clean.

And-And-And don't run-

Don't run around with the wrong crowd.

'Cause, because you can't do that.

Mmm-mmm-mmm.

Hey, Champ?

- Champ?

- Hmm?

- You okay?

- Yeah! Yeah, yeah.

- You okay?

- Oh, yeah.

Uh-uh-And-And, see, your dad-

Dad, he ain't perfect.

But he's doin' the best he can.

Yeah.

He been down and almost out.

But-But he loves you. Yes, he do.

And one day, he's gonna get his shot.

So, if any of your friends don't believe

that you met him, you can...

just tell them they can read my article

when it comes out in the Times.

- Okay.

- Okay.

Hey, what's the matter?

You didn't like meeting Champ?

- No, I did.

- Then what's the matter?

I just don't like that Champ

lives on the street.

Yeah, buddy,

I don't like that either.

Maybe he could move in with us.

Yeah, maybe you should

ask your mom about that one.

Local network was right behind us!

Hey, Erik. Got something for ya.

Heard of this guy?

Um, uh, yeah. I've heard-

I've heard of this guy.

Good. He's the only one

Satterfield fought that I could find.

Most of them are dead. I took the liberty

of setting up an interview time with him.

- When?

- Today at 4:
00.

An interview with the Raging Bull.

And... Satterfield Jr. Of Chicago.

Only living relative.

- I could kiss you right now.

- I could sue you.

Awesome.

- Hello?

- Mr. Satterfield?

- Yes?

- Hi, this is Erik Kernan of The Denver Times. How ya doin'?

- Erik Kernan?

- Yes.

I wanted to ask you a couple questions

about your father. Is that all right?

- My father?

- Yeah.

F*** you.

Erik Kernan.

- Erik, hi, Bing Whitley.

- Hi, Bing, how are you?

Good. Listen, I've got our beloved

publisher, Fred Roselle, here with me.

- Can I put you on speaker?

- Yeah, uh, sure.

- Erik? Fred Roselle.

- Uh, hi, sir.

Now, Bing tells me

about your Satterfield story.

Honest to God, it floored me.

I thought he died 20 years ago.

- No, I see him every day.

- There you go.

You see, I read 10 stories a week

about fighters in their glory years.

But they never tell you

about the price they paid...

taking all those shots to the head.

Well, he definitely paid a price, sir.

Yeah, well,

that's a story I'll go along with.

Hell, I'll even get you

on the cover of the magazine.

And Metz doesn't want any part

of this piece, is that right?

No, he, uh- he called it a dry hole.

That's just amazing.

So, uh, any idea

how soon we could see it?

- Well, I don't want to rush it.

- Of course not.

Uh, so I guess-

I was thinking maybe two weeks?

I have some interviews

I'd like to take care of and-

We just dropped a retro piece

on Gary Hart. How about Monday?

Yeah, sure.

Monday. I could manage that.

Okay, beautiful.

Hey. There he is.

Just give me a second, okay?

Hey, Champ!

Hey! Hey, kid! How ya doin'?

- Just about 100%, Champ.

- A hundred percent?

Whoo, I ain't been

a hundred percent in years.

So, where's the photographer?

He's just across the street.

But I just wanted to, um-

I wanted to, uh- I got a friend of yours

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