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Scotty Stevenson: Passing of Dr Z adds extra motivation for Eagles in Chicago

By Scotty Stevenson
USA Eagles back rower Cam Dolan. Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

The death of Dr Z adds extra motivation for six of the Eagles as they prepare to take on the Maori All Blacks at Soldier Field.

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One by one they have gone, and today the last of them took his final breath. Paul Zimmerman, known to anyone who ever took a passing interest in the NFL as Dr Z, has died. He was 86, and had lived with aphasia for the past decade. What a cruel fate to befall a man whose thoughts once danced off the page and rolled so mellifluously off the tongue. Silence.

He was the Grand Daddy of the now ubiquitous power rankings, a Sports Illustrated staple, a best-selling author, a pundit who didnt so much mince his words as pulverise them. His take on any given week could run a course from soulful nostalgia to stone cold assassination. He was a man who consumed the history of the NFL and reconstituted the context for a market that grew ever less capable of cutting through the hype.

He was much and many things to NFL, but he was also a rugby man. You see, Paul Zimmerman was one of six founders of the New York Old Blue Rugby Club, which just last week was crowned Elite Cup Champions of the United States of America and which this weekend will supply six of the Eagles23-man squad, including the skipper, for the match against the Maori All Blacks.

I have written of the club before, most recently a couple of years ago when another of its founders, Bill Campbell died. The Coach of Silicon Valleyas Campbell was often referred, loved his rugby club. He once told me that winning the Ivy League Football Championship with Columbia and founding Old Blue were his greatest achievements. Considering this man put the 1984Apple commercial on the worlds televisions, served the board of that company for 17 years, and mentored the biggest names in tech, it was quite the surprising revelation.

Bill Campbell, Dick Donelli, Billy Smith, John Wellington, Pat Moran, and Paul Zimmerman. It was their club, Old Blue. It still is, and always will be. But it is also the club of Luke Hume, the Eaglesstarting fullback and an Australian expat who runs his mouth off high octane gasoline and seemingly spends most of his spare time in a tattoo parlour. It is the club of Dylan The ButcherFawcitt, an Irish hooker who now captains the MLR team, Rugby United New York. It is the club of Ryan Matyas, a nuggety winger who first represented the USA in sevens back in 2013 and whose quest to play provincial rugby for North Harbour was ended when he could not get clearance from NZ Rugby.

It is the club of Cam Dolan whos had more clubs than Captain Caveman and who is a hard nosed loose forward with the unenviable task of looking after Akira Ioane this weekend. It is the club of Anthony Purpura, a front rower who was capped in 2010 and then spent seven years in the international wilderness before being selected again by John Mitchell in the Eagles lineup. And it is the club of Nate Augspurger, the Eagles captain and a five-foot-seven Minnesotan. There is probably no nicer man in all of rugby than wee Nate Augspurger.

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All of them have other clubs of course. Old Blue is still an amateur side in the fast-changing American professional environment. Still, once an Old Blue, always an Old Blue. Whether youve been through the club for a game, a season, or just an Old BoysWeekend, the Wild Mountain Thyme stays in the nostrils. As does the pride the club feels about its players succeeding at every level of the game, and there are none bigger than a national representative fixture at Soldier Field.

So Brian Murphy will be sad this week to know those originals are all no more. He is the Chairman these days, having made a promise to Campbell that he would take care of the place. Hes done more than that. He has ensured Old Blue remains a perennial powerhouse in the club competition; that it stands as the apotheosis of the amateur tradition. He is a man of his word.

And Paul Zimmerman was a man of many words. How fitting, that in the week his long-silenced life comes to an end, his club he helped give birth too will be so well represented in a rugby match, on an NFL field. I wonder where this would have placed in Dr Zs personal power rankings. Highly, I hope.

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Adrian 1 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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Trevor 4 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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Bull Shark 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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