How do you wrap a seat belt around a pinball?
With a great deal of difficulty, as you might expect.
By now everyone’s heard the story of how Mike ‘Pinball’ Clemons left an Argo practice at UTM a week ago when he was stopped on Mississauga Rd. by a police officer for not wearing his seat belt.
The whole thing would have been a private incident, and soon forgotten, if Pinball didn’t happen to be in the middle of a live interview with Team 1200, an Ottawa all-sports radio station.
Of course, some of the interchange between Clemons and the OPP officer, Dennis Mahoney-Bruer, made it on air.
Clemons introduced himself to the officer and explained that he was being interviewed live.
“Well, I’ll tell you what Pinball, I need your licence. And, you need to say you’ll drive with your seat belt on,” the officer said.
The resulting spate of publicity did more for promoting seat belt safety than the hundreds of press releases that have been issued on the subject over numerous years.
I even heard the subject raised on an ESPN sports radio talk show in the United States, where two announcers mused about whether Pinball would have been distracted by the bright red coat of the RCMP officer (they called him Dudley Do-Right, of course) who stopped him.
Pinball wouldn’t say afterwards whether he got a ticket but I think it’s safe to assume he escaped with a warning.
Clemons just exudes niceness in a way that is rare for any person in public life. If we could convert the energy from that smile into electricity, our power crisis would be over.
Giving a ticket to the warm and cuddly coach would be tantamount to charging Bambi with speeding.
In a letter to the editor of The Globe and Mail yesterday, the OPP officer said, “I must say, in a side note, Mr. Clemons was a total gentleman and very apologetic for having this momentary lapse and reassured me he will wear it (his seat belt) in future, and to this, I have no doubt.”
Doesn’t exactly have the ring of, “See you in court, Mr. Clemons,” does it?