Jim McMahon was always a story and always will be.
There's something irresistible about his news value.
The latest flurry of McStories occurred last month when McMahon's father contacted various news organizations, lobbying for his son to be in the BYU Hall of Fame.
It wasn't Mad Mac who was doing the lobbying, but his father.
McMahon also showed up in the Oct. 22 Los Angeles Times, in an online interview by Lisa Guerrero. In her Q. and A. she asked McMahon: 'What's the biggest misconception about you?'
His response: 'I really have no idea what people think of me. People tell me all the time that I'm nothing like they thought I'd be. They read too much crap in the newspapers. I like to have a good time -' that's it.'
Yes he does. One of my favorite McMahon stories came compliments of former teammate Dan Plater. The Cougars were in Hawaii, one year, and Plater was studying in his hotel room on the 26th floor of the Princess Kailuaini hotel on Waikiki Beach. He heard scuffling above him. Next thing he knew, McMahon was swinging from the balcony above. Swinging in, swinging out, to get enough momentum to launch himself to the balcony below, where Plater had his room.
Soon McMahon landed on Plater's deck and walked in through the sliding glass door.
'He just comes walking in, no big deal...' Plater once told me. 'All (McMahon) said was, 'Hey, what's up? How you doin'?''
My experience with McMahon has always been pretty good. He was at BYU 10 years ago, honored for being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame ' even though he has never been inducted into BYU's Hall of Fame.
He was gracious in accepting a plaque from the school.
When I asked him that night what he'd do if one of his kids decided to go to BYU, he said, 'That's their decision. I doubt that'll happen, but...'
But stranger things have happened.
Like, for instance, him going to BYU.