NY Story

We used to play tackle football on Sunday mornings on a field down by the East River.
It took a long time for me to get there as I lived in Bloomfield, NJ but I'd go because sometimes you need to get together with your friends and beat the snot out of each other.
These were full scale no gear tackle football games played on the cold hard ground.
I didn't know all the guys. I knew Jeff Gurner, David Josefsberg and Matt Stern.
I remember once calling out, "I got purple pants" and hitting this guy so hard he walked right off the field and didn't come back.
We were young men...exercising, playing, getting things out.
There was this really high fence that separated the field from a cement walkway along the East river.
It was about ten foot.
In between plays one cold December day this young woman approached Matt Stern at the fence.
She had a backpack and handed it through a hole in the fence saying, "Make sure my Dad gets this."
Then she turned and jumped in the river.
The bulkhead was high.
It was not a small drop to the water.
The guys started climbing the fence.
I ran the other way.
I'd seen a cop standing on the corner as I made my way to the field.
I ran as fast as I could to that cop.
"There's a lady that just jumped in the river!" I said.
The cop got on his radio.
I ran back, jumped the fence and found this woman and Jeff Gurner floating in the water.
They were out of reach.
Way out of reach.
I took off my long sleeve shirt and tried to tie it to a jacket to make a rope.
Jeff looked at me and said, "Don't jump in."
"Oh I'm not jumping man but you gotta get out of there."
I looked right and left and there was nothing.
Jeff was treading water holding her up.
There was no way up
It was cold.
It was scary.
Then this police boat came flying up full tilt and rescued them both.
We went to Bull Moose Saloon and had chicken wings.
New York.