Thankful for son's years

After completing his book, he held onto it for a month because, as he says, "I wasn't sure how the title would go over. Real Men Do Cry ... " Ironically, he still couldn't get past the old notion that men couldn't show emotion and vulnerability, which was part of the problem all along, since it prevented him from getting help.

Outwardly, Hipple had everything going for him. He was an all-conference quarterback at USU and later was named to the school's all-century team. Drafted by Detroit in the fourth round of the NFL draft in 1980, he was the team's third-string quarterback until early in his second season. The Lions, unhappy with their 2-4 start, announced that Hipple would make his starting debut in front of a national TV audience on Monday Night Football.

On the day of the game, Hipple was so nervous that he got on his knees in his hotel room and prayed for two hours, pleading "Please, help me get through this."

What happened next was one of the greatest debuts ever by an NFL quarterback. On his first play of the game, Hipple completed a 48-yard pass, and the rest of the night was his. He passed for 336 yards and four touchdowns and ran for two more scores as the Lions beat the Chicago Bears 48-17.

"It was a magical night," says Hipple. "I really felt that someone was looking down on me. I don't remember half the game."

He never had another night like it, but he did play well enough to sustain a 10-year career in which he threw for 10,711 yards and 55 touchdowns.

By the end of the '89 season he knew his body had had enough. He had undergone seven surgeries to make it that far. Hipple has a photo of himself lying on the turf in 1988 with his foot pointed backward — the result of a tackle that snapped his ankle like a stick. After doctors put him back together, he managed one more season.

"I got my starting job back, and I threw four touchdown passes again — but three of them were for the other team," he says.

He was starting over in many ways when he left football. He was newly divorced from his wife, Jann, the tall blonde he met at Utah State when she was a cheerleader and he the quarterback. Jann and the couple's two children, Jeff and Erica, moved to Utah while Hipple remained in Michigan to cash in on his name recognition. He started a new career in the insurance business, and he thrived. During the next few years he made more money than he had made while playing football.

"Then I went flat," he says. "I got bored."