"Suddenly, I have become aware that while I've been preoccupied in first year coaching, things have happened on the Music Box Book of Hours front about which I have no knowledge. In my mind, I reviewed our recent conversations, and I realized that I was talking football a little more than usual."

This very evening on Monday Night football, the first Black coach in NFL history would take the helm when the Raiders faced the Jets. Griff had played with Art Shell when Shell was starting Left Tackle under John Madden. Today, October 9, 1989, Monday Night Football was what he wanted to talk about. But reminding his wife and brother-in-law about the significance of his French Canadian first name was important, and it would not take more than five minutes.

"As you know, my Mother named me for French Canadian Hockey player Maurice Richard; my full name is Maurice Griffin McGuire. If you lived in Montreal or Quebec, you would know the cultural meaning of this. But I grew up in Sacramento, and no matter how many times my mother read me the French Canadian children's story The Hockey Sweater, I told no one that my first name was Maurice."