Dr. Purrizzo comes to my house, rings the bell and tells me he wants to speak with me out on the street. He proceeds to tell me that he has “made a great mistake“. After rechecking my DNA pattern against the correct hereditary background it turns out that I am the one with the superior DNA code. In fact, he says we used your code to determine the dominance of some unknown markers.
He knows of my situation with Penn State and tries to give me $4,600. The money was for college for me. I tell him I don’t want his money (I also knew that if I had accepted that money as “payment” for damages done that I could not sue him later, I think that this was his plan and that’s why he had gotten so mad when I would not accept it). After my final episode with Mrs. Purrizzo and the woman with the black hair, they have a wad of cash for me. “Andy take it!.
You’ve more than earned it” she says. I tell her I don’t want her dirty money and I hope she chokes on it. A few days after that Dr. Purrizzo shows up again at my house, tells me to walk with him to the street again. He tells me that “he has been discussing it with this psychologist friend and that my mind functions in such a way in the subconscious THAT HE CAN MAKE ME THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD”. He then tells me to get into his car and he wants to take me to his office to do this for me. I say “REALLY?. OK. I’ll go, but only if my mother comes with me… Can my mother come with me?”
He says that this is just between “us men“. I tell him to go f*ck himself and start walking towards my house. He starts talking “You’re a very smart kid! you had a 50/50 chance! we were going to get drunk and then decide whether to make you the most powerful man in the world or give you a lobotomy.” I stop and turn to him and say “do you really think I’m going to believe you when you tell me that YOU are going to make ME the most powerful man in the world? you might do this but ONLY if you could control me, if you could not control me then you would have to destroy me!
Do you think I am that stupid? Now get the fuck out of here before I call the cops!.” He then says “as I said you are one smart kid”. He gets in his car and drives away. The school year is now winding down and I still have not made my final decision as to what school I am going to attend. From out of the blue at the end of the school year, a coach from the University of Rochester shows up and wants me to attend. My father and I sit down to discuss the school I am going to attend. We are at a Chinese restaurant on route 17 north in Ramsey. My father sits me down and he starts talking.
He said, “Andy, I have nothing against Penn State, it’s a fine school. However, why are you going to college? To get an education or to play football?” I said, “to get an education”. He said, “Good, now what are the odds of you becoming a pro football player?” I said “slim to none”. He said, “Good, so since you are going to school to get an education and not to play football don’t you think you should go to the best school you can possibly get into?”
I said, “Dad, I WANT TO GO TO PENN STATE”. Then he said “I’m going to be the one paying for your school, IF YOU DON’T GO TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER I WILL NOT PAY ONE THIN DIME FOR YOUR SCHOOL AND I WILL NEVER SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN, DO YOU HEAR ME!
Now Rochester is a much better school and I’m sure you will be much happier there, I’m going to pay for it and that’s that”. So, I end up turning down a division 1 scholarship to attend a division 3 school and end up paying $18,000 dollars a year to attend the University of Rochester.
For the longest time, I absolutely hated my father for making me go to the University of Rochester. I suppose I could have come up with the $3,000 dollars on my own, but it was the fact that he said that “he would never speak to me again” if I didn’t do what he wanted was what really pissed me off. And then on top of all this then he springs on me that I will have to take out a student loan in my name to help pay for going to school at Rochester.
I remember this as clear as day because after that I remember I swore that I would never let anyone tell me what to do with my life again. The strange thing is that’s not how he remembers it at all. He denies ever saying that to me, but I remember specifically because I was heartbroken that I wasn’t going to go to Penn State. The strange thing is I remember my father, at about the same time, making a joke that he had been out of the Navy for 15 years and for some reason they wanted him to come in to give him a physical. He doesn’t remember that either.
Aug 1988- Football camp starts at the University of Rochester. Things seem to go well. Let’s just say that I am VERY focused on performing well on the football field. I had trained very hard all summer and I was in the best shape of my life. I do extremely well during the training camp. I’m sure not by coincidence, I get my freshman year roommate, we will call him Brian. Brian is also a freshman and is an offensive and defensive lineman. He is 6-1 and 245 lbs.
He is huge, I mean I thought I was muscular until I saw this guy. He talks openly about his steroid usage, and even goes so far as to tell how that when he came to camp “the coaches didn’t recognize me when I walked into the coaches office, they said who are you?” and I said, “I’m Brian XXXXXX from Irondaquite” (he was supposedly a local kid, Irondaquite is a local town). He talks about how as a senior in high school he weighed 185 lbs, but then started doing “juice” as he worked out with the New York state powerlifting champion. He goes from 185 lbs to 250 lbs in 12 weeks. As a freshman he is the second strongest kid on entire the team, I am the third.