If you follow football to any extent at all, you've probably read some of Harry James "Jim" Dent's work.
For years, he was a sportswriter; he covered the Dallas Cowboys for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and later the Dallas Times Herald in the '80s and early '90s. Then he turned his attention to writing books.
He wrote a book about Johnny Manziel in which he revealed that Stephen Jones, son of Cowboys owner Jerry, nearly had to physically restrain his father to keep him from drafting Johnny Football back in 2014.
He wrote "The Junction Boys," a New York Times bestselling book about Bear Bryant's early days coaching at Texas A&M, "The Kids Got It Right: How the Texas All-Stars Kicked Down Racial Walls" about the Texas-Pennsylvania high school football rivalry of the 1960s, "King of the Cowboys: The Life and Times of Jerry Jones" and "Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football."
The film based on his Mighty Mites book is opening in theaters across the country today. But Jim Dent wasn't available for the premiere.
Instead, he's in prison. Not because he's a criminal, but because he is, as they say in Texas, "bad to drink."
I don't really know Jim Dent -- I believe I met him back in the days when I used to spend time in Dallas, but I feel like I do. I know a lot of people who do know him and call him a friend. I know his reputation as a smart, funny man who can be really good company. And I know his books are, without exception, better than the movies that get made from them.
The word is, Dent might be paroled from prison as early as July. His original parole date was set for Jan. 15, 2020, but that was denied. He almost died after contracting covid-19 in prison last summer. He has been moved to a prison pre-release facility, which is an anticipatory step in the process. But the movie opens today.
Dent has been arrested for DWI 10 times since 1983. This is his third stint in prison.
One of the problems Dent seems to have is a reluctance to face consequences. In 1999, he was arrested in Brazos County, Texas for felony drunken driving, and, in 2002, he was sentenced to 10 years probation for the offense, with the stipulation that he spend 40 days of the probation sentence in jail.
The day after his release, he was pulled over in Oklahoma City for suspected drunken driving. He skipped out on his court appearance. He was arrested in Arkansas a few months later, when Texas authorities issued a warrant for his arrest for violating his parole. He was held in an Arkansas jail under $1 million bond, but when a judge reduced that bond to $5,000, he made it and skipped out again.
He was arrested again in Las Vegas. He accepted an eight-year sentence in a plea bargain.
He was out by 2013 -- and he was arrested a few more times. He failed to appear in court, fleeing to Mexico. They caught him when he tried to re-enter the country at the Tijuana/San Diego border. He allegedly tried to bribe a border guard, according to the authorities.
So you can understand the 10-year-sentence. That's an option for third offense DWI under Texas law. Dent actually got a good deal -- his plea arrangement with prosecutors allowed him to serve a 10-year sentence for bail jumping concurrently with his 10-year DWI sentence.
But I wonder about a system that locks up people who have health problems. Jim Dent is 68, and I suppose it is possible that he has actually beaten back his demons now and that he might never take another drink in his life but I don't think prison did anything to rehabilitate him. I think he's lucky that he never hurt anyone else.
I don't know what good it did anyone to put Jim Dent in prison. You can say it kept him off the streets and out from behind the wheel, that we all were a little safer because they warehoused him for a while, but I can imagine other ways we could have kept Dent from driving. I imagine other ways we might have protected the public from a sportswriter who was bad to drink.
"12 Mighty Orphans" is not a great movie, it's not as good as its source material, but it's not an offense against art either. It's not the movie's fault -- a book is a broader canvas that allows for more nuance. You have longer with the characters, who needn't be one thing or the other. You can have more nuance in a book.
But what might make a better movie is the story of Jim Dent's life, all the improbable turns and wild nights it encompasses. Whether it's the story of an underdog's redemption or a tragedy has yet to be written.
And Jim Dent is the only one to write it.
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