This really happened. Before one of the Redskins Super Bowls — they seem so long ago now — I interviewed Joe Theismann. I asked if coach Joe Gibbs was a smart football man. Theismann said he was and then he said, “But he’s no Norman Einstein.”

I thought I would die. I wondered who in the world Norman Einstein was. I assumed Theismann forgot that Einstein’s first name was Albert. I started laughing — I couldn’t help myself — and poor Theismann got the heck out of there.

I wrote a column asking who is Norman Einstein and speculating he was Albert’s smarter brother.

Several years later I was having dinner in NY with a bunch of sportswriters. In the group were two guys from New Jersey who went to high school with Theismann — one was a private eye; he gave me his card — as I recall it said something like Adultery happens 24 hours a day. Anyway, I asked these guys if they ever hear of a Norman Einstein. They brightened up. They said he was their class valedictorian and the smartest guy they ever met.

So my apologies to Theismann. I got it wrong all those years ago. I guess I’m no Norman Einstein.