Like the late Senator Reid's incomplete obit reports, it's not yet clear (at 8:34 pm ET) where Madden died at age 85 this morning.

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

OK, non-Boomers--I suppose he was an NFL video-gaming institution, too.

STYBLE/Florida

In article <117ff0c2-b0b8-44b2-ad28-9ccde7052e49n@googlegroups.com>,
<"radioacti...@gmail.com"> wrote:

> OK, non-Boomers--I suppose he was an NFL video-gaming institution, too.
>
> STYBLE/Florida

And for those of us who have never given a shit about football, he did
some commercials for stuff.

I remember that he took a chartered bus around the country during
football season because he didn't like to fly. Sure enough, he didn't
die in a plane wreck.

Yep, Madden sure indeed did all KINDS of commercial endorsements. But one was SPECTACULARLY insensitive.

For though Madden put his name on lots things willy-nilly for the bucks, the late great(er) Pat Summerall, Madden's longtime NFL booth partner--and FAR superior broadcaster and elucidator of the pro game's myriad intricies--both at CBS where he was first teamed with Madden (after the late Tom Brookshier flamed out and was demoted from the CBS brass from the Summerall-led A-team following some ill-considered words during an unfortunate college hoops broadcast), and then for more many NFL seasons on Fox--had pretty much only ONE longtime sponsor.

And that was True Value hardware stores, a FAR better company than either their successor super-stores Home Depot and Lowes. So if Madden was indeed the sterling fellow all the ESPN tributes will be telling us ad nauseam for at least remaining hours of 2021, the late Raiders legend SHOULD have responded when Ace Hardware execs came calling with something like, "Hey guys, much appreciate your HANDSOME offer, but I'm afraid my valued partner and fellow NFL Hall of Famer* ALREADY has a long-term deal with True Value, and it just wouldn't be RIGHT to directly compete with him in the commercials while sharing the booth with my pal Summerall during our sportscasts."

STYBLE/Florida
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* And I'd like to think Madden's FRIEND, as well.

But yeah, Sir/Madam "A Friend", I was sure glad to see you cite the late Madden's no-fly policy.

Don't know how long Madden upheld it--that is, did Madden ALWAYS luxury-coach to NFL commitments, even back in his Raiders days?--but I too have PROUDLY been (first only medically-, and then delightedly-self-) grounded since Saturday, October 12, 1996. That evening was when I touched down forevermore at Detroit Metro from Chicago/Midway, and haven't been in the air for a single full-second since...yet have NONETHELESS driven to every one of glorious Lower 48* states since, and about 43 or so of those at least TWICE.

Now, the sainted atheist Issac Asimov may have been about the most knowledgable person of modern times, yet he TOO wisely never fly, at least after his World War II service. (I believe that is ALSO true of the late Yossarian creator, novelist Joseph Heller--whom I'm proud to have met twice [Boston in 1974, and then Houston in 1979 when I also interviewed him for Zimmerman Blues magazine], but I haven't been able to establish that for y'all's edification herein.)

Now me, I ain't one SMIDGEN as well informed (much less INTELLIGENT) as was late Boston University biochemistry prof Asimov***--not by a LONG shot, for sure!--but I TOO shall only perish in an aviation disaster should some aircraft crash on top of or adjacent to me (or perhaps TARGETS my building). Of course, my own Sunshine State condo high-rise may sometime instead just "go Surfside"...but at least in such event I should survive a FEW seconds longer than those folks in the penthouse many pancaked-stories above me****..

STYBLE/Florida
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* Now, I was only four years old when Alaska came in January 1959 and then Hawaii on its An-Even-50 own about six months later...but I would have opposed statehood for BOTH had I in those childhood days understood The Constitution and defensible-territory doctrine.**
** Uh, anyone remember something we were once incessantly told to NEVER FORGET, i.e., Pearl Harbor 1941?
*** Just gotta plug my good ol' alma mater!
**** Any suggestions as to how I can best enjoy those last few extra seconds before my world, uh, collapses on me?