Yeah, the news was sad, but - honestly - a relief. It would have killed me to watch him play out his days, struggling with decreasing physical abilities and teams that are seemingly always not-quite-good-enough around him.

The locals, as you might expect, are taking it hard. I dreaded watching the late news last night for the weather as I do every night, because I knew the news would be scraped cleaner than a carcass at a vulture convention - that we would be seeing endless tributes& career retrospectives, man-on-the-street interviews and heartfelt anchor commentaries.

I was right. The weather was almost nudged from its promised slot in the first ten minutes of the newscast. The primaries given some brief lip service in the middle of the the show and I went to sleep long before the sports segment. I could bear it no longer.

I'm probably taking this more philosophically than others because I've been blessed to be living in various towns where the then-current local sports heroes were great, champions and very obviously playing with great love for the game.

I was greatly privileged to watch number 4 and to enjoy a Super Bowl win with him.

Thanks, man.