A Large Regular

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." - Socrates

"I really believe that normal people are only capable of accomplishing normal things. I don't know that I ever had a great player that was normal." - John Madden

"You can get to about the 90th percentile in your field by working either smart or hard, which is still a great accomplishment. But getting to the 99th percentile requires both - you will be competing with other very talented people who will have great ideas and be willing to work a lot." - Sam Altman

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." -  Napoleon Bonaparte

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser." - Socrates

"I don't think parents should be telling schools what to teach." - Terry McAuliffe

"I really believe that normal people are only capable of accomplishing normal things. I don't know that I ever had a great player that was normal." - John Madden

"You can get to about the 90th percentile in your field by working either smart or hard, which is still a great accomplishment. But getting to the 99th percentile requires both - you will be competing with other very talented people who will have great ideas and be willing to work a lot." - Sam Altman

Some good John Madden stories.

If the deal with EA Sports did pay him $100,000 and 5% of sales of his video game (130 million copies were sold) - John Madden must have made much more from the video game than he made in broadcasting. And he was the highest paid broadcaster in the sport.

 

Here's an interesting interview from earlier this year on what Madden thought about the video game and how he watched NFL games once he stopped broadcasting. 

Here's an excellent SI profile of Madden from almost 40-years ago. The article really brought you the essence of the man. The story of his kindness to Darryl Stingley is one of the first things I thought of when I saw the news of his passing.

John Madden was one of a kind. There will never be another.

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Can we all agree that Tom Brady is clearly the greatest football player in history? Brady should no longer be compared to football players but instead only to the best of all-time in other sports like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky... Excellent advice... I don't write Harry Potter fan fiction but if I did it would be a story about Harry taking Mr. Weasley to an amusement park for an afternoon... GameStop short-sellers lost $1.6 billion in a single day as Reddit traders rebelled against them. Cool story. Fight the power!... I'd be in favor of a Constitutional Amendment that make's that year's Super Bowl MVP the tie-breaking vote in the Senate in case of any 50-50 votes. What could be more American than that?... Interesting interview of John Madden on how the video game Madden has evolved and its impact on football...  

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Glad to see ex Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson off to a hot start for the Indians. Masterson is now 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA to start the season. Masterson is one of the nicest guys in baseball... Cool story. Rory McIlroy and the Augusta Entourage house... Happy 75th birthday to NFL icon John Madden... Chase who? The top 5 hitters in the Phillies batting order are all hitting better than .333 to start the season... He lives! Abe Vigoda is still alive! Long live the Vigoda... There is a slight chance that Johnny Damon gets to 3,000 hits and election to Hall of Fame while Manny Ramirez gets to be on outside looking in. Who could have guessed that? Damon is now tied in 72nd place on the all-time hits list with 2,574 along with retired Richie Ashburn and retired Manny Ramirez. Damon needs 9 more hits to tie Ernie Banks... RIP to Sidney Lumet one of the all-time great directors. Strange Lumet tidbit - he wanted to direct Death Wish (1974) with Jack Lemmon in the leading role. That would have been a completely different movie... VAN GUNDY!!!!!... The Skeleton in the Closet. You know this became a story just because people wanted to make gay Geiko caveman jokes... Strange Sidney Lumet tidbit 2 - the Lefty Lumet was once father in law to Righty humorist PJ O'Rourke... Happy 29th birthday to Dodgers all-star outfielder Andre Ethier... I think one of the effects Twitter will have on the English language will be the almost elimination of the word "the" and most articles in the grammar sense... I may be alone in this but my favorite Sidney Lumet film was Murder on the Orient Express...