Turn Out The Lights

Back in the day, when men were men and quarterbacks didn't wear dresses, giants stalked the earth.

Rugged, tough, manly men like Bart Starr, Sonny Jurgensen, Roman Gabriel, Y.A. Title, and Billy Kilmer swaggered their way around the gridiron. Among the toughest of these was an East Texas boy. 

I grew up watching Don Meridith play quarterback. He was a high school legend - All State in both football and basketball at Mt. Vernon, TX. Later, in college, back when SMU was a football powerhouse (it was known as Southern Meredith University when he played there), he was a two-time All American. Finally, as the quarterback for America's Team, he was an All Pro and NFL Player of the Year.

Many people forget, but in the early years (the 1960s) the Cowboys were an expansion team. In the beginning, they were pathetic. As a young player, Meredith alternated snaps with Eddie LeBaron - not one of Tom Landry's better innovations. After a couple of years he became the full-time quarterback. Unfortunately, back then the Cowboys offensive line was as porous as obama's national defense plans. Meredith got the snot knocked out of him.



Ben Roethlisberger has received a lot of positive press yesterday for playing with a broken nose and a sprained foot. No argument - he deserves it. But Meredith played with multiple broken noses, a broken ankle, fractured ribs, a punctured lung, and pneumonia, among other ailments. He was one tough SOB.

He was also a natural leader, with a good ol' boy demeanor and sense of humor that endeared him to his teammates.



After his playing career was over he became one of the first football jocks to make a successful transition from the field to the broadcast booth. He helped make Monday Night Football a resounding success by kicking Howard Cosell's ass on a regular basis. (For those of you too young to remember, MNF was initially (a) an experiment that no one knew how it would turn out, and (b) a cultural happening that changed Monday nights forever - at least for the first few years. It's hard to explain, back in the early days of cable and before Thursday and Saturday NFL games, how meaningful MNF games were.)

Despite his public persona, Meredith was at heart a shy, introverted, and complex individual. He had a brief acting career, but then retired to a reclusive existence in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Turn out the lights, Don. R.I.P.