RIP Jim Otto

I'm not gonna like this comment, b/c that'd be super bleak, but I agree.

 

That was my first year covering an NFL team full time; I remember it, too.

 

I was going to make a joke about my capacity for being bleak, but it didn't seem appropriate.

Also, I couldn't settle on one.

 

One thing to remember about the era Otto played in is the players weren't making even close to the money they are now. A lot of then ran small businesses or had side hustles during the off season. They became part of the communities they played for. My cousins grew up in Redwood City when the 49ers trained there and it was not uncommon for the offspring of one of the players to be in their public school classes. In the series Peacock did on Joe Montana, they had clips of Montana and Dwight Clark having burgers at a place about a quarter mile from where my grandmother lived.

That's how players like Otto. Ben Davidson, etc., became so revered in Oakland. They lost a lot of that when they moved to LA. Going to games dressed as Star Wars rejects became the thing. This did not change when they moved back. The low point may have been when an excursion to a Raiders game was a showcase item on TPIR.

 

Dierdorf had

I lived in Oakland for one year, March 1973-March 1974. Raider defensive end Art Thoms owned the laundromat nearest my apartment. Me and my mates met him and then very occasionally other Raiders socially. He was a good guy. They were an extreme bunch. But laundromat is a classic small business.

 

When I was in college in the early 90s, I was friends with some kids from the Buffalo area. They would all talk about how either they or family members knew Bills players. Some would babysit players’ kids, or had an uncle who sold cars to the players, or had a sibling who worked in the supermarkets who knew what the players and their wives bought for groceries each week. The players were that intertwined with the community.

 

I am sure there are players on every team who're still like that -- the special teamers and guys on rookie contracts. Here in Patriotsland, they live near the stadium, meaning in a very quiet suburban area well outside the main arteries of Boston (or even Providence) life. So nobody sees 'em. Brady's real estate life here is a good example. He started in Easton (town next to Foxboro). Then he and Gisele had a place in the Back Bay, but there was a bad fire on the same block, so they moved.They bought an estate in Brookline near the Country Club.
One fascinating (to me) part of Boston sports is how its greatest heroes couldn't leave town fast enough. Ted Williams never even owned a home here. Bill Russell bolted. Larry Bird bolted even faster. Brady ain't coming back except for adulation ceremonies at Gillette Stadium. The one exception is Bobby Orr, who lives at the Ridge Club, one of Cape Cod's top residence/golf club communities.

 

I remember seeing that HBO special about Otto (and the Marinovich segment) when I was about 14 or 15. I'm actually shocked to learn that he was still alive until now. I would have sworn he died years ago around the time Mike Webster died. Gary Pomerantz's excellent book about the Steelers dynasty, "Their Life's Work," goes into a lot of detail about what a role model Otto was to Mike Webster and what horrible condition he was already in by the time Webster was a rookie in the league. I jut assumed he had passed away at some point. How the hell that guy made it to 86 -- absolute miracle.

 

Could Russell even buy a home in that area in those days? I wouldn’t blame him in the least for bolting.

 

The Bills trained in my little hometown from 1960-62. We would see them all the time at restaurants, etc., in July and August. They annually played basketball games against my high school faculty in the off-season, some players had a team and they could make some extra money, at least through 1966 or so.

Lane Kiffin lived in my hometown when Monte coached for the Bills. Someplace on the "if you grew up in ..." Facebook page there's a photo of him as an 8- or 9-year-old on some Boys & Girls Club basketball team. I keep waiting for it to resurface so I can post it.

 

KC Jones, Dennis Johnson, and Dom DiMaggio lived blocks away from me at various times. Dom also lived near my parents summer place and attended the same church. Apparently he was a much nicer person than his more famous brother.

All the Celtics and Bruins greats that stuck around that I can think of (Cousy, Heinsohn, Sanderson) were getting a paycheck.

Can you imagine having a Colts player in the 1950's coming around to sell you booze for your bar?

 

A while back I used to get a Facebook ad for T-shirts with retro logos from all the lounges, bowling alleys, restaurants, etc. that athletes from the 50s and 60s owned.