As a young man, me and my friends would hang out in bars – my two favorites The Monkey Farm in Deep River CT and the Beer Barrel in Portland ME – on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening in the fall. There we would drink much too much beer and watch NFL football. But what made it special was the presence and voice of John Madden, first as coach of the “lunch pail/outlaw” Oakland Raiders and then as football commentator. Madden, who could make the complex play or scheme simple, was larger than life. What other football analyst and “Merry Prankster” rode his own bus back and forth across the country to cover and call games. Madden died yesterday at the age of 85 and today much of the sports world grieves. He was the “genuine article.”
Written by
Sam Webb
I'm a long-time socialist and activist, but new to the blogging world. I hope to bring a different perspective on politics, sports, culture, and Marxism. Besides blogging, I also leave plenty of time for swimming, hiking, ESPN, music, reading, drinking good beer, and, not least, my family and friends. I wish I could play basketball, but my knees ruled out that possibility long ago.
While I currently reside in New York, my politically formative years were spent in Portland, Me. and Detroit during the 1970s and 1980s. I graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia (where I played basketball) and received a MA in economics from the University of Connecticut.
I was the national chairperson of the Communist Party, USA from 2000 until 2014 when I stepped down at the convention. In 2016 I resigned from the Communist Party two years later. We were no longer on the same page.
