Shame on me. Two days ago, legendary football coach Eddie Robinson passed away, and I didn't even bother to write about it here. I spoke about it with other people, and I jotted some notes down about what I possibly wanted to say, but I never actually put words on the screen like I'm doing now. So much has been said about Eddie on ESPN, in newspapers, in talk radio, that I really don't want to rehash that here. But what I will say is that in the mid 80s, I found out about Eddie Robinson via Ebony magazine. Even though that magazine is bordering on irrelevant now, back in the 80s it held a special significance to me, because my family was living in a predominately white neighborhood. So as detached as it may sound, Ebony served as ONE of my ways to stay "black"(man i'm violating so many personal rules here). Anyway, in one particular issue, I read about Eddie Robinson, and how he had built the Grambling football team from the ground up. I remember being impressed with the kind of man he was, and once I paid attention, I realized that he put many players in the NFL, despite the fact that he coached at an HBCU. From that day, up until he retired in 1997, I had a special rooting interest in Eddie, and so I followed his career very closely, because he felt like a hero. His journey was rare in that he struggled before things were "fair", he fought to make things fair, and never complained in the process, and then he was able to stick around long enough to reap the benefits and be honored for both his struggle and his success. That's a full life my friends. And my favorite quote of his, was when he said, "My greatest success is that for 50 years I've had one job, and one wife". So more important than Eddie resting in peace, I hope his legacy and what he did to build it lives on..

Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay- Otis Redding