Like the rest of you, I was sent reeling late today by the news of Derrick Mason’s sudden retirement.

The man exuded class and dignity, and played the game like a man possessed. Who can forget him valliantly strapping his shredded shoulder up last season and going out to play every sunday? It was one of the guttiest performances I’ve ever seen by an athlete.

On top of that, I considered Derrick a real friend. Some of you may remember that he and I did a weekly TV show during the 2007 season. As the losses piled up, this poor guy was forced to talk about each game…for 30 minutes…with little to no help. It was not an easy assignment, but one he embraced fully as his duty. He committed to doing the show, and he figured it was his job to talk about loss after loss after loss. I can’t tell you how impressed I was…proud, too. Derrick was also great with people. He always gave my fiance’ Liz  a hug and kiss when he saw her. He was also great with Don and Tracy Myers, friends of mine who would come to watch the taping each week. He even had Don do some work on his furnace. These people are not media stars, just regular folk. That made no difference to DMase. He treated them like they were stars. That’s how he treated everybody…all the time.

It’s s shame we didn’t get him until so late in his career. We might be making plans for a statue outside the stadium.

Posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 3:47 pm.
Categories: Uncategorized.
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