Bam!!!!! Boom!!!!!. One day I am watching a commercial about Fox Sports “All Madden” documentary which premiered on Christmas Day, and today I read about John Madden’s death at age 85. His impact on the sport of football spans generations. There is my generation who remembers him as the coach roaming the sidelines for the Oakland Raiders with whom he won a Super Bowl and retired from coaching at the age of 42, when most coaches are still working their way up the ladder. Then a second generation who remembers him as the raspy voiced analyst on Monday night football with Al Michaels, who got excited about hard hits, crushing blocks, and pancaked lineman. Rarely did a quarter of the game go by without him uttering “Bam!!” when a hard hit occurred. He brought his genius as a coach to the TV booth and talked in a way that the fans loved. His use of the Telestrator with a plethora of squiggly lines as he diagrammed plays on live TV was captivating. He was a football fans analyst. And finally, there is the most recent generation that knows nothing of his football accomplishments but know him as the face of the greatest series of sports videos ever. His impact on football is on par with George Hallas, Vince Lombardi, and Paul Brown. “John Madden is as important as anybody in the history of football,” Al Michaels, his broadcast partner from 2002 through 2008 with ABC and NBC, said in an interview in 2013. “Tell me somebody who did all of the things that John did and did them over this long a period of time.” My favorite Madden contribution of all time was his introduction of the roasted six legged “Turducken” which was introduced to the world as part of one of Madden’s Thanksgiving Day broadcasts.
Since January 2021 when AG Nessel first announced manslaughter charges against former DHHS director Nick Lyon, former governor Rick Snyder and others for the Flint water crisis, Jim Haveman and I have been adamant the charges were uncalled for, inappropriate and politically motivated. Yesterday the Wall Street Journal editorial board agreed. Here are some excerpts from their editorial.
Some politicians seem to want to lock up their opponents more than they do criminals. Consider the tainted prosecution of former Michigan GOP Gov. Rick Snyder and his associates over the city of Flint’s lead-water contamination.
A state judge last month ordered state Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud to establish an independent “taint team” to review some 21 million documents her office seized to investigate Mr. Snyder and eight other public officials involving Flint. Many documents are protected by attorney-client privilege, so prosecutors and the grand jury should never have laid eyes on them.
If Mr. Snyder is guilty of these crimes, so is Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who failed to take action for more than two years after alerts of high lead water levels in Benton Harbor. Ms. Whitmer could also be culpable for failing to protect nursing home residents during the pandemic, among other derelictions.
Government officials often make poor decisions or fail to take appropriate action when they should. Neither is a crime, and the remedy is the ballot box. Prosecutorial missteps in the case are also troubling.
Some documents seized by Ms. Hammoud’s team included communications regarding Mr. Snyder’s legal strategy in the civil litigation and were explicitly labeled as subject to attorney- client privilege. Mr. Snyder’s defense team notes in a court filing that an assistant attorney general had alerted Ms. Hammoud to this.
Ms. Hammoud says none of these documents were included in materials submitted to the grand jury. At the same time she claims that hiring an outside “taint team” to exclude privileged documents from the investigation would be too cumbersome and expensive. Why does she fear a “taint team”?
The state is obligated to pay Mr. Snyder’s legal costs, which his defense team tells us will likely total $6 million to $8 million before the case goes to trial. Add $45 million for an outside taint team. All of this could pay for replacing Benton Harbor’s aging water pipes? or hiring hundreds of more police to curb the surging violence on Flint’s streets. The Democratic Flint prosecutions look on all the evidence like a political prosecution that deserves to be bounced out of court.
Winter classes at the University of Michigan will resume in-person Jan. 5, but there will be more campus safety protocols, including proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for anyone attending on-campus ticketed performances and sporting events, UM said Tuesday.
What are you doing today to stop violence? What are you doing today to expand mental health services for those in need? What are you doing today to make sure your guns are not are accessible to minors in your household?
Stay Safe. Social Distance. Wear your mask when indoors in public places. Schedule your vaccine and booster.
Orchid of the Day: The Michigan Independent Redistricting Commission for finally completing their work.
Onion of the Day: Another Darwin Award Winner: As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, “Yes, officer, that’s her. That’s the lady I stole the purse from.”
Quote of the Day: “As inclusive as he was beloved, Madden embodied a rare breed of sports personality. He could relate to the plumber in Pennsylvania or the custodian in Kentucky — or the cameramen on his broadcast crew — because he viewed himself, at bottom, as an ordinary guy who just happened to know a lot about football. Grounded by an incapacitating fear of flying, he met many of his fans while crisscrossing the country, first in Amtrak trains and then in his Madden Cruiser, a decked-out motor coach that was a rare luxurious concession for a man whose idea of a big night out, as detailed in his book “One Size Doesn’t Fit All” (1988) was wearing “a sweatsuit and sneakers to a real Mexican restaurant for nachos and a chile Colorado.” From an article in the NY Times by Ben Shpigel
Song of the Day: Monday Night Football with Al Michaels and John Madden.
Nice posts, Tom. Go Blue! Stay well.
Phil,
Great to hear from you. I am glad you appreciated my post. I hope all is well. Have a Happy New Year.