RIP Chester McGlockton

I first heard the news about Chester McGlockton yesterday on Hacksaw Lee Hamilton's radio show during the noontime hour.  I should have blogged about it last night.

I remember the day McGlockton was drafted by the Raiders like it was yesterday.  He was drafted by the Raiders out of Clemson in 1992, the same year the Colts selected Steve Etman #1 out of Washington and the same year my Rams selected Sean Gilbert #2 out of Pitt.  Whilst Gilbert was a dominating performer for a few years with my Rams, I never got over the fact that the Raiders got a better man; and lower. I am certain the Colts never got over this fact either.

McGlocketon was one of a series of giant men who came off the Clemson defensive line.  That lineage included the famous Refrigerator Perry of the Chicago Bears.  He was elected to four Pro-Bowls and was All-Pro three times.  Later, he played for Kansas City, and eventually became a defensive coach at Stanford University during their recent run of success.

McGlockton was a September 16, 1969 Virgo baby, 3 years and two weeks younger than me.  Hard to believe he is dead already.  During much of his life, he weighed around 335 pounds.  I was around 330 at the top of my weight, but much shorter.  McGlockton was not as lucky as I.  McGlockton struggled with obesity-related diabetes through much of his adult life.

At some point, he had the LapBand procedure done to try to deal with his weight and diabetes.  He lost 60 pounds, but evidently, it was too little too late.  I was not regarded as pre-diabetic before having the Roux-en-Y procedure done, and now I never will be.

It is very unfortunate that Chester got some bad medical advise.  Whilst losing a bit of weight can help diabetes, it is not a kill-shot for the malady.  Roux-en-Y is considered the kill-shot for the malady.  I wish he had known.  He might still be alive today.  It has been reported that Chester died of diabetes related illnesses.

My buddy and immediate supervisor suffers from advancing diabetes.  Although he is a little guy, and far from overweight, his doctors have spoken to him about having Roux-en-Y.  Like all of us, he is terrified of the procedure.  It is not easy to lay down on the stretcher and allow them to anesthetize you for a gut-repiping job when you have no immediate threat of death.  Believe me, I know.  I had to do it.

I hope Kapil will have the procedure.

How 'bout that Tebow II?!?!?

As I have often said, Tim Tebow is the son I never had.  That's my boy!

You would expect me to comment a lot more often about him because of that, but objectively speaking, I have not.  Why is that?  Primarily because I have been trying to keep a civil tongue in my head.  If I blogged on this subject every time I felt the impulse, you'd get at least one hard rant every day.

There is a great deal of Tebow-baiting going on out there in the media, and it isn't because the members of the media hate Tim.  They bait the line for both Tebow-haters and Tebow-fans  because doing so is absolutely fantastic for ratings.  I let them sucker me into the dummy-debate, or should we call it a tebate, during the run up to the 2010 draft.  I felt pretty stupid for being suckered into media-swirl after the fact.  I was great for the ratings, but it didn't do me much good.

Understand that no matter what Tebow does in terms of Pro achievements, there will be Erhardt-Perkins purists who will always hate this kid.  Likewise, there will always be scientific-materialist-atheists who will always hate this kid.  They don't even care what the kid does on the field.

On the other hand, there will be those (like Jack Youngblood me) on the other side of the fence who see one hell of a competitor and an engine of victory in this kid.  No matter how many mistakes Tebow makes in the early going, we're not going to be shaken.  We know the kid is destined for greatness.  Just give him a chance to learn and develop and he will do fine.

Just remember this: Brett Favre made a ton of mistakes in his run towards franchise-QB status.  He had enough bad days that Mike Holmgren had to threaten to bench him several times before he got the message.  John Elway was considered a bust in his first two years in the league.  Elway did not enjoy success immediately, and he might just be the greatest QB in entire history of the league.  Peyton Manning didn't look fantastic in his first year as a Pro, but we all know he is another likely suspect when we talk about the greatest of all-time.

I really had to bite my tongue hard after Week-8.  We saw many "experts" in the media 'seriously' disusing whether the Tim Tebow experiment should be over and done with after one bad game.  I am sure this triggered tons and tons of social media activity and gave the media lots of attention.  In short, they got what they wanted out of it.  It was just another attempt to trigger another dummy debate, and I knew it, but it irked me nonetheless.

It's preposterous to think that either John Fox or John Elway are so uncertain, so unsteady, so wavering, so swaying as to give up on a young QB after just one bad game.  Nevertheless, this is how the media spun the story.  It was just a naked attempt to sprinkle a little napalm on Tebow's followers and get them to respond to the show.  This boosts the ratings.  Ergo, I didn't comment.

I am very pleased that Tebow railgunned the Oakland Raiders yesterday.  It hurt my prediction record, but I couldn't be happier about it.  You know I hate the Raiders.  You know I love Tebow.  When Tebow railgunned the Raiders...  well... let's just say that's one of the finest moments I've had during this otherwise bleak season.

Of course, we have to give Eddie Royal a lot of credit there also.  He had the game winning return, after all.  Tim gave Eddie the spotlight on Facebook just a little while ago, and he was right to do so.

I am fairly certain this is not the Broncos' final victory of the year.  I look forward to several more, and I expect Tim Tebow to continue to show improvement throughout the course of this season.