Goodbye to Don Meredith and Elizabeth Edwards

Two passings of favorites of mine over the last few days as former Cowboys quarterback and Monday Night Football favorite Don Meredith and was shortly followed by the passing of Elizabeth Edwards,who was the wife of former Presidential candidate John Edwards.


Don Meredith has been a favorite of mine since I was a child as I knew him as the irreverent voice of Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford.
I always loved the "Danderoo" and his constant popping of the pompous balloon that was Cosell.
Meredith seemed to delight in tweaking Cosell with a simple "Oh Hawrrd" and his singing of "Turn out the lights" when a game has been decided is still a staple here when a game is over,yet the time is not run out.


Don Meredith was the quarterback that brought the Dallas Cowboys their first success and yet it never seemed that Dallas fans appreciated Meredith until he was gone or at least until Roger Staubach was on his way to legendary status.
Meredith retired at just 30 and could have been the quarterback that Dallas won their 1st Super Bowl with,after all Meredith was just 33 when the Cowboys defeated Miami for the first title.

Had Meredith not retired,it is possible that Roger Staubach doesn't play for the Cowboys as he either backs Meredith up or moves elsewhere,as just four years separates them in age.
Meredith was the type of announcer that didn't hit you over the head with what he did as a player,but rather calmly told you what he thought was going on in the game you were watching and despite the shtick role that he played on MNF,Meredith seemed to me that underneath it all was a pretty bright guy.
One felt that Meredith was doing the "wink,wink" without doing it visibly and got the point across.

Don Meredith mostly disappeared from the public eye after leaving MNF after the 1984 season and rarely returned other than the occasional "Whatever happened to" article or odd Cowboys or SMU reunion,but on reading some of these articles he seemed pretty happy with the way things turned out.
I suppose that is all one could ask of a life.....

Elizabeth Edwards came into national prominence in the 2004 election when her husband became the Democratic tickets Vice Presidential nominee.
As soon as the election was over,she became a national name with her struggles with cancer.
Edwards later became a advocate for cancer issues as well as a strong supporter of national health care and was involved in the 2008 campaign of John Edwards for the Democratic nomination for President.
Elizabeth Edwards struck a cord with people because she seemed to relate to the average person.
Edwards seemed so nice,but if you watched her speak-you sometimes were struck that this was not a person to be messed with.
That inner toughness combined with a caring nature came across so strongly after the exposure of John Edwards affair and fathering a child with the mistress.
She didn't give him any slack (not that he deserved much) and in her public dealings on the subject came across as a real person that had been lied to and hurt,reacting just as many of us would.
A smart and genuine person,Elizabeth Edwards will be missed.

I return to work tomorrow night,but I still have things to write about,believe it or not.
I still have the promised thoughts on HBO and Boxing that I want to write and get ready for some of your favorite column-the long awaited return of Knives and Daggers-all Dagger edition!!!!!

Photo Credits
Meredith:Unknown
Edwards:Drinkwater/NBCU