The story begins in 1977 at the old Edgewater Packing Company on Cannery Row by Monterey Bay, a place known for arcade games and a magnificent antique wooden carousel. A 15-year-old is here with his friends, doing things that teenagers do.
He stops cold when he sees the man who, just weeks earlier, he watched being carried off the field by Ted Hendricks and John Matuszak at the conclusion of Super Bowl XI.
"That's John Madden!" he says to his friends.
And it is. The head coach of the Oakland Raiders had taken his family there for a getaway.