The morning of October 8, 2011 began as a typical Saturday during the NFL season.
I woke up and prepared to go to the airport for another Saturday of travel. I covered the AFC West and was headed to Denver for the Chargers-Broncos game. The company I worked for at the time was Tim Tebow-happy, so off to Denver I was.
Until I got a phone call from colleague John Clayton.
“Al died.”
“What?”
I hung up the phone and called then Raiders PR man John Herrera, a good dude and a guy who shot straight with me.