Dick Lynch, former NY Giant player and later radio announcer died this past week. He had a special connection to our own FFF commissioner Rich Geary.He took off his commisioner's hat and prepared to step into a nearby phone booth to undergo his weekly metamorphosis into Giant man. But the usual joy associated with this process was tinged a somber streak. He pulled the Topps trading card from its protective plastic cover and slipped it into the other protective plastic cover of his quarterbacks wristband.
The big Dick in the sky would be calling the plays for Giant man this weekend. He paused to wipe the tear from the corner of his eye as he looked at the worn card. It was scratched and worn from the many "flipping" competitions he'd battled through as as a kid at St Joe's grammar school. Back then being a Giant fan meant nothing but seemingly endless crushing defeats and non stop taunting from the other kids.
But Dick Lynch had symbolized hope for him. Dick Lynch had come from an era just before his time when the Giants were a powerhouse to be feared. Dick Lynch was his namesake. You see Giant Man didn't just pop up out of the ground or appear out of thin air... no, his is a genetic condition inherited from his father. And so it came to pass that when the future Giant Man was born on 11/11, the father added up the numbers and coming up with 22, he realized it was a sign from the football gods and he named his new son after the Giants current 22... Dick Lynch.
And so with the disease succesfully passed along to a new generation, he did what all Dads back then did right after a birth, (before all this mamby pamby, touchy feely crap trapped us all in the delivery room for the bloody duration)... he hung up the phone, made the announcement to the other bar patrons, passed out cigars and went back to work on his third tumbler of scotch.
I was watching the Giants tattoo the Seahawks last night and one of my uniform related thoughts was about how much I love the Giants white numbers with no border. Bold, great, simple. Ditto the helmet numbers. Then I look at the picture above and see how this is exactly what the commisioner aka Giant mans current uniform configuration is and I know that the football circle of life has come around to form the big Ok thumb and forfinger sign and that it's coming from Dick Lynch up in the clouds... and I think he's winking too. Or maybe he just has something in his eye, I'm not sure.
But you get my point. RIP Mr Lynch. Any fan of Dick Butkus knows that there has been more than one great Dick in the NFL but as far as Football Fashion Fanatics is concerned... you were the biggest.
Ken
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1 comment:
As an outsider to Giant world I would like to add some reality to the Dick Lynch Obit. First, my condolences to Giant man and the Lynch family. Dick Lynch was beyond being a homer, he made the "Scooter" look like a Red Sox fan . He was the worst color radio man in the history of the transistor radio. It was like sitting next to a 80 year old Giant fan who smells like your grandmothers closet from the moth balls with a hint of scoth. He did not belong anywhere near a mike. Teamed with Jim " Screaming" Gordon, they lowered the bar for braodcasting as has Dear Sarah has with the VP slot. I am sure he was a nice man and a good ball player, and when I heard that his son died on 9/11, I laid off him, but that does not change what type of, and I use the term losely, broadcaster he was. I hope him and Jim Gordon don't show up wherever I go.
Stiener
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