One day, a few years ago, I went to the Kmart in Paradise. There was a table near the front door and there was a big black Oakland Raider football player, Jeff Barnes. A line of people were lined up to get his autographed picture so I got in line to get one for my son, Brian, who is a big Raider fan. He had on his Super Bowl ring from when the Raiders won in 1981.
I mentioned that I had a friend, Greg Cosmos, who had two Super Bowl rings, as equipment manager for the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos. I also told him about having a autographed picture of John Madden and the bus he travels to all the games. I also had an autographed picture of Shaquille O‘Neal, that he autographed personally to me for a letter I had sent to the LA Laker’s home office mentioning a clipping from the local paper. He wanted me to go to Kinko’s to get him a copy but I told him there was no Kinko’s in Paradise. I was, however, able to get copies at the next doorn Hallmark store.
One of the kids in line had no idea who he was or what football was as he was visiting from Scotland. A girl came up to talk to him and mentioned that she had worked in the Raider organization in Oakland in food service. I took a picture of her and Jeff. Later, she came back and asked Jeff if he would like to come to her place for a family bar-be-queue and he jumped at the offer, telling her that he would be able to leave at 5 PM.
He said to me, “Man, I’m getting hungry”, so I went to the restaurant and got him a big slice of pizza which he wolfed down. A little later, he said his stomach was upset. I remember in the Kmart ad that they had a special on Altoids so I got 3 boxes and gave him one. I guess I was his “gofer”!
Before he left, he asked the girl to take his picture with his new friend, me!
He wrapped that huge muscled arm around me and gave me a big hug and said. “I love you, man!”.
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