Great espn.com piece on Joe D’s kid

I gave sportsillustrated.com some love earlier today; now it’s time to spread the love to the other guys. There’s a great piece on Espn.com about Todd DeLamielleure. Todd’s father is Joe DeLamielleure, the NFL Hall of Famer and Charlotte resident who has been outspoken about the NFL’s crappy treatment of its veterans. Todd played football at Duke, then an injury in the World League and again in the Colts’ camp cut short his pro career. Now, he’s trying out for a new league. Todd’s also a firefighter in Charleston, SC, and his trying out is inspired in part by the tragic deaths of nine of his colleagues on June 18. Here’s an excerpt:

Twenty-eight-year-old Todd DeLamielleure went to six funerals in four days, best as he can remember. The grief runs together in one long train. The men tried to go on with their lives. The first shift after was hard. They sat around, wondering what it would be like. But the bell rang and their training took over.

They are trying to get back to normal, for the greatest tribute to the dead is to live. So those who fished fish. Those who barbecued barbecue. And those who dream of playing football keep dreaming. That how Todd found himself in Florida the first week of July, actually wearing football gear again, going up against other people who still had something to prove, men who were gone but had not forgotten.

Now go read the story here. (Note: I swear I don’t spend all day reading sports web sites. I found this link courtesy of the Wall Street Journal’s Daily Fix, which is an emailed digest of the day’s best sportswriting, and I found the si.com link below via reading the new SI over lunch. OK, now I’m going back to work.) —R.T.