Hudson Hawk’s just-departed buddy “T-Bone”…
One of our longest-term posters and Eagles fans here lost his dag yesterday.
I don’t like to trade on the maudlin sentiments of life here or anywhere else— I hate maudlin— but if you’ve ever lost a beloved pet which had a special place in your life and your heart, then you know what Hudson Hawk is going through as he mourns the loss of his golden retriever “T-Bone”, who has left this world at the age of 13.
We’ve had plenty of emotional losses here over the years, and I’m not just talking football.
We’ve collectively lost dags, cats, wives and parents— in no particular order of ranking— in addition to our own occasional individual losses of health and well-being.
Apparently the life we were given was not meant to be without periodic and inevitable experience of loss.
And obviously no one gets out of here alive…
Maybe that realization of the inevitability of loss— of beginnings and endings— is what Eagles fans can take to the emotional bank when things seem to be going too well, or things seem to be breaking our way too easily. We have been conditioned by NFL history to understand that nothing good can last for too long.
In a way that rings all too true, especially when a beloved pet dies. If you are invested in a great pet like Hudson Hawk’s golden retriever “T-Bone”, you are destined to cash out a ton of grief when he passes. Same goes for anyone or anything you really love in this life…and that includes the women you love, the friends you love, the parents you love, the children you love, the brothers and sisters you love, the team that you love… Sooner or later, they’re all taken away from you— or you are taken away from them.
Hudson Hawk and I used to work the “Night Shift” together at PE.com’s “On The Inside” column many years ago— I guess it’s been almost 10 years now since we first hooked up as two of the only Eagles fans on the planet still awake at 4 A.M. EST…
Little did I know that Hawk was raising a golden retriever he had adopted at the age of 3 months… or I did know, but a decade of late-night alcohol abuse had obscured my appreciation of the fact that “T-Bone” was becoming a big part of Hawk’s family life.
No one breed of dag holds the patent on lovable personality— but the golden retriever is right up there, presuming it is not inbred.
Oh yes, I had an “inbred” golden retriever once named Jenny, and she was a mess!
But by all accounts from Hudson Hawk, “T-Bone” was no inbred retriever, but instead the best combination of everything you’d want from a reliable companion, athletic pal and loving family member.
13 years of loyalty, superlative behavior and predictable performance— if you could get that from a thoroughbred Eagles player in today’s NFL, you would say you got your money’s worth as a GM, or a teammate, or a fan. In fact, you’d have to say you were fortunate enough to have witnessed the career of such a player.
Today he’s gone, though… “T-Bone” reminds us to hug our dags, our wives, our cats, our friends, our parents, our bookies, our girlfriends, our kids just a little bit closer on this summer day…
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