The Associated Press
There is no good timetable for losing a friend. There is an ache at their passing, whether those losses come at regular intervals or, as often seems to be the case, when one loss piles on top of another so quickly that the pain seems to compress itself into a single numbness, an inseparable sadness.
Over the past three days, two deaths happened, taking away not one but two fine men, different in some ways but united in many others, particularly by a love of the University of Alabama. Even more, though, the two were shining examples of how the world of athletics, sometimes flawed and sometimes fierce, can produce individuals who compete fearlessly, work tirelessly and yet retain the kind of fundamental decency and gentleness of spirit that would shine through it all.