CINCINNATI -- Bengals coach Marvin Lewis was just about to tee off alongside Herman Edwards at the American Century Classic golf tournament in Lake Tahoe last Friday when he was given the news.
Dennis Green, a man who, in Lewis' words, "blazed a trail" for countless NFL coaches, including the Cincinnati Bengals' current leader, had died the night before at 67.
Stunned by what he had heard, Lewis' thoughts went immediately back to a trip he had taken to London during the 1988 preseason. That July, as part of the then-annual American Bowl tour, the San Francisco 49ers were playing the Miami Dolphins on the same site that Lewis' Bengals will visit this October for a regular-season game against Washington.