Alan Haller paused and gathered himself.
He was in the middle of his introductory press conference as Director of Athletics for Michigan State University and he was choking up a bit.
He had already thanked his former teammates, former coaches (including his little league coaches, his high school coaches, and his collegiate coaches), his former MSU football coach George Perles, MSU’s current Deputy Athletic Director Jennifer Smith, his family, his sons and daughter, and his dad.
And now he was talking about his late mother.
“My mom is not with us anymore.”
The nine seconds of silence which followed felt more like 90.