The first time I met Ken Stabler, some years ago, we shook hands and then he said: "Well, you're not very handsome."
I laughed. He chuckled. We then spoke for an hour. That was his sense of humor (or truth-telling). One Stabler story I read told of how he skipped practice on Veterans Day because "I'm a veteran." He didn't mean because he was a military veteran. He wasn't.
By now, in the wake of his death July 8, you have heard many of the Stabler stories, including the truly bizarre ones. There were other times I saw Stabler—including once when he gave me the middle finger, then smiled.