This one hit me hard. My lifelong love affair with football began as a young kid growing up in a western suburb of Cleveland. My interest in the game paralleled his career, and I watched almost every NFL game he ever played. On the field, he was like a force of nature. He was the best football player I ever saw. But, he was also much more than a football player, and it would be short changing his legacy to think of him only on those terms.
Incidentally, he was also one of the greatest players in the history of NCAA lacrosse. When I played lacrosse at Notre Dame, I wore #32 in his honor. A very sad day.