Max McGee

[Patler]

I'm talking the intangibles...independence, responsibility, loyalty, simplicity, honesty, humility, etc., etc., etc.

Stubborn, stupid pride...etc., etc., etc.,

So at what age should old people be put on the shelf so they don't hurt themselves?

I say let them do what they want to do and feel they can do. My dad cut his own firewood with a gas chainsaw until he was almost 90. I didn't like and I worried, but he felt good doing it. He quit on his own when he felt he couldn't.

You answered your own question. My dad, sadly should not be cutting his own wood (thankfully he doesn't have to) or shoveling his own walk (after a few heart attacks) or driving (since the Alzheimers diagnosis or at least since the resulting degeneration). At 85, he and my mom had the option of moving into an assisted living apartment where they would have had someone checking on them, kept their independence and had one of those senior buses that could have taken them places, but no. They live in a city with none of their litter of kids near enough to take care of them and are either going to kill themselves shoveling or kill someone else with that damned car! [/rant]

I don't think it's an "age" thing. it seems to me to be a "state of mind". You either display it or you don't. Patler, obviously your dad had the knowledge to know when to quit and that he couldn't do it forever. Maybe Max just "tripped", but maybe he was "too old" and refused to admit it.

My dad had a heart attack and didn't go to the hospital for about 3 days. Kept insisting it was indegestion. Damn near killed him. He KNEW better but refused to admit it. There is a difference and I live watching it every day.

Yes, but don't young guys also take risk they don't have to?

Maybe he was too old to be on his roof, maybe not. Maybe he was more capable of doing it than some of his 40 or 50 year old neighbors.

[mraynrand]

What he did is no different than the younger person who drives too fast, has unprotected sex with random partners, sky dives, mountain climbs, rock climbs or engages in other behavior that has an element of risk and is not an activity that HAS to be done

Can't say I really agree with this. Working on the roof is not really the same as unprotected sex with random partners, but I see where you're going.

Max had a 'Crankshaft' moment, but instead of bringing in the fire department to put out a fire, they're carting him away. Guy probably shouldn't be up on the roof, but so what? What's a better way to die - falling off a roof doing your own thing, or stringing out your last brain cells in a nursing home? If I could choose, I'd take falling off the roof. Or getting caught in the gears of a combine - that's the way to die. Godspeed, Max.

[motife]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1001791511335237000&q=Super+Bowl+I+1967&total=8&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

This shows Max's 2 TD's in Super Bowl I.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Max McGee was a good football player, not sure about great.

I've heard a lot of people retell Max McGee jokes the last few days, and they don't sound funny. That's because Max isn't telling them. The most brilliant thing about Max McGee was his wit and speaking delivery. He was deadpan, but also colorful. He reminds me a little of WC Fields. Or dry British humor.

When Larry & Wayne had to replace Jim & Max, it was a real letdown. (Although those two have gotten much better over the years.) I think that Max McGee was the most entertaining color commentator ever.

[Guiness]

You brought up a salient point MZiggy - danger to others.

My grandfather got Alzheimers and Dementia, and like all who do, had good moments and bad. Knocked over some garbage cans with his car, and set some tea towels on fire in the middle of the night trying to cook. Thing was, he almost started a fire which could've hurt my grandmother, and those cans could've easily been kids on bicycles.

We talked to his doctor about lifting his license, but he was extremely lucid the day he went to see her, then went to the DMV and passed the written with flying colours! He was mad as hell, blamed us all for conspiring against him, etc, etc. My grandmother lived in fear, he had a temper at the best of times, and Alheimer/Dementia suffers can get very angry and violent. Can't remember exactly how it got sorted out, but we did have to comit him to a nursing home.

Compare that with a friend's grandfather. Had a couple of heart attacks, a stroke or two (no kidding) and my buddy gets a frantic call from his grandmother to come and stop him from going into the loft to pitch hay down to the cattle!!! He gets there, and his grandmother is holding onto the old coot's boot stopping him from going up the ladder
He went up to the loft with him, and they pitched it together - with the grandfather mostly telling him which pile to pull from, and where to put it.

Moral is, my grandfather was going to hurt others: not acceptable. His grandfather was going to punch his own card: not pleasant, but *shrug*
Max punched his own, and I think he's allowed.

[oregonpackfan]

I'm talking the intangibles...independence, responsibility, loyalty, simplicity, honesty, humility, etc., etc., etc.

Stubborn, stupid pride...etc., etc., etc.,

So at what age should old people be put on the shelf so they don't hurt themselves?

I say let them do what they want to do and feel they can do. My dad cut his own firewood with a gas chainsaw until he was almost 90. I didn't like and I worried, but he felt good doing it. He quit on his own when he felt he couldn't.

You answered your own question. My dad, sadly should not be cutting his own wood (thankfully he doesn't have to) or shoveling his own walk (after a few heart attacks) or driving (since the Alzheimers diagnosis or at least since the resulting degeneration). At 85, he and my mom had the option of moving into an assisted living apartment where they would have had someone checking on them, kept their independence and had one of those senior buses that could have taken them places, but no. They live in a city with none of their litter of kids near enough to take care of them and are either going to kill themselves shoveling or kill someone else with that damned car! [/rant]

MJ,

I am sorry to learn your father is suffering from Alzheimers. My jovial, and full of energy, grandfather was afflicted with that disease. He became hostile, and even violent at times--something totally against the way I knew him as a child.

My wife is constantly worrying about her 84 year old mother who lives alone 100 miles away from us. She rationally admits she needs to move out of her house but getting her to actually do it is something else.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Kind of ironic that #85 (Greg Jennings) caught the game-winner for the Packers a day after Max was laid to rest.

[oregonpackfan]

Kind of ironic that #85 (Greg Jennings) caught the game-winner for the Packers a day after Max was laid to rest.

Max would have been very proud of that, I am sure!

[Maxie the Taxi]

Sometimes coincidences aren't just coincidences.