During the 2016 Championship Coach wasn’t feeling great at all and missed the Final 4 game. He was able to muster up enough strength to make the trip to Houston to be with Jay and his guys . He was really hurting, we had no idea of just how bad his health was at the time. When Coach got to Houston, he came to life and was his old self joking and laughing with all of us. We have a Banquet every year after the season to celebrate the team. As you could imagine that year was quite the party. Coach came out and seemed off a little very tired etc. I took on the roll of his Body Guard. I was the buffer, I got him away from the crowd through the back and to the parking lot where we waited for his son Andrew to bring the car around. While we were waiting for Drew, we had a few minutes to talk 1 on 1.
He said you know I gotta get this thing cut out of my head. What thing Coach ? Ah it’s nothing I’ll be all right it’s fine don’t worry I’m good. I found out “that thing” was a Brain Tumor and was Extremely serious. He has successful surgery and is in McGee Rehab facility in Philly . Brian Harrington and I plan a visit to see him and Momma Mass. She was also not feeling well and we visited for a while with her. Then we go to leave for McGee and his daughters tell us eh you know guys he’s expecting you guys to bring him some good Italian food , as the Food in the Facility was subpar as most are. So we run out and get the Bread , prosciutto, peppers , broccoli Rahb with all the fixings.
Also Brian gets some Red Wine that he likes and we put that in a Juice bottle. We get to the facility and he’s playing the piano which was shocking to us, cause we had no idea he could play the piano. As it turns out he was Juilliard trained , which blew our minds . The first thing we notice is a huge scar on the side of his head. It curled around his ear and looked like an LA Rams helmet . He was so excited to see us. He took us on a tour of the facility which ends up on an outside terrace overlooking Philly with another one of his Boys, Greg English who also has Goodies for Coach . So just like the scene from Goodfellas Coach says “OK what do ya got “ we start pulling out all the stuff from the hiding places and have a feast on the terrace with all the Italian food. 15 minutes in a Nurse walks in, we thought we were busted, she laughs and say “Coach we have no more room in the fridge for OUR lunch with all your stuff” That’s ok , I’ll share ! Just like the movie with Paulie owning the guards , Coach had all the nursing staff working for him...lol Brian gives him the juice bottle and says hey that’s not Juice , that’s the good stuff. Coach say Great come here get my bag when Brian picked up the bag you could hear about 10 or so Vodka nip bottles clanging around . Put that with the rest of them he said ....looks like we weren’t the only ones who snuck stuff into him He was good never drank those bottles, but just the idea that everyone had the same thought still makes me laugh !
