There came a sunlit mid-day, not too many years ago, when my wife and I lunched outdoors at the Donna's at Cross Keys and were joined, quite unexpectedly, by the great Baltimore Colts Hall of Famer John Mackey, who was pitifully out of his mind.
He sat himself down and proceeded, without prompting, to tell us he could get us into the next Super Bowl if we wished. Then he said it again, and then again and again. Over the next half-hour, he said it no less than a dozen times, in precisely the same words.
This was one of perhaps half a dozen sentences he had memorized and repeated endlessly, and in the sweetest, most generous, good-natured way, over and over and over.
