My dad, Alfred R. Trippel, was born almost 90 years ago and he died in August, 2005, from staff MRSA he got while in the hospital getting his slipped disks fixed. Well, "they" won't say that but that's what I think.

A diehard NFL "New York football Giants" fan his whole life (as well as baseball Giants 'til they moved to Frisco, and also the Brooklyn Dodgers--and he hated the Yankees, pure and simple...one thing he passed on to me)...well, for all the grief the Giants gave him in the latter 60s and 70s, until Parcells took over and pretty much got rid of the "loser" in the Giants pretty much for good (okay, LT had something to do with it as well), they rewarded him with a few Super Bowl victories, the biggest being, of course, Supe 42 over the team I like to call the "Patsies."

And, on this day, the 89th anniversary of his birth on July 7th, 1920, I say "thank you, dad" for loving me, encouraging me to be a football fan, a few other things, and also for your Giants keeping my Dolphins the still only undefeated team in NFL history.