Don Hasselbeck passed away this week. The former NFL tight end was our neighbor growing up and for the longest time was the largest person I had ever met.
It sticks to you as a kid when a gridiron gladiator removes his battle gear and doesn’t get any smaller. And when you queue up at the grill during a neighborhood block party, the 6’7” chef is doling out hot dogs with tongs that look like toothpicks in his hands.
That long, cool shadow cast itself calmly across Noon Hill Avenue in Norfolk but had a different ferocity on the nearby field in Foxborough. And he hustled for it.
I vividly recall one warm morning, Betsy Hasselbeck wheeling the portable Jugs football-flinging machine out of the garage, setting it up for her husband on the crest of their front lawn. A crate of about 15 footballs followed, positioned right next to it.
Don was in training. You don’t…
