While I am looking forward to the cruise, I have to tell you that I am leaving town with sadness over the untimely death of one of my heroes - Lee Roy Selmon. Selmon, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers All-Pro defensive end (and the only Buccaneer in the NFL Hall of Fame) suffered a stroke on Saturday and passed away at the age of 56 on Sunday. 

I got to know Lee Roy during the many years I spent as a TV sportscaster in the Tampa Bay area. While Selmon was a great football player (both in college at Oklahoma and in the NFL) he was not a football hero to me (or even to himself). He was a human 

being hero. I have honestly never met a more humble, admirable man than Lee Roy Selmon. He was a complete inspiration to me (and everyone else he came into contact with) - the prime example of how to treat all people with courtesy and respect and live your live with class and dignity. 

I don't think there is any doubt that Selmon, who also served as the Athletic Director at the University of South Florida and lent a helping hand to countless community endeavors, was the single most beloved citizen in the Tampa Bay area and our entire region is mourning his loss at such an early age. Still, he leaves behind a remarkable legacy that will continue to inspire people who were fortunate enough to come in contact with him to be better men and women. 

Lee Roy and his brothers Dewey and Lucious, all played at Okahoma and Dewey also played in the NFL for Tampa Bay. Dewey's demeanor was the same as Lee Roy's (and from what I have heard Lucious was cut from the same cloth). The reporters who covered them, and were unused to such humility from men that people put on a pedestal, used to remark that their mother must have been a phenomenal woman to raise three men who all turned out like the Selmon Brothers did. Amen to that and farewell to a man I will never forget.