Every so often something happens that reminds fans and media alike that football, baseball, hockey, basketball or any other sport for that matter is exactly that, a sport, a game.
Today one of those incidents happen when Mlive.com reported that one of their own, Lions beat writer Tom “Killer” Kowalski passed away unexpectedly Monday morning after being found un-responsive at his home. He was taken to DMC Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital in Commerce Township in Oakland County, where he was pronounced dead. He was only 51 years of age.
What made it even more unexpected was because he wrote what would be his final Lions piece just this morning.
Now I know it’s cliché whenever someone passes away to come out and say that he was a good guy and performed his job well. However in this case, Tom Kowalski was truly ONE OF THE BEST at what he did. He was one of those reporters that would respond to his readers and fans well before the Twitter and Facebook age came into play. Now although I never had the opportunity or privilege to meet Mr. Kowalski, myself and the rest of The Majors often times would turn to his articles and columns for verification and insight simply because his work was unparalleled by anyone else. He was that good at what he did.
The Lions also released a statement on the untimely death of Kowalski…
“The entire Lions organization, the Ford family, and me, personally, were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Tom Kowalski this morning,” said Detroit Lions Team President Tom Lewand. “Tom was a true professional, the consummate beat writer, somebody who brought a lot of tremendous information to our fans — even in times of disagreement; we always had the utmost respect for his professionalism.
“He will be sorely missed and our deepest sympathies go out to Diane and to his entire family. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of them.”
“On behalf of the team, we consider him part of the family; we saw him every day,” said center Dominic Raiola. “I dealt with Tom every day; I’d see him out here. (It will) take a lot of time to get over this.
“In the end, Tom always had the best interest of everybody in that locker room. He always wanted to know more about why things happened on the field and he always did a good job of that. He was a good person; he was fun to be around. (I) had a lot more personal relationship with him, so that was some tough news to hear.”
We here at The Majors offer our condolences to Mr. Kowalski’s friends and family.
RIP Killer.
Source: Mlive.com, DetroitLions.com