During my show, The Redzone, on Monday, I referenced the article and talked about Kowalski's knowledge of the game and ability to deliver that knowledge in a way that we, the fans, could understand.
It was shocking to me just a couple of hours later when I logged onto my social media networks and saw the news that Kowalski died at the age of 51.
I didn't know "Killer," nor did I ever have a chance to talk to him other than a couple of tweets back-and-forth. But, because he made himself so available to the fans through MLive, Twitter, Facebook and the radio show he co-hosted, it felt like we all "knew" him.
He made us mad, he made us laugh and at times, he left most of us in shock by his predictions -- including the now-famous one in which he said the Lions would win 20 games over a two-year span -- but we couldn't stop reading, watching, or listening when he spoke.
Why? Because he related to all of us. Killer was a beer and brat kind-of-guy that loved football and more importantly, knew football.
Those of us who live in metro-Detroit have been so blessed when it comes to sports media personalities. Ernie Harwell, Ken Kal, Mario Impemba, Dan Dickerson, Dan Miller, Jamie Samuelsen, Mitch Albom -- and that's only naming a very small handful of them -- are all people that I've looked up to in my pursuit of becoming a journalist.
Tom "Killer" Kowalski tops all of them when it comes to the influence a media personality has on a community. He would tell us to dream of large women before bed, he would get pissed when the first person to comment on his article would reference the word, "frist" in the opening sentence, but most of all, he worked his ass off EVERY DAY to bring us as much possible knowledge as he could.
It's not that the other names I mentioned don't do that -- but they're not Killer. Nobody ever will be.
Tom, thank you for your years of service and for being a friend to all of us. I shed a few tears on Monday in remembrance of you and am sure that thousands, possibly millions, of others did as well. I know you'll enjoy the upcoming football season with a Bud Light in hand and from the greatest seats of them all. We miss you Tom, and always will!
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