Scotch, Scampi & The Snake

Ken Stabler is now dining at a Gulf Shores squat-'n'-gobble, Wanda at his side, before him his third Scotch of the meal and a heaping plate of scampi in garlic sauce. "Scotch and scampi," he crows between chomps, "I love 'em. Johnnie Walker Red. Namath drinks it. Sonny Jurgensen is a Scotch drinker, too. Maybe all the great quarterbacks drink Scotch. And I love seafood, particularly these babies." (Munch, crunch, gulp.) "I told Pete Banaszak last season, just after we beat Pittsburgh in the opening game, that I'd eat scampi for 14 weeks in a row if it would guarantee us winning all our games." Like Proust's madeleine, the jumbo shrimp provoke a remembrance of the season past. ... If a man can be assessed by his possessions, and particularly his attitude toward them, then Ken Stabler (1945-2015) is a man in motion. Furious, violent motion. Exultant motion.

From "Gettin' nowhere fast with the laid-back Raiders QB Kenny Stabler" by Robert F. Jones for Sports Illustrated, 1977; Photo by James Drake/SI

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