Goodbye Carl Weathers.

I was saddened, yesterday, to learn of Carl Weather’s passing on Thursday, February 1st, he was 76 years old. There also isn’t a cause of death listed yet.

I say part of my childhood because I have great memories of him on the big screen and the little screen. Is it possible to forget Apollo Creed from Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, and Rocky IV? Action Jackson? Playing Action Jackson…Chubbs in Happy Gilmore, and to a whole new generation, Greef Karga in The Mandalorian and Combat Carl in Toy Story 4, and on the small screen, in one of my favorite shows, In the Heat of the Night.

There were so many more projects he was a part of, those are the ones that spoke to me more than anything else. He could be serious, funny, charming, goofy, all while probably knocking your lights out!

One thing I learned while looking up Carl Weathers to talk about him to you is that he played one year in the NFL, as a linebacker for John Madden’s 1970 Oakland Raiders!

The tributes that were pouring in online were touching and sweet, just knowing him seemed to enrich people’s lives and although I didn’t know him outside of a screen, you really felt what he was trying to share and convey, and I think I would have liked to sit down with him and be treated to that amazing smile!

A great Apollo Creed line: Apollo Creed versus the Italian Stallion. Sounds like a damn monster movie.

And another: Stay in school and use your brain. Be a doctor, be a lawyer, carry a leather briefcase. Forget about sports as a profession. Sports make ya grunt and smell. See, be a thinker, not a stinker.

Pretty good advice if you ask me. And on that note, good nigh Carl Weathers.