Gino Cappelletti sat in the radio booth at the New Orleans
Superdome on Feb. 3, 2002, alongside longtime broadcasting partner Gil Santos
and watched Adam Vinatieri kick a 48-yard field goal as time ran out to give
the New England Patriots their first Super Bowl championship.
Since then, the New England Patriots have won 4 more Super Bowls,
and have been in 5 other Super Bowls where they came in 2nd.
Mr. Cappelletti, an original Boston Patriot in 1960 who kicked 176
field goals during an 11-season career with the team, stood in the booth after
the 20-17 victory over the St. Louis Rams and reflected.
“I looked at the numbers on the players’ jerseys
and I was speechless as I recalled the players on our 1960 team who wore those
same numbers,” Mr. Cappelletti told the Globe in 2016. “I thought of how they
must have been feeling and how elated they would be.
“It all paid off, didn’t it?”
Mr. Cappelletti, whose own number 20 was retired by the Patriots
and who is enshrined in the American Football League and the Patriots Halls of
Fame, died Thursday (May 12, 2022). He was 89 and resided in Wellesley.
Like me, he was a graduate of the University of Minnesota.
If the name Cappelletti sounds familiar, here’s why:
John Cappelletti (born August 9, 1952) is a
former American
football running
back. He played professionally in the National Football League (NFL)
with the Los
Angeles Rams and the San Diego Chargers.
Prior to his professional career, he attended Penn State,
where he won the Heisman
Trophy in 1973. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in
1993. Penn State football coach Joe
Paterno said that Cappelletti was "the best football
player I ever coached." Cappelletti's relationship with his younger brother
Joey, who was stricken with leukemia,
was chronicled into a book and made-for-TV movie, which was titled
“Something for Joey”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_for_Joey
At the Heisman Trophy Award ceremony, John Cappelletti
gave the trophy to his younger brother Joey, who eventually died in April of
1976 at the age of 13.
When it came time for the priest to give the invocation at
the ceremony, he said, “we don’t need a prayer, since we have been blessed by
John Cappelletti.
Gino Cappelletti is no relation to John Cappelletti.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cappelletti#:~:text=John%20Cappelletti%20(born,TV%20movie.
The big screen, of course, has produced numerous movies that
discuss the love of a brother for another brother.
One of the more entertaining ones was the 2000 remake of “Gone in
60 Seconds”, which starred Nicholas Cage.
Gone
In 60 Seconds |2000| All Eleanor Pursuit Scenes [Edited] - YouTube
Car thief Kip Raines works with his gang to
steal fifty high-end cars for Raymond Calitri, a British gangster in Long Beach, California.
After stealing a Porsche
996 from a showroom, Kip unwittingly leads the police to
his crew's warehouse, forcing the thieves to flee. Detectives Castlebeck and
Drycoff impound the stolen cars and open an investigation. Atley Jackson,
Calitri's associate, reaches out to Kip's older brother Randall
"Memphis" Raines, a notorious but reformed car thief. Memphis meets
with Calitri, who has kidnapped Kip and intends to kill him in a car
crusher. Memphis agrees to steal the fifty cars within 72 hours,
and Kip is released; Calitri warns that if the cars are not delivered on time,
Kip will be killed.
Memphis visits his mentor Otto Halliwell and they assemble
a crew of old associates: Donny Astricky, now a driving instructor; Sphinx, a
mute mortician; and Sara "Sway" Wayland, a mechanic and bartender.
Kip and his crew volunteer to help, and the group tracks down the cars, giving
each a code name; Memphis insists on saving a 1967 Ford
Shelby GT500, dubbed "Eleanor"— which
he has attempted to steal before —for last. While scouting the cars, he and Kip
narrowly avoid being killed by a rival gang. Hoping to deliver the cars before
they can be traced, the crew plans to steal all fifty cars in one night.
In the film, Memphis Raines agrees to go back to stealing
cars again because of the love for his brother, Kip.
Apart from the movies, there are times when even men who
are not related can develop bonds as strong as brothers.
In 1978, Dire Straits released a song titled, “Brothers in
Arms”
Dire Straits - Brothers In
Arms - YouTube
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/direstraits/brothersinarms.html
In brief, it described the bond that forms between
men who serve in the military together.
This comment to the video says it all:
I am 32 years old now. I was
merely 21 when I was deployed to Afghanistan. Next to me sat a younger boy
named Alex. He was only 19. Alex was an orphan, just another lost soul sent to
fight for a country that never cared for neither him, neither any soul it sent
to its doom. Alex and I began nervously talking and before the plane landed, we
were inseparable. We became the closest of friends over the course of our time
in Afghanistan, we had to learn to kill and accept death. It wasn't easy,
nothing was, but at least, in the middle of all the crap that went on, we had
formed a friendship, a friendship so strong I dare say it was almost a
brotherhood. I loved Alex both as a friend and as the younger brother I never
had - and apparently was never meant to have. I felt responsible for him, felt
like I had to teach him things I didn't even know myself. Most of all I cared
for that boy more than I cared for myself. Alex died 11 years ago today. He
dove on an Afghan grenade, saving my life and 12 others. Born a zero and died a
fucking hero. The word "hero" is the least I can say to describe him.
But they didn't talk about him on TV, they didn't give him a medal and they
just forgot about him. Just another lost soul never finding its way. I was sent
home a little after all that. A taxi took me from the airport and took me back
to my family. This is the first song that played on the taxi ride. Needless to
say, I burst out crying right then and there. I had lost people in my life, but
nothing hurt more than the loss of Alex. Thinking about it years later, I believe
that this song playing on the radio was a signal from Alex up in the sky,
telling me that he finally found his peace beside God, and telling me not to
worry about him and go on with my life. Anyway, wherever you are, Alex, I miss
you, my brother in arms... RIP Alex 09/09/2010.
Band of Brothers is a 2001 American war drama miniseries based on historian Stephen E. Ambrose's 1992 non-fiction book of the same name. It was created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who also served as executive producers, and who had collaborated on the 1998 World War II film Saving Private Ryan. Episodes first aired on HBO, starting on September 9, 2001. The series won Emmy and Golden Globe awards in 2001 for best miniseries.
The series dramatizes the history of "Easy" Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division, from jump training in the United States through its participation in major actions in Europe, up until Japan's capitulation and the end of World War II. The events are based on Ambrose's research and recorded interviews with Easy Company veterans. The series took some literary license, adapting history for dramatic effect and series structure. The characters portrayed are based on members of Easy Company. Excerpts from interviews with some of the survivors are used as preludes to the episodes, but they are not identified by name until the end of the finale.
The title of the book and series
comes from the St Crispin's Day
Speech in William Shakespeare's
play Henry V,
delivered by King Henry before
the Battle of Agincourt.
Ambrose quotes a passage from the speech on his book's first page; this passage
is spoken by Carwood Lipton in
the series finale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_of_Brothers_(miniseries)
I’ve visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in
Washington, D.C. On that wall are the names of relatives, former classmates,
and former neighbors. Although I DID join the National Guard, I never saw
combat, but the men that I mentioned above did.
We are not related, but all of them are my brothers – and I’ll
be thinking of them on May 30.
Rest in Peace.
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