Paul,

Back in the 80's when I lived in Chicago I worked for Amtrak as a on board supervisor on the cross country trains. It was an awesome job as I was in my 20's,single bouncing all over the country and except for a few meetings and training classes I made my own schedule.

Before the Madden cruiser, John would travel from Martinez, CA to the east coast and all over during the football season by train. He was horribly pestered by fans and if you ever rode Amtrak more than a few times the menu in the dining car gets old quickly!!! He always ate with the train crews after the dining car was closed and we had some really good old school chef's mostly African American who whipped up their own creations off the menu for the crew members who all threw in a few bucks every trip for the goodies.

It's not a great surprise by his size, John loved to eat and hold court with the crews telling old football stories. During their run of losing great championship games 3 years in a row to the Dolphins and Steelers Madden was Lombardi like in their preparation for the 76 season. He pulled Kenny Stabler aside for a serious talk about leadership, setting an example and most of all keeping curfew. Kenny looked at him 100 % serious and said coach " I can read the dam playbook just as well by the light of the jute box as I can by the lamp next to my bed" Madden just looked at him shook his head and walked away!

That was Al Davis's crew back then just win baby.

Kenny had a wild honky tonk in Mobile, Al as well back in those days, Kenny Stabler's Diamond Back Saloon. During the 1984 Worlds Fair I spent a few months of Friday nights in Mobile and Saturday nights in New Orleans; OH MY.

Frank D.