Brady in PB

We took the #30 down from our AirBnB to Cass Street in Pacific Beach where we would find Latitude 32, a semi-dive, semi-surfer bar we’d frequented with much joy several years ago.  Latitude 32 came out as “lotta dudes” to point out few females frequented the bar.  Seeking to embellish a tease text to my friends Jason and Eric, I asked the blonde somewhat rough bartender where the surfboard signed by once-Michigan coach Brady Hoke might be.   Legend was he’d left one behind upon leaving San Diego for Michigan.  Brady had been a successful and much beloved coach of SDSU before he took the Michigan job. He was apparently a regular at Latitude 32 (and continues to be).  The bartender brought out Willie the owner who told me there was no surfboard, but pointed me to the Brady-signed flags of both SDSU and Michigan displayed on the ceiling.  The latter was generated even before Brady went north, someone bringing in a Michigan flag and pointing out Brady’s heart had always been in Michigan, which it had been ever since he was an assistant coach there including d-line for the 1997 national championship squad.  Brady had successful stops at his alma mater Ball State and then SDSU before Michigan, where an 11-2 and Sugar Bowl championship season where everything went right dissolved into mediocre and then losing seasons when teams seemed unprepared and their losing informationally headwear-eschewing coach uninvolved.   Fired in November 2015 to be replaced by sainted son still prepared for greatness Jim Harbaugh, Brady slunk off with his big buyout and a few NFL assistant’s gigs to emerge in San Diego, where Willie says he’s been appearing, trimmed down,  for quite a while.  Just last week, Brady signed a 5 year deal to coach SDSU in what he says is his destination job. He hopes to put another flag on the ceiling of Latitude 32, where he shows up 3 times a week and per Willie can ably pour a beer as guest bartender.  We in Michigan wish him well, always loving the big bear of a man with a boundless love of Michigan who unfortunately turned out to be a not so good coach for us.  After the first round of Brady-lore, Willie returned to tell me of the time shortly after Brady left for Michigan when he bought a snow shovel and had all the employees and regulars sign it as a memento they sent up to Brady.  Here was a man much loved.  May he return to glory with the Aztecs and toast his many victories at Latitude 32.  Our kind of dude, Brady.