Besides being one of those people who always left you smiling–unless you were Howard Cosell during Meredith’s second stint on Monday Night Football– “Dandy” Don Meredith ( a name he never much liked) was a man born to shatter stereotypes. Anyone who thinks that all pro athletes are narrow, dim neanderthals who would be selling vinyl siding if they were not playing ball should read this nice farewell from Texas sports scribe Gary Cartwright, who, belatedly manning up, admits that he and his fellow media bloodhounds were hugely unfair to Meredith during his days as a Dallas Cowboy. And here’s more on Meredith’s choppy relationship with Tom Landry (he once told Landry to “slide the game plan under his hotel room door”) and with Cosell, one of the earth’s more unpleasant people.