My take - the fact that people die everyday takes on a different meaning as a person ages and you start knowing more dead people than living ones. In the relatively short history of wildly popular professional sports, aging athletes makes death a relatively new prominent star.
But he doesn't just focus on Flip. Reread it if you think he does. He points out how death was front and central of some big sports stories this year from Lauren Hill to Ernie Banks to JP Parise.
Have you seen the adds for the new movie 'Concussion'? Reusse sees the writing on the wall regarding football, and Fred McNeill's early departure due to ALS and dementia may be due to head trauma. How many more? We won't know until they're dead. The family of Frank Gifford says signs of the degenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy were found in his brain after his death. This can only be diagnosed by port mortem autopsy - I know that sounds redundant, but the facts are coming out one death at a time.
So personally, I like it. Naming a Turkey every year is already lame, so saying something meaningful instead is appreciated by me.