Howard “Red” Lindsay will be missed on football Friday nights

Football season won’t be the same.

Neither will the lives of the many who knew and loved Howard “Red” Lindsay.

Mr. Lindsay, a Jefferson Parish police officer for 38 years, left behind a tremendous legacy. He was a loving Father to three, Grandfather to nine and great Grandfather to 15.

On a sweltering Sunday afternoon, inside of a funeral home on Airline Drive, not far from a school that he loved very much, his daughter Donna gave him an endorsement that every Dad craves.

“He was my hero.”

I got to know Red Lindsay through football. For 33 years, he and his sidekick Craig Gardner were the police escort for the John Curtis football team.

At every Curtis game, it was a tradition. You had to say hello to Red and Craig.

Truth be told, Craig and I loved to give Red a hard time. He would give it right back to us. And then laugh.

I didn’t know this, but at his funeral service, his friends told me that he and Bette , his wife of 58 years, loved to dance and cut up.

I was not surprised. Not one bit. Red and Bette were a couple if there ever was one.

Bette passed four days after her husband.

Red Lindsay saved me on more than one occasion.

One night, we were getting ready for our Friday Night Football show, a John Curtis playoff game at Joe Yenni Stadium was running late. I told the staff to prepare to start the show without our co-host JT Curtis.

About 20 minutes later, as I went to the restroom to put on my TV makeup, JT was changing his shirt.

All I could do was laugh.

Red Lindsay had come to the rescue again.

Over the years, the games frankly become a blur. Sure, there are those that standout.

But those Friday nights are about the people. They are about the police officers that escort the teams. The officials, who despite the constant complaining, officiate games because they just want to give back to something they love.

Friday nights are about the ticket takers and the stadium announcers. They are about the video guys, who in 90 degree heat and 40 degree chill, stand in a little box atop the stadium, and video the game so the coaches can watch it the same night.

Friday nights for me are about men like Red Lindsay, who wouldn’t think of being anywhere else but on the sideline, watching his John Curtis Patriots play football.

Red’s family was his life, but his adopted family was never far behind.