[
victoryjournal.com]
The diver was running out of air. With renewed fear, he began tearing at the mask of the frogman. Bubbles spewed madly from the diver’s mouth like exhaust from a burning engine ... The frogman hung suspended in the water above the convulsing man as he sank, an eerie apparition dispassionately observing a painful death.
The murder described above is taken from Tim Green’s 1998 mystery novel, Red Zone, the story of the owner of a fictional pro football team who is killed in Florida’s coastal waters by an assailant in scuba gear. Among the most obvious suspects is his younger, beautiful wife who stands to inherit his team.
A student of pro football history likely will recognize the contours of this narrative: While swimming in Golden Beach, Florida, in 1979, 72-year-old Los Angeles Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom was caught in a particularly vicious riptide, and during his struggle for safety, suffered a heart attack and drowned. One might also recognize the allusion to Carroll’s younger, beautiful wife Georgia who would inherit his team.
