Three Yards and a Cloud of Grandpa

EPISODE 195: We enlist in sports' war over ashes.

We are living during the era of Peak Cremation.

Within five years, the National Funeral Directors Association estimates, 75% of Americans will be cremated, up from the 35% we’re ashing ourselves at now.

And we found one July 2024 study from Choice Mutual — an agency specializing in final-expense insurance for seniors — which quantified what sports franchises everywhere have already felt: that cremated Americans, across 11 states, most wish to turn their favorite sports venue into their final resting place.

It’s quietly gotten to the point that our nation’s arenas, rinks, fields, and tracks have been trying very hard to deter such scatterings from ever happening.

Luckily, we here at PTFO knew the right correspondent to help us enter such an eternal fray: our official death correspondent, Dave Fleming (last seen visiting a diehard Cowboys fan on death row, in Texas, in November).

Together, we went on a journey that took us from a Colorado Avalanche fan named Ryan, who got banned for fulfilling his best friend’s last wish; to the business of exploding golf balls; to a widow named Edna — in Sebring, Florida — who entrusted PTFO with one of the greatest responsibilities imaginable:

Her husband.

DKN/YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Forever,

Pablo