OMAHA: My dedication to Marty Brewer.

OMAHA

My Dedication to Marty Brewer

By Mark Filler

December 22, 2023

This website is primarily a sports blog, but sometimes life throws the more important items at you.  So, for those tuning in for sports, and in the words of Juba to Maximus in Gladiator, I will write about sports again…but “not yet.”

This isn’t edited or organized up to my typical standards, so forgive any typos, but this is simply emotion on a page, folks.

A friend of mine died last weekend…at WAY too young of age.  When life throws individual events such as this at someone, everyone handles it differently.  In instances like this, although I have gotten in some more intense and angry boxing workouts this week, I also need to put my words, thoughts, and emotions on paper.  This is not written for anything but an outlet, but with secondary purposes of possibly making people close to Marty, in the words of Jim Valvano, laugh, think and cry.

I was not the closest friend of Marty Brewer.  I was also not the most distant friend.  I won’t pretend to know him the best, but I knew him well enough that the loss of him hurt me quite a bit.  I have felt very empty the last few days.  We built a friendship through work, and spent many, many trips for long hours on the road together…driving through Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Washington, etc. visiting casinos that were clients or might possibly be clients.  I will get back to this in a minute.  Let me provide the rest of the necessary background.

I believe the year was 2015.  Maybe 2016.  This was the year of the experimental “pod” system at Four Winds Interactive.  The idea was to put the Salesperson, the Sales Engineer, and a Solutions Consultant together to provide the maximum level of expertise during the sales process.  I was the salesperson, Robert Kaminski was the engineer, and Marty was the consultant.  It was designed in the way that all three people would visit clients and be on calls so we can cover any single question they might ask and bring forth a united, expert front.  We would make trips with at least one meeting on booked, and visit every other casino within car rental reach during that week to promote business and get deals.  It was quite effective, we were very successful, and we became pretty tight during all of this.

We needed a name.  Why just be a “pod?”  So, after a LOT of back and forth between the three of us, it was determined that we would roll with “Omaha.”  It covered A) the poker game at casinos B) what Peyton used to yell at the line (and that was when it was still popular) and C) the fact that Marty was a HUGE Nebraska Cornhusker fan.  And although the Huskers are in Lincoln, Omaha is still in the state of Nebraska and sounded cool. Easy sell for all of us.  Omaha it was.  We definitely irritated the rest of the office when constantly announcing the presence of Omaha on the floor. 

So, it was hours on end, driving through the middle of nowhere in tribal casino lands, making small talk with each other.  Lots of time to kill in between the casinos, to say the least…and the best of times.  We sold the first enterprise deal at our company, and just walked around the office after saying “don’t worry about anything, we are the people who sold…T.V.”  I am leaving out the full name of the casino as this blog is public.  Rob sat in the back on his PC, and Marty and I provided the front seat entertainment.  Before I skip to some stuff directly related to just Marty, I wanted to add that the end result of this pod was nicknames for each of us (I was Jim, Marty was Rudy, and Rob was Ralph…and ALL for very, very specific and funny reasons we still laughed about for YEARS), and a text thread between us three that continued whether only two of us were on one of these trips, whether we weren’t even at work, and for many years after all three of us exited stage left from Four Winds.  It was still going days before his tragic death.

First, the serious about Marty.

Marty made every conversation and room better.  He was so easygoing, so laid back, that you couldn’t help to have a better day.  His dry wit made you pay attention, his sarcasm was constant and hilarious, his memory on past conversations was like a steel trap, and his new jokes always hit home in a way that made us glad we were in the moment.  And, be on your game, because Marty would call you out on any BS, which we loved.  Omaha would use those jokes for years.  He made every single room and meeting he was in…happier. 

When he talked about his family, he lit up.  I was lucky enough to catch him early in his four child family, and listening to him talk about the family growth was amazing.  He loved his wife, Anne, like people love each other in books and movies.  The exploits of his little ones made him always chuckle.  It was always clear that he was about the good time going on right now and that he was focused, but that he couldn’t wait to get home and totally focus all of his beautiful family.  His attention to the present was on point, and you knew he took that home to his family also.  When someone is present, friends gravitate toward them.  Without a doubt, people gravitated to Marty.

As far as work, it made sense that he worked in customer success.  Who WOULDN’T want to deal with Marty when having to deal with their vendor?  He naturally disarmed people in a room personally, so of course this talent was expressed genuinely professionally too.  His charm extended whether he was in the room with someone or on the phone with them.

He was just a really, really great dude, husband, person, etc.

Now, some miscellaneous notes and stories.

• Nebraska football was extremely important to him, as I mentioned earlier.  The pod would always trade texts during his games, and after a loss, we would always smile as he would write “Nebraska is back.”  This was sarcastic, as they weren’t yet, and not even close.  That was actually my last text from him, and it is sort of weird that Nebraska got the #1 QB recruit from Georgia days after he passed.  As we watch them officially get “back,” know that Marty is cheering from heaven.  Heck, even people who don’t like Nebraska but liked Marty will be rooting for them to be back.
• Music always was a great subject for us on the road. He was in a band earlier in life.  First of all, both of us would never use technology to play songs from our phone.  We would always want to experience whatever local radio stations were jamming out.  Maybe it was a country song neither had heard or liked.  Maybe it was a random talk show.  Sometimes, it was all static, and we would have to make our own music.  One time in the middle of nowhere in California, we used the various noises our co-workers made subconsciously around us in the office into a full on rap and beat box.  More hilarious that our music tastes differed slightly, but we met in the middle.  Rob never chimed in on what he wanted to hear.  We would always ask him what he was doing.  He always said “Live Data.”
• If a work deal looked sketchy for the year, or if a conversation was ending, he would say “See you in (whatever year was next).”  That also ended a lot of text threads.  It was the funny catch-all that indicated throwing in the towel.
• When he had an idea of what to do next, he would happily say “Hey guys…”  A brilliantly bad or good idea usually followed.  We would more than likely do whatever idea came out of his mouth.
• We drove through California and found Yolo County.  He liked the word.  We started using it however possible.    Instead of saying hello to us moving forward for years, he would say “Yolo.”  It could also be used as a synonym for “heck yeah” or “bullseye” or “goodbye.”  It was sort of like his “aloha.”
• Rob and I would meet in a conference room late on Fridays to do weekend bets.  He would join us…partly because it looked better that the pod be together but more because he wanted to throw sarcasm on all of our bet ideas.  And ask why we weren’t betting on Nebraska.  This would also occur on the text thread, where we usually got a “Yolo” or “Nebraska is Back.”
• We would meet for drinks.  Full-priced drinks were “drinks” and happy hour or free booze was always “frinks.”  This was also the name for searches for places that had drinks…frinks.  Discounted drinks were “cheap drinks,” not to be confused with “frinks.”
• He always had stories that played into his admission that he was sort of a nerd, but to us the stories obviously indicated that he was the cool guy.  He was a cool HUMBLE guy.
• Years after we separated, with me the only one still selling to casinos, I could tell him a name of a casino I visited or talked to, and he would name the contact that we went and visited.  Steel trap.
• When Marty first started working at Four Winds, we were on the Gaming Team, and I had a California trade show planned.  He was assigned to go with me.  I told him that since we were landlocked here in Denver, I wanted to jump in the ocean before we got to the work part of trip.  Without pause, he said yes.  We landed in San Diego, drove to Pacific Beach, changed into swimsuits, jumped into the ocean for 15 minutes, dried off, and got into the car and drove to the host casino for the trade show an hour away.
• We were at a restaurant across the street from our Best Western called the Dirty Donkey in CA, where we had some “big” beers and dinner with Rob.  Rob went to bed.  Marty and I walked back over, and the bartender was cleaning the bar.  We helped her clean the bar, and she gave us a ride to the only other place open at 10pm.  Down the road.  We rode in the backseat with her dog, Dale Earnhardt.  We talked about “big beers,” the “dirty donkey” and adjective animal bars, and Dale Earnhardt for years to come.
• I was driving from one casino to another north of Sacramento.  Since we had time to kill before a meeting, we drove around the WHOLE lake…just because.  It was mostly his idea,  he would say it was my idea, and neither person had objections to the 90 minute detour.
• He would text us when he was at soccer practice, some of his favorite times on the weekend.  He always talked about how he had to focus because they needed to go undefeated again.  He would say, “hey guys, I am at soccer practice” in the middle of Rob and I’s betting texts.
• We headed to Vegas many times.  He sometimes wanted to head to this dive bar, Starboard Tack.  When we went, although he only was related to one person there, EVERYONE came up and hugged him.  His positive presence had already been felt previously.  He was right.  The place was great.
• He moved out of the neighborhood I currently am in.  We switched places.  Immediately when I moved, he said “You have to go to Billy’s.  That was my spot.”  When we met up to have drinks during the past years, it is frequently where we met up.  And, I wish I would have snuck one or a million more of those meet ups there in before last weekend.
• Omaha even all met up in CA for the USMNT match against Mexico years ago.  Good times were had.
• He was a fitness machine.  He was always in the gym when we were on the road when it wasn’t work or fun.  Fun was fun, but when it came to staying in shape, he separated church and state.  That is what makes this hurt even more, of course. 
• Presentations. NO fear. Marty had no fear for any presentation. Marty helped me write and got up with me on a presentation one time in front of the whole sales team about how a casino’s pool size should not be indicative of what type of customer they would be, even though him and I were constantly searching for casinos with Lazy Rivers and big pools for downtime.
• I was car shopping years ago. I was looking at many different sports utility vehicles. Marty said “I have a similar year 4Runner, and I like it.” That was good enough for me. I stopped looking at other vehicles and still have that 2005 4Runner I purchased. If it was good enough for Marty, it was good enough for me.

I could go on and on and on for stories, but just wanted to share a few that popped in my mind.  They might not be the best stories, but ALL stories involving Marty’s presence were good to some degree.

I just started writing this without a real plan, and as I look back on this, I realize that Marty was the perfect balance of all of the good things you want in a person.  Relaxed, focused, personal, funny, smart, good-natured, giving, selfless, humble, respectful, patient, dependable, etc.  I could go on and on and on with adjectives about him too.  Anyone who came in contact with him would agree with my microcosm of the part of his life that I knew him.  He probably had a steel trap memory for all different jokes for all of his other friends too.  Yolo was probably something else for others for all I know.  Sometimes people talk about a likeable person.  He was beyond that. 

I never met anyone who had a brief interaction with him who didn’t talk the world of him.  In our work pod, sometimes he was the person who brought the deal in during his late interactions with the client.  My boss always said no one bought stuff from someone they didn’t like.  Well, he was the most likeable part of the pod, hands down.  I probably owe him a LOT of my deals.

I think the fact that he elevated a room like he did could teach as ALL something.  And the fact that he left behind his loved family at such a young age should make us go home and hug our loved ones immediately along with cherishing every single day a little more.  He left his wife and four beautiful children and that just hurts us all. 

Marty/Rudy, I will miss you more than you know.  Hearing the news crushed me in a way.  Our time in Omaha were some of my favorite work times in life ever.  But, as all of the people who met you would say, I was glad to share a part of your life.  You were great at home, work, friends, and life.  You left a positive imprint on this world that you can’t imagine.  And I plan on pivoting my life in a way reflective of you in many ways.  Rest in peace, bud.

Wait.  Yolo.  Marty would want me to end this on a joke, regardless of how I think it should end.  So, I will combine a joke and serious thought and reference his last text to me. “Nebraska is Back.”  Maybe they are moving forward.  But, I wish Marty is Back.

Thanks for allowing me to express my thoughts, and thoughts and prayers to the family.