An NFL player for the Minnesota Vikings paid tribute to Alex Trebek following the longtime Jeopardy! host’s death on November 8th. During the Vikings’ Monday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears, wide receiver Adam Thielsen wore customized cleats featuring Trebek’s likeness with an angel’s halo over his head. The white-and-gold footwear included a blue Adidas logo with Trebek’s name written underneath. In a blue box resembling the famous player screen from Final Jeopardy, Thielsen wrote: “We Will Miss You Alex” with a $19,000 wager reflecting his jersey’s No. 19. Artist/designer Mache, who created the custom job for Thielsen, shared up-close photos of the cleats to Twitter, which you can see below.
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“For #MNF pregame tonight my guy @athielen19 will be honoring the legend Alex Trebek who passed last week,” he tweeted. “I feel like no matter where you were from I feel like Jeopardy was a part of all of our lives in some way. #skol.”
For #MNF pregame tonight my guy @athielen19 will be honoring the legend Alex Trebek who passed last week. I feel like no matter where you were from I feel like Jeopardy was a part of all of our lives in some way. 🙏 #skol pic.twitter.com/1itrgOM4M8
— Mache- that guy who does the artwork on the shoes. (@MACHE275) November 16, 2020
Trebek died at the age of 80 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He’d been the host of Jeopardy! since the game show’s revival in 1984, winning seven Daytime Emmy Awards for his work on the series. His final taped show will air on Christmas Day.
Trebek received his diagnosis in March 2019. In March, he discussed the emotional ups and downs of living with it.
“Now I’d be lying if I said the journey had been an easy one,” Trebek previously shared in a video update. “There were some good days but a lot of not-so-good days. I joked with friends that the cancer won’t kill me, the chemo treatments will. There were moments of great pain, days when certain bodily functions no longer functioned and sudden, massive attacks of great depression that made me wonder if it really was worth fighting on. But I brushed that aside quickly because that would have been a massive betrayal – a betrayal of my wife and soulmate, Jean, who has given her all to help me survive. It would have been a betrayal of other cancer patients who have looked to me as an inspiration and a cheerleader of sorts, of the value of living and hope, of my faith in God and the millions of prayers that have been said on my behalf.”
Saturday Night Live used to feature Trebek as a recurring character played by Will Ferrell. The comedy show honored Trebek after his death by sharing a clip where the real Trebek crashed one of the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches.
