It's 111 miles from Iowa City to Parkersburg, Iowa, but sometimes the two places seem a lot closer. Today there's no distance whatsoever. Ed Thomas, legendary coach of the Aplington-Parkersburg High School Falcons, was shot and killed by one of his former players Wednesday morning.While Thomas sent his players to a wide variety of colleges and other walks of life, the connections between Aplington-Parkersburg and the University of Iowa go deep. Countless Falcons have gone on to become Hawkeyes; several of those players have made the leap to the NFL. The list includes Green Bay's Aaron Kampman, Detroit's Jared DeVries, and Denver's Casey Wiegmann. That's not bad for a pair of towns whose population adds up to less than 3,000 people.
As might be expected, many of Coach Thomas's former players feel a great loss. Some of Thomas's best-known players have shared their feelings -- as best as they can -- with the world.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 
