In death, King of Pop touches another generation

Alright, I have come to the conclusion that legends never die.
For a short span of time, all of us have the opportunity to walk this planet and make our own footprint that future generations can live by.
A lot of our efforts go unnoticed to nearly the rest of this world's inhabitants over seven continents separated by the four great oceans. But each generation has their own group of people who earn the attention of everyone, lending their lives as a lesson of what you can do, and in isolated cases what should best be left alone.
Always able to make a football comparison even when we're still out of season, the quarterback position is often the most scrutinized position in professional sports. For a long time, however, the man under center was primarily used as a channel from the center's snap to the gut of a running back.
Football hall of famer Johnny Unitas changed all of that, becoming a coach on the field. Sometimes overruling his head coach on the sideline, Unitas revolutionized the game through precision passing and knowing what every offensive player is supposed to do on any single play.
Playing in Baltimore, Unitas played for the hometown Colts, the beloved franchise of Maryland's largest city from 1953-83. The team would leave that year to move to Indianapolis, keeping their nickname but not necessarily their history.
Cue Peyton Manning. The current Colts quarterback is often compared to Unitas, who passed away in 2002, primarily for his knowledge of the game and being a coach on the field of play.
Manning and other quarterbacks give Unitas a lot of credit for his contribution to how the game is currently played, and for that the ol' school gunslinger is considered by some to be the greatest of all time.
But enough about football, music seems to bridge generations.
As a child, we would listen to old choir hymns or listen to a little bit of jazz or R&B, as my parents tried to shelter me from rap/hip-hop for years, that is until they figured they had no way to keep it from getting to my hands.
But one person we could all agree on was Michael Jackson.
I can still remember watching 'Thriller' for the first time when I was five years-old, and being scared of the video and wondering whether these unearthly beings were hiding under my bed.
At that age you soak in any and everything put before you, so of course I ate it up. There were times where me and my cousin Erica would sneak into her father's secret stash of albums, which include the likes of The Temptations, Smokie Robinson and numerous others.
Even though as we became older our appreciation grew for the music of the 1950s and 60s, but the 'King of Pop' just left us in awe. For that reason, those albums seemed to collect dust on my uncle's shelf during the 1980s, while Jackson's 'Thriller,' 'Bad,' and 'Dangerous' stayed in heavy rotation.
Even though you probably didn't know many of the other words after your first time listening, you still tried your best to sing along to 'Beat It,' 'Billie Jean,' 'Dirty Diana,' or my favorite 'Smooth Criminal' (Eddie are you OK, Eddie are you OK, are you OK Eddie... simply classic).
This man seemed immortal, or 'Invincible,' the name he gave his final album seven years ago.
But as we know, this earthly body is not meant to live forever.
Realization Jackson had passed away came for me by way of Twitter, as me and millions of others all tried to sift through every bit of information being reported by media outlets like the Los Angeles Times, E! News and everyone's favorite, TMZ.
A piece of my childhood and that of others, was gone ... or was it?
Through this man's life, we bore witness to one of the greatest musicians to ever live, and in death the 'King of Pop' has affected another generation, doing exactly what he did his entire career — sell records. In weeks after his passing, Jackson has sold more than 2 million albums worldwide, in essence helping him dig out of the massive debt he left when he died.
Jackson also showed us the vulnerable nature of being famous. With the world as his audience for nearly his entire life, allegations of inappropriate and bizarre conduct sometimes circled around him.
Even in the weeks following his death, people are still trying to reconstruct the days and hours leading up to his final moments, the Jackson family and the rest of the world wondering what happened.
I guess it's the way Elvis Presley's family felt in the weeks following his death in 1977. Similar to Jackson, rumors have circulated in the 30-plus years since 'the King' passed.
But as he did when he rocked stages coast to coast, Presley remains a topic of conversation, with some of you (you know who you are) believing he's still waiting for the right time for a farewell tour.
With a large catalog of music and a life of achievement and controversy to his credit, its likely Jackson will have a similar impact for years to come.