JCC 2016 Celebrity Deadpool (Congratulations Ramza!)

As a big football fan, I can say the one huge dilemma facing the sport is how it reconciles long term brain damage sustained over years with fans insatiable appetite for hits and tackles. They can't be reconciled really.
But they're already seriously considering doing away with kickoffs in the NFL and just placing the ball at a spot on the field(as most leg injuries occur during those types of plays), but it still doesn't address the CTE issue.

I'm a Seattle Seahawk fan and one of their best up special teams and WRs, Ricardo Lockette, had his career end this past season during a kickoff return when he was hit and suffered spinal cord damage. He was lucky to walk away with his life. If he had been rolled over on when he fell, as often happens after you're hit and players cover you to keep you from getting back up, he could have died on the field. It was that close.

One day it may actually look like flag football. The public will demand it or it will die.

edit:

Now let me say: RIP ALI. A great humanitarian who broke down barriers and showed you could be a true champion by turning your high profile into a platform for a greater good.

 

I don't think a responsible parent can encourage their kids to play football. Hopefully no one under the age of 18 is boxing, but yeah I'd ban those sports if I could. I don't watch boxing, and I never will.

 

The only position I wouldn't have an issue with for my kids is a place kicker or punter. But those types of plays are facing greater scrutiny as the returners and cover players face greater risk of injury.

I used to watch boxing way back in the Tyson days until he made his comeback and bit part of Evander Holyfields ears off….twice!

It's a corrupt sport on top of everything else.

Ali's bouts with Frazier are blamed for helping speed his debilitating condition post-retirement. They were brutal.

 

Ali's battle with Shavers and his "fight" with Holmes did a remarkable amount of damage. He was in awful shape for the bout against Holmes, being on a "medication" that placed him in danger of dying from heat stroke, and dealing with the beginnings of Parkinson's on top of that (along with the general problems of being an older fighter in a young man's sport). Holmes is said to have held back some at times, but still delivered the worst beating of Ali's career.

 

Yes, it was Holmes I was specifically thinking of being brutal, not Frazier(although those were bad too). But yeah, it is the Holmes fight that is often cited as the really bad one. He really should've retired after beating Frazier the third time.

edit: I incorrectly said Ali beating Frazier the second time. That was his THIRD time in the Thrilla in Manila. I forgot the in-between non title bout between Fight of the Century and Manila.

 

Manila should definitely have been the end. It would have been a tremendous way to go out, right up there with Jordan's last-second shot (greater still, if such a thing is possible). Of course, some of the same things that made them transcendent are what drew both of them back for more.

 

Exactly. You can't have that kind of drive and just switch it off for "legacy" or whatever. That's not how life works when you're in a moment. You want to keep going. There are exceptions but people usually burn out not go out with a bang.

 

I am happy to actively encourage my kids to play football.
That being said, I'm British and we play football with our feet.




In other news Brian May was trending on Twitter a moment ago and I panicked for a moment

 

For anyone wanting to see some of the very best pictures made of Ali, look at Gordon Parks' work. He made my personal favorite, which can be seen here:

http://www.gordonparksfoundation.org/archive/muhammad-ali-1966-1970#2

 

I'm not a fan of that crop.



That's the actual picture.

 

Depending on who you ask, it's either the picture above or the one of Ali standing over Liston that's the best sports picture made in the 20th century (the picture of Orr flying and the Miracle on Ice picture seem to consistently place just below). Both are Leifer's. Leifer is no doubt visible somewhere in this picture, and in looking closely at it, I'm betting he's the man in blue on the top left part of the ring. One hand's on what looks to be a Rolleiflex, the other is triggering the overhead camera. The balding man further down (three white shirts from the bottom of the row) is the senior SI photographer, and he's visible between Liston's legs in Leifer's picture of Ali in 1965.

 

Gordie Howe has passed away at age 88.

 

Awwww crap.

 

We've gone from legendary musicians to legendary athletes.

 

Something tells me Bill Russell will be next, then.

 

Just saw the news about Howe on the BBC website..RIP..

 

I loved Gordie Howe in Foul Play with Chevy Chase.

R.I.P. you will be missed!

 

Gordie Howe story. I worked in a mall, wore a suit, we did not have a bathroom for our store so i went to a basement level mall bathroom. Came back up an escalator and turned left and on my right a group of men were walking right next to me all dressed up. Around a corner we go and a seated crowd stands and starts to cheer at us. "What the hell?" I look to my right and an arm length away is Gordie Howe and his security. I just drifted off to the left and let them pass.

 

Fat dude from PM Dawn.

 

Actress Ann Morgan Guilbert at age 87. Amongst other roles (and for those old enough to remember), she played the neighbor Millie on the old Dick Van Dyke show.