Back in the day, I was a huge boxing fan. Growing up, my friends and I had to be called the fans of Muhammad Ali. He came to prominence in the early 1960s and was the champion until the U.S. Government stripped him of his title later in the decade. Also, for decades, boxing was a very important sport. Champions were heroes, villains, instruments of social change and strife. Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, all the way until the time of Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, boxing, especially in the heavyweight ranks, was a part of the fabric of America.
I was a big part of that fan base; that is, until the Indignant Wife came along. She hates boxing, and as a result, I no longer watch boxing avidly. Also, I think, the rise of mixed martial arts, driven by the newness, and also by martial arts movies and popularity. I think also that there aren’t as compelling fighters these days. Back in the 1960s through 1990s, the fighters were celebrities, appearing on television and in movies regularly. You don’t see that anymore.
With the possible exception of the Floyd Mayweather/Manny Pacquiao fight. Mayweather has been a force on the bowing scene for a very long time. He is undefeated as a professional, having won ten world titles, and has won championships in 5 different divisions: super featherweight, lightweight, light welterweight, welterweight, and light middleweight. He has used his skills as he’s aged and gained weight, moving up and beating all comers.
Pacquiao is no novice, having held titles in six weight classes. And while Mayweather has gotten into trouble numerous times for domestic violence issues; Pacquiao is an icon in the Philippines. He is a member of Congress there; he makes records, and movies. He is a national hero.
Fight fans have pushed for this fight for 7-8 years, and in 2009, negotiations came close to having a fight between the men, but after much back and forth, the fight never occurred, and millions of dollars never spent. This may be the final huge payday for both men, and no one ever wants to leave money on the table.
It seems like, out of the blue, the negotiations heated up last year and suddenly, a fight appeared. Why did this suddenly happen? Mayweather is 38 years old, much closer to the end of a career than the beginning, The same can be said for Pacquiao is 36, and this fight has long had the possibility to be the highest grossing fight in history. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on this fight: live in Las Vegas, and mostly at $100 a pop for pay-per-view. In this way, the fight falling through six years ago may have helped make a big money fight even bigger. This is the most clamored for fight probably since Tyson-Holyfield.
The reason that I am writing this is that this fight finally happens this weekend, and I had no idea until I watched ESPN SportsCenter this morning. I knew it was coming, but I didn’t realize it was this weekend. A much younger me would have known and either would buy the fight and invited people over, or be invited to a friend’s house to do the same. But the older me won’t be watching; if its truly a great fight, I might watch a replay or tape the replay, but the Indignant Family isn’t into it (although both the Indignant Wife and the Indignant older daughter do like hockey fights, which I can’t understand why daddy can’t watch boxing).
As you get older, time seems to move much faster, As a kid, summers went on forever; winters were very long; the time spent waiting for your birthday or Christmas seemed interminable. Now, however, time rushes by like spaceships in science fiction movies. So, I guess I’m surprised that the fight is so soon, but for fight enthusiasts, it seems like this fight would never happen.
I do hope it’s one for the ages.

I grew up a fan of the Chicago Bears. My earliest memory was watching the 1965 Bears with rookies Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers starting their Hall of Fame careers. But there was anotehr rookie on that team too – Doug Buffone.
Buffone played for 15 seasons as a linebacker, and his steady play allowed Butkus to roam free in the middle. Buffone was the cover linebacker mostly, but I do remember Buffone and Butkus blitzing in 1965 or so meeting at Los Angles Rams QB Roman Gabriel. I though Gabriel was going to a hospital or morgue.
In his career Buffone racking up more than 1,200 tackles and going over the 100-tackle mark in seven seasons. Buffone retired in 1980 with 24 career interceptions to lead all Bear linebackers. The first two pickoffs of his career came off future Hall of Famers Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas.
In recent years, Buffone hosted a Bears postgame radio on 670 AM with Ed O’Bradovich. I had the opportunity to meet Buffone a couple of times. He was very nice to me, especially when The Sportswriters were still on the air.
He will be missed.

Long time readers know that I’m no fan of marathon running. Besides inconviencing millions of residents to satisfy up to 100,000 runners, someone often dies running these things, and in my opinion, people who run 5-10 miles at a time look much healthier than people pushing the limit. Now, there’s the issue of cheating – not PEDs, but not running the race at all.
I guess we’ve all considered showing up at mile 24 at a marathon and just jumping in a starting to run. Unless you are one of the top Kenyans and other marathon runners, it would be easy to blend into the crowd and say that you finished near the top. But there’s always the urge to take it one step too far, like winning the whole race.
So, we have the case of Kendall Schler. On April 12th, Ms. Schler was declared the winner of this year’s St. Louis Marathon, which would include an automatic invitation to today’s Boston Marathon. However, the authorities stripped her of her title when it was discovered that she
came onto the course at the last checkpoint to cross the finish line before anyone else.
She is believed to have slipped onto the course after the last checkpoint in an attempt to fool race officials into believing she ran the entire 26.2 miles. Officials said that Schler did not register any times on the route, and that a review of last year’s marathon photos failed to turn up images of her on the course. As a result, her times have been erased, her spot in Boston vacated and she will no longer be allowed to run in the local organization’s events.
Schler received a third-place finish in last year’s St. Louis Marathon which allowed her to qualify for this year’s Boston Marathon, but I don’t think she was allowed to run today. St. Louis president Nancy Lieberman told the press that she had a conversation with Schler saying that there was no evidence to show that she ran the full marathon length in either of the last two years. Fortunately, St. Louis figured things out and was able to give Andrea Karl, the rightful winner, the victory that she originally thought she had earned anyway.
Ms. Schler isn’t the first person who has tried to cheat to win a marathon. In 2010, the Chicago Tribune noted that 252 runners were disqualified from the previous year’s Chicago Marathon after missing at least two consecutive timing mats. She might have gotten away with it if she hadn’t pushed that she had won. Like speeding on the highway, if you blend in with other cars, you are less likely to be stopped than the car that is pulling away from everyone else.
With 26.2 miles to cover, it would be relatively easy to pop into the race at some point and just start running; especially near the end of the race when the people who have actually run the previous 20+ miles are concentrating on finishing the race, not concerned with others around them.
One funny thing, since the Boston Marathon bombing two years ago, with all of the electronic security used to keep everyone safe, it is probably harder to cheat than ever before.

As many implied (myself included), it appears that we were right when we surmised that the San Francisco 49ers and former Coach Jim Harbaugh had tired of each other. However, we thought it was just Harbaugh and the front office, especially GM Trent Baalke. It turns out that the players had enough of Harbaugh at the end.
Harbaugh, now head football coach at his alma mater, the University of Michigan is the subject of a segment on this week’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO and the piece reportedly includes a telling interview with San Francisco 49ers guard Alex Boone. The story is hosted by Andrea Kremer and according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, these are some of Boone’s comments (quoted by Bleacher Report):
“He does a great job of giving you that spark, that initial boom. But after a while, you just want to kick his ass. … He just keeps pushing you, and you’re like, ‘Dude, we got over the mountain. Stop. Let go.’ He kind of wore out his welcome.
I think he just pushed guys too far. He wanted too much, demanded too much, expected too much. You know, ‘We gotta go out and do this. We gotta go out and do this. We gotta go out and do this.’ And you’d be like, ‘This guy might be clinically insane. He’s crazy.’ … I think that if you’re stuck in your ways enough, eventually people are just going to say, ‘Listen, we just can’t work with this.’”
However, Boone said that none of the players tried to get Harbaugh fired.
Harbaugh is known for his intensity and competitiveness, which did turn into wins at Stanford and a Super Bowl appearance with the 49ers. His presence and style made San Francisco particularly difficult to prepare for on a weekly basis, as Jen Floyd Engel of Fox Sports noted. “This type of personality is intensely difficult to deal with and wickedly dangerous to coach against, especially in a league where increasingly too many coach not to lose, coach not to be fired, coach what is safe, coach what is easily defensible,” Engel writes.
I think that the old hard driving coach is a thing of the past. To me, the poster boy for the tough coach isn’t Mike Ditka, but hockey’s Mike Keenan. He was one of the toughest coaches to play for in the NHL, winning a Stanley Cup with the Rangers, but the Rangers did not win again under Keenan. He led the Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup final, but the teams got tired of his tyrannical act and stopped producing. This is the stereotypical case of “losing the team.”
However, college players are still boys in many ways, and won’t be as apt to tune Harbaugh out. Besides, they can leave school early either for the NFL or transfer to another school if Harbaugh gets to be too much.
Still, I can foresee the day that hyper-driven Harbaugh and equally hyper-driver Ohio State Head Coach Urban Meyer meeting at midfield for a handshake and the two start punching, biting, and kicking each other. That would be more exciting than the game…

Back when I was working as a bank examiner, we traveled extensively, going from bank to bank each week. The other examiners became your friends and comrades, but, this being the 1980s, sports was something passionately followed, and, other drinks argued about.
Back then, I was still a rabid NBA fan and I had always loved the Lakers from the Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Gail Goodrich days; and when I was at Northwestern, I got to see Magic Johnson play. So, when he was drafted by the Lakers (after the Bulls lost a coin toss for the first overall pick), it was a player I followed in college at one of my favorite teams.
Of course, there was his main rival – Larry Bird, and I always hated the Celtics because they were White America’s team: they always drafted the best white boy available and of course, the sour taste of the riots against school integration still were firmly in the front of our minds back then. Even the black players they did have were ultra clean cut (little did we know of the racial problems even the greats like Bill Russell and K.C. Jones had to face in Boston.)
Anyway, one of my coworkers was a Celtics fan, and he and I would have long arguments over the teams back then. While they never got physical, they were quite heated, especially at bars with Celtic/Laker finals games on. Sometimes, other examiners would just tell us to go back to our rooms and go to bed.
I thought about that when I read about a similar argument. Last weekend, an argument erupted in Pennslyvania over whether Michael Jordan or LeBron James is a better basketball player. Daniel Mondelice, 22, was first arrested early Saturday on aggravated assault and other charges after fighting with another man over whether Air Jordan or King James was better. It wasn’t clear on whose side Mondelice was on.
However, when you get your dander up, it is hard to clam down (or this kid really has some anger management issues). Mondelice was released on bond and told not to return to the bar. Instead, he went to stay with a woman at another apartment, but police were called there later Saturday night when they say Mondelice became argumentative and refused to leave. It’s not clear what that argument was about. Online court records show Mondelice remained jailed Monday and was unable to post bail.
Fortunately, with age comes wisdom; I know much better not to get into such arguments. Especially since everyone knows that Jordan is the best to ever play.

Well, the time is up and the Chicago Cubs have brought up hitting phenom Kris Bryant. Bryant had eight home runs in Spring training, and everyone put Theo Epstein and the Cubs down for starting the season with Bryant in the minors in order to take advantage of a clause in the collective bargaining agreement that by leaving him off the roster for two week, the Cubs get to retain Bryant for one more year. Bryant’s agent, the detestable Scott Boras, union leadership, deluded Cub fans, and Bryant himself all derided the decision, with Boras complaining that the Cubs didn’t want to win.
The Cubs are 5-3, tied for first place in the NL Central in this young season and now Bryant will be in the lineup. Will he continue his torrid hitting or will he flame out like so many “can’t miss” prospects do? Will the young man be able to handle the pressure and the expectations of being in the spotlight at 23 years of age?
His chance starts today at Wrigley Field (also known as The Big Dig). Cub fans will be pumped; the eyes of baseball, ESPN, and everyone will be watching. Scott Boras will hopefully be somewhere gagged.

When you hear or read a statistic that no one challenges, if you are a writer, you tend not to challenge it either, especially if you don’t have the time or resources to do your own research. And I’m not talking about Fox News, The Drudge Report or the other propaganda/lies/made up stories passed off as news, I’m talking about Sports Illustrated.
The quote I refer to is that that “by the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.” This has been repeated many times, and I have used it here and in conversation, but perhaps we were all wrong.
A new study written by authors from Cal Tech, George Washington University and the University of Washington found that while the number of former NFL players filing for bankruptcy protection is high, it’s not as high as previously reported. This report says that nearly 16 percent of former players end up filing for bankruptcy within a dozen years of retiring, and that career earnings and the length of a player’s career had little impact on whether they will end up broke. Star players are just as likely to file for bankruptcy as those who spent most of their time on the bench.
“Having played for a long time and been well paid does not provide much protection against the risk of going bankrupt,” wrote the study’s authors. There have been a number of high profile NFL players who have filed for bankruptcy over the years like Hall of Fame defensive tackle Warren Sapp, Pro Bowl wide receiver Andre Rison and Pro Bowl quarterback Mark Brunell. Sapp made more than $50 million during his career, according to salary tracker Spotrac, but filed for bankruptcy in 2012, within five years of his final game.
The study says that players should be able to save enough money they make during what they know will be a relatively short career so that they’ll be financially secure when the paychecks stop. But many engage in risky investments and begin “rapidly drawing down limited savings” soon after they finish playing.
Still, instead of the gargantuan 78% number cited by SI, the study found about 2% file for bankruptcy within two years of their career ending, and that rate climbs steadily to nearly 16% within 12 years before leveling off. The study’s authors tracked players drafted by NFL teams from 1996 to 2003.
The current NFL minimum salary is $435,000 a year for a rookie and $970,000 for a player with nine or more years in the league, but NFL contracts are not guaranteed the way they are in Major League Baseball or the National Basketball Association, meaning if a player is cut he can lose most of the money promised to him. (This is the reason why there is much talk about the “guaranteed portion” of a player’s contract because this is the minimum amount of money a player will collect.) Plus with the shorter average playing career and the potential for long term and potentially debilitating physical injuries, the potential monetary needs are greater for football players and the job opportunities may be less.
Now, this is not intended to criticize Sports Illustrated, I do not know the source of their initial report. This report shows that the numbers may not be as horrible as believed. However, debt.org showed that in 2005, a record 2 million bankruptcy filings were made, or 1 in 55 families filed that year. This means that in the worst year ever, 1.82% of families filed bankruptcy, and the number for NFL players is eight times that figure. Eight times! Hundreds of millions of dollars lost, families disrupted.
I would hope that the financial and life skills lessons taught by the league and the players’ union have helped, but it is WAY too high in any event.