I told Green he was soft and weak. Which is true. I was out there spitting facts. | | | | FC Spartak Moscow fans set the mood at a 2015 Russian Premier League match.
(Epsilon/Getty Images) | | | | | | “I told Green he was soft and weak. Which is true. I was out there spitting facts.”
|
| |
| | rantnrave:// Separating a wrestler’s in-ring character from who he is in real life is difficult. Wrestling fans are asked to believe what's in the ring -- to believe the promos and the matches and the storytelling. Suddenly pulling real life from TV fiction is like asking them to stop believing at all. Actors go from role to role and hope not to get typecast. In wrestling, if a persona works, it sticks. The question is where it ends and the real person begins. NATURE BOY, the 30 FOR 30 doc on RIC FLAIR, asks that same question. It's fabulous, for smarts and marks alike. Flair is one of the greatest wrestlers ever. HULK HOGAN tells you that on screen. The doc digs deep into his life and doesn't pull punches. It highlights his financial problems, his broken family life, his wasted marriages, and his lifelong drinking. But the heart of Nature Boy is trying to discern Flair from RICHARD FLIEHR. Flair was the person Fliehr wanted to be and eventually became. How much of it was Fliehr compensating for the real person he could never be? Does Fliehr even exist anymore? The juxtaposition between the two is jarring. The movie scrutinizes Fliehr while putting Flair on a pedestal. One affecting part focuses on how considerate and giving Flair was in the ring and to his peers, while so distant from his family. In some ways, we should wonder whether we like Flair at all. Or if he likes himself. That's what a good documentary does, and what a good wrestler does too. There is intrigue in the ambiguity. And few wrestlers were ever as interesting as Flair... A memorial to ROY HALLADAY from his childhood friend. A modern Stoic who'll be remembered for his impact and his greatness... How do you remember the athletes who never got to finish their careers—from ROBERTO CLEMENTE, who died helping earthquake survivors in NICARAGUA after notching his 3,000th hit, to HANK GATHERS, who collapsed on the court for LOYOLA MARYMOUNT, to SEAN TAYLOR, murdered in the middle of an All-Pro season with the WASHINGTON REDSKINS? It's mourning on the playing field for stars who never got to say goodbye. SportsSET: "The Sports Careers Cut Tragically Short"... SPORTS ILLUSTRATED looks back at how PRESIDENT TRUMP and sports have intersected over the past year. Has any president made himself a part of the narrative of sports like Trump? Can we cover sports anymore without acknowledging his influence on the NFL?... Is JERRY JONES willing to go scorched earth against the NFL to stop ROGER GOODELL from getting a contract extension?... MINNEAPOLIS decided it's time for a change. Will ARSENAL listen? | | | - Mike Vorkunov, curator |
|
|
| How do you remember the athletes who never got to finish their careers—from Roberto Clemente, who died helping earthquake survivors in Nicaragua after notching his 3,000th hit, to Hank Gathers, who collapsed on the court for Loyola Marymount, to Sean Taylor, murdered in the middle of an All-Pro season with the Washington Redskins? It's mourning on the playing field for stars who never got to say goodbye. | | |
|
| Brenda Tracy arrives one spring morning in Houston, the air hot and viscous, the city's sprawl never-ending. She sits in the back of a black sedan, riding from the airport to her hotel. She'll be here less than 24 hours, much of it spent at the University of Houston's football facility, before it's back home to Oregon and then on to the next college campus. | | |
|
| A conversation between Pod Save America’s Dan Pfeiffer and New York Times Magazine’s Mark Leibovich about the political environment surrounding the NFL. | | |
|
| Bubba Wallace knows he's the first black superstar of modern NASCAR. And he knows that he won't be the last. | | |
|
| Meet the San Diego 'Splash sisters.' | | |
|
| We dug into race data to find out if runners wearing Vaporfly shoes posted better times at the New York Marathon. | | |
|
| As the legendary basketball player pursues his latest passion--children’s entertainment--he’s learning a few lessons from the man behind the "Jaws" theme. | | |
|
| Richard Fliehr, adopted son of a Minnesota doctor, probably couldn’t have imagined Ric Flair, international star, though he eventually created the character that wasn’t really a character. They became the same man, which was the problem. What you saw is what you got, an irresistible heel. Cheer him. Boo him. Wooo. | | |
|
| Gordon Hayward’s leg injury forces us to admit that we might die any day now, for no good reason, at exactly the wrong time in our lives. | | |
|
| Roy Halladay meant so much to millions of fans in Philadelphia and Toronto. | | |
|
| Uga, Bevo, Rameses are all household names to many college football faithful. See what life is like off the field for these living symbols of school pride. | | |
|
| A candid conversation with the Nature Boy, whose new ESPN '30 for 30' is out today (Nov 7). | | |
|
| A potential Olympic hero is waiting in the wings; and even before that, there is a Tonya Harding movie to whet your appetite. | | |
|
| Join us for a special evening as the 12th annual Shirley Povich Symposium looks at “The Changing Winds in Sports.” | | |
|
| As we get ready to roll out new Science of Survival episodes beginning on November 14, we wanted to replay the one that started it all. This thrilling re-creation of the classic Outside feature by Peter Stark leads the listener through a series of plausible mishaps on a bitterly cold night: a car accident on a lonely road, a broken ski binding that foils a backcountry escape, a disorienting tumble in the snow, and a slow descent into delirious hypothermia before (spoiler alert!) a dramatic... | | |
|
| Morgan William’s giant-killing shot last March still looms large in NCAA women’s basketball. | | |
|
| The Canyon de Chelly Ultra on the Navajo reservation tests hearts, minds and legs on a treacherous, 34-mile path up 1,000 feet, to finish “in beauty.” | | |
|
| The biggest thing wrong with the Columbus Crew is ownership. | | |
|
| The first Winter Olympics were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Here's what happened at the historic event. | | |
|
| He wasn’t always the fastest. Nor was he the most decorated. So four decades after his death, why is Steve Prefontaine still the most influential American runner ever? | | |
|
| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
|
|
