I'm sour on my Globe, sorry:
"George Sauer, 69; star became disillusioned with football" by Frank Litsky | New York Times, May 13, 2013
NEW YORK — George Sauer, who as a wide receiver for the Jets played a pivotal role in the team’s stunning victory in Super Bowl III, and who later quit professional football because he considered it dehumanizing, died May 7 in Westerville, Ohio. He was 69.
Sweet.
His sister, Dana Keifer, confirmed the death, saying the cause was Alzheimer’s disease.
Not so sweet.
The Baltimore Colts were three-touchdown favorites when they faced the Jets in the 1969 Super Bowl, in Miami, but they lost, 16-7, in one of the great upsets in pro football history.
A big factor was the stellar play of Jets quarterback Joe Namath, who had brashly guaranteed a victory. Mr. Sauer was another.
The Jets were not only underdogs to a powerful Baltimore team, but they were also hobbled when Don Maynard, their speedy flanker and favorite Namath target, pulled a hamstring muscle. Maynard caught no passes that day. But Mr. Sauer, a split end who lacked great speed but ran textbook pass patterns, caught eight.
Mr. Sauer was a four-time All-Star in the American Football League. He played for the Jets in the AFL and then the National Football League from 1965 through 1970, appearing in 84 games and catching 309 passes for 4,965 yards and 28 touchdowns.
He retired from the NFL at the end of the 1970 season at 27, at the peak of his career....
He had grown to hate the life of a pro football player, he said.
‘‘When you get to the college and professional levels, the coaches still treat you as an adolescent,’’ he said in an interview in 1971 with the Institute for the Study of Sport and Society. ‘‘They know damn well that you were never given a chance to become responsible or self-disciplined. Even in the pros, you were told when to go to bed, when to turn your lights off, when to wake up, when to eat and what to eat. You even have to live and eat together like you were in a boys’ camp.’’
It helps to reinforce the corporate and leadership cult and mentality.
Ten years later, he remained just as disillusioned. In an interview with The New York Times, he called professional football ‘‘a grotesque business’’ designed to ‘‘mold you into someone easy to manipulate.’’
Like I said.
His attitude did not surprise his father, George H. Sauer Sr., a former college coach and later a pro football executive. ‘‘He definitely does not like to be regimented,’’ he said of his son...
He gave up premedical studies at the University of Texas because he did not have time for both that and football....
Looks to me like he resented that.
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Related: Jack Butler, 85; stood out as Steelers cornerback, scout
Maybe you would like to place a bet ion the game?
"Bookie, bettor to testify against state trooper" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, May 13, 2013
A reputed bookie and one of his bettors are expected to take the stand in a federal courtroom this week to describe how a State Police trooper allegedly threatened them with violence in an attempt to extort thousands of dollars, according to court records filed in federal court in Boston....
John M. Analetto, the state trooper who has been held since his arrest in December 2011 on two counts of extortion, had loaned the bookie $24,000, according to court records, and was supposed to get a cut of profits from a gambling ring he worked with in exchange for recommending gamblers.
When he didn’t get the money back, Analetto allegedly threatened the bookie and the gambler who owed the bookie money.
“I’ll [expletive] kill you,” Analetto told the bookie, according to the court records.
Analetto then allegedly said he would help the bookie collect a debt from the gambler, according to the records. He said he would break into the gambler’s house, beat the man, and sexually assault his mother “with a broomstick,” according to the records.
Analetto was videotaped by the bookie making some of the threats, according to the records.
“The evidence at trial will prove that the defendant knowingly used extortionate means to collect the extensions of credit,” prosecutors said in the court records....
Analetto’s attorney, Daniel O’Malley, would not comment on the case because the trial is pending. He has argued in court records, however, that his client has an alcohol problem and that any threats caught on videotape were merely banter by an intoxicated man who was baited into an argument by the bookie.
“The videotape reflects the bookie baiting John Analetto into a drunken tirade,” the defense lawyers said in court records. “John Analetto’s words were not the product of a rational mind. They were the words of a drunk engaging in locker room talk.”
That is a lame-ass excuse, and it means he should be REMOVED FROM OFFICE NOW!!
The court records also argue that the alleged baiting of Analetto by the bookie shows that he was not fearful of the trooper, the basis for the extortion charge.
Analetto, 49, of Belmont, who has been a State Police trooper for more than 20 years, has been suspended without pay since his arrest at a Belmont gas station on New Year’s Eve in 2011, the day after he allegedly threatened to kill the bookie....
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Maybe not.
NEXT DAY UPDATE: State trooper duped, set up by bookie trying to avoid debt, lawyer says
UPDATE: Federal jury deliberates extortion charges against Mass. trooper
Mass. state trooper convicted of extortion
The real football to the rest of the world:
"Youth sports: One punch can kill" May 13, 2013
Reports that a single punch from a teenage soccer player killed a referee in a recreational league in Utah sent shock waves across the sporting world. The shock, of course, was from the fact that the man died. It could be no shock that the punch occurred — simply because reports of violent outbreaks at youth sporting events have become commonplace. Too often, they’re written off as isolated incidents or the product of excess competitiveness. Now, with the death earlier this month of Utah referee Ricardo Portillo, the sports world has to start treating violent outbursts as a problem in and of itself.
That sure is an odd argument coming from an agenda-pushing, war-promoting media that is culpable if not collaborative in millions of dead based on their lies!
Portillo, 46, a furniture company worker and volunteer referee, was hit by an irate 17-year-old player, who was angry after a call went against him. The assailant, whose name has not been released, now faces a third-degree felony homicide by assault charge.
Much of the public’s reaction to Portillo’s death has focused on declining respect for officials. But the problem goes beyond mistreatment of referees. Professional sports leagues now seem to accept — and thus teach younger players — that a bit of violence here and there is a natural and unavoidable part of sports.
Never mind government and mouthpiece media promoting the endless wars based on lies as heroic and a natural part of history, as well as the false flags that help create them.
Whether it’s fights in hockey or bench-clearing brawls in baseball, violence that’s unconnected to the game is wrongly viewed through a forgiving lens, as a way of standing up for teammates or showing one’s passion for winning.
I'm getting a real bad taste in my mouth.
But such violence can have a terrible toll, and the sports community has to stop minimizing it and start cracking down on offenders. Coaches at all levels must do a better job reminding players that self-restraint is a necessary facet of athletic competition, and thus immediately benching any player who acts out in a violent manner. But they also could use the help of the professional sports leagues that set the standards of behavior from which young players often take their cues.
(So sour blog editor needs to spit it out)
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I didn't realize hypocrisy tasted so bitter.
