The Bear, Barra and big brutes
Fit-to-be-bow-tied righty George F. Will strays from his baseball worship for a heftier topic: college football. In the current Newsweek, the columnist, ahem, tackles the problem of bigger players leading to more injuries in “ 'Eleven Men And Sic 'Em.' ”
Will discusses how Bryant’s 1966 team averages out to be a typical high school team today. And he slips in a little history, sports, health and a few growled “Bear” quotes.
Will writes:
On Jan. 26, 1983, phone service throughout area code 205, which then included all of Alabama, crashed from overload. Was the cause a natural disaster? Yes. Oh, yes, something very natural — death — had claimed the University of Alabama’s football coach.
Allen Barra’s illuminating book "The Last Coach: A Life of Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant" explains why Alabamians felt so bereft. It also answers a question especially pertinent since Thomas Herrion, 23, a 315-pound lineman for the San Francisco 49ers, died in August of a previously undetected heart disease: Has football become grotesque?
Maybe Will is just jumping on the 8-0 bandwagon. Or maybe the Sports Is a Business bandwagon. Or the World Series Blew bandwagon.
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