December 07, 2008

Character

First of all it, of AC/DC it must be said that there's no need to do more than one thing if you do it well. I guess there are two camps: those who turn it up, and those who turn it off. I am, I must confess, of the former persuasion.

And secondly, have you noticed how different football looks now as opposed to 20 or 30 years ago? I blame it on the video games--everything's clean and bright, and the camera's always moving. Stats fly in, stats fly out. And don't get me started on how fantasy football's emphasis on individual performance seems to warp people's understanding of a team sport (can you tell my FF team is doing poorly?).

Anyhow, you probably have to have something wrong with you to be as emotionally moved by this video as I was, but dang--Jack Lambert was a force of nature. You get the idea he'd have played for nothing and that when he went home at night he just stared up at the ceiling fan until it was time to go back.

If you're not obsessed enough to stomach the whole video, you might like at least to check out the piece from about 2:00 to 2:20 or so. Seems like they've changed the penalties for taunting and late hits over the past 30 years. The old way made for better TV. I'd like to see a little Lambert magic in today's game against the Cowboys, even if it costs them 15 yards.



There's a good Sports Illustrated article about Jack Lambert here; the typing's a little rough, but you'll manage, and the illustrations are good. I was a little surprised at the line or two about him holding out on a contract ... I didn't remember that. But in the larger context of the article, I think it's excusable. It's not always about money; sometimes it's about respect.

2 comments:

Tom said...

Amazingly, I was watching this video as the Steelers took the lead with an interception with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter.

JB said...

The air here is still blue and crackling. That was some Steelers football.