Tried to watch the Germany/England third place game in the Women's World Cup. Gave up and switched over to the ESPN 30-for-30 on the legendary Bo Jackson, the greatest athlete of the last hundred years. (We can discuss Jim Thorpe another day.) The Wikipedia article hits most of the high points of the ESPN piece by Michael Bonaglio, which reminds us how incredible Bo was.
Jeremy Schaap of ESPN says something in the piece which is both revealing and sad:
"Bo came along at exactly the right time...(besides the birth of cable sports, which let us see his highlights every night,) If someone with his size, speed, and strength came along today, we'd always suspect he was on steroids or growth hormones or something. Not with Bo, not then."
Will we ever have that sheer wonder over an athlete again? Or will we simply wonder what drugs he's on? (Is that why we can be thrilled with American Pharoah? We know the horse isn't on drugs?) That's tragic.
Oh. I did eventually go back for the end of the futbol game. An hour later, it was still 0-0. (Excuse me: "nil-nil".) Then England got a penalty shot, which in the women's game is virtually unstoppable, which makes perfect sense in a game where there's virtually never any other score. So, England won, 1-0, on a single penalty shot, negating the rest of the match. Remind me again why I should watch soccer?
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