Comments on: The Golden Boy

By: theo

theo — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:32:29 +0000

to Nick why is it news? cos fucking ‘boomers control everything and plauge the entire world with their banal idols and ideals. i’m a football fan but blanket coverage of a guy who was good but threw it away and then died (not unexpectedly either) can only be relevant if all the journalists and media proprioters were of the same generation.

i’m also a fan of Aussie politics but The Australians insane coverage of the 30th anniversary of the dissmisal is another indication of the media’s priorities. it happened in the life time of the senior journos/editors so that’s what gets the coverage. man, boomers should be blamed for everything.

By: Another Damned Medievalist

Another Damned Medievalist — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:05:45 +0000

Anyone who’s seen footage of Best knows why we should care. Despite the fact that he played for United, there’s no way to avoid admitting he was truly amazing.

By: Margaret McGill

Margaret McGill — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 16:44:38 +0000

#17 The 21 year old British male – Nick the prikc – “what have you done for me lately” – go out and create something yourself – whiner!

By: Alison

Alison — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 09:24:50 +0000

I think Germain Greer in the Independent strikes a good balance between love, admiration, and frank appraisal.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article329506.ece

“His deep-blue eyes… the nation has seen in a thousand photographs those same eyes staring widely out of cavernous sockets, the only living things in George’s wasted face, there can be no argument about their colour: deep, stormy ocean-blue.”

Our own Achilles.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 03:15:39 +0000

The subtle disparagement of Jim Brown, simply because he was a great athlete who failed to drink himself to death even though he retired early, has been noted in the building.

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 02:12:29 +0000

I only knew of George Best because The Wedding Present put out a record some years ago called “George Best” with a photo of the man on the cover. I’ve remained too lazy to try to find out whether it was a genuine tribute or some kind of attempt at cleverness and/or social commentary – being American, I have no clue.

Good record though, especially if one is going through an unpleasant breakup and wishes to wallow in it, and although it has no songs about George Best as far as I can tell, it does have one called “Shatner,” which references a different famous entertainer….

By: blah

blah — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 01:38:30 +0000

Many still consider Jim Brown the greatest running back ever to play. His combination of speed, power, and agility was unprecedented. Watching old footage of his runs, I think many of them were quite beautiful.

Anyway, he quit at the age of 29, at the height of his career, to become a Hollywood actor!

Not such a tragic tale as a career ruined by dissipation.

By: Ray

Ray — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 22:01:41 +0000

Re. Best’s mother also drinking – I think I read in one of the obituaries that her drinking was a direct result of George’s success. She couldn’t handle the reflected glory/attention.

By: cirdan

cirdan — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 20:08:04 +0000

What Mrs. Tilton said.

By: Jake

Jake — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 19:07:30 +0000

re Alan’s comment—another not-perfectly-comparable player would be American football’s Jim Brown, who was by far the best running back in the game every year he played, and quite while he was still quite young. Can’t remember the reason he gave, it might have been he was bored.

outside sports, how about Axl Rose? :)

By: Dan Hardie

Dan Hardie — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 17:11:16 +0000

My father saw the Busby Babes play in the years before Munich, and he always rated Duncan Edwards as a better player even than Bobby Charlton, more complete and, amazingly, more athletic. He said Charlton and Edwards had a partnership on the right side of the field, ‘and Charlton was the junior partner’. But he also said none of the Babes, not even Edwards, were as good as Best turned out to be.

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 17:00:10 +0000

He’s on the front cover of every newspaper in Britain. This story has been on the radio for the past week.

I’m Britsh and male and 21, and I’d like to know why the fuck I should care that some footballer’s dead.

What’s he done to influence my world? Squat. Had I heard about him before Radio 4 started putting a 5 minute segment into every news bulletin a week ago? Nope. Yet the media has basically been feeding off his corpse all week.

There are plenty of other people in hospital who deserve to be remembered more. People who didn’t have an organ donation then carry on boozing. People who were hardworking their entire lives instead of for 3 or 4 years. Next week, will it be Mrs Noggins from down the road who gets her dead mug on the front page of the Independent?

By: dave heasman

dave heasman — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 14:35:02 +0000

“he got threats from the IRA which led a brief withdrawal from the Northern Ireland team.”

Intersting parallel with Neil Lennon a couple of years ago. Football is a Proddywack sport in NI (see the Portadown News sports pages) and Lennon as a Catholic was intimidated out of the team.

Mrs T’s experience : – “We’d all known for some time now that this was inevitable. But I could never have foreseen how very upsetting it would be when the day finally came, and I can think of no good cold reason why I should be so upset. And yet here we are”

mirrors mine when George Harrison fell off the perch. Much sadder than for John Lennon.

By: hirvi

hirvi — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 08:31:03 +0000

Alan:

“Best’s career is actually unique, I think”

You could be right, but Best reminds me of Matti Nykänen, the ski-jumper, in many ways.

By: jayann

jayann — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 02:44:19 +0000

I could never have foreseen how very upsetting it would be when the day finally came, and I can think of no good cold reason why I should be so upset. And yet here we are.

Yes.