Say a prayer for Alex Karras!

jaxvid

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Karras lies in a hospital with kidney failure and dementia. The AP wire story states he has only a few days left to live. I guess time marches on but I forgot that he starred in Webster 25 years ago and really hasn't been in the public eye for around a decade.....http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8481005/reports-detroit-lions-great-alex-karras-kidney-failure

Alex Karras was one of those great chararcters of sports that you don't see much of anymore. It is odd that he faded from public view despite having some well known acting jobs, ie the guy that punched the horse out in Blazin' Saddles and a sit com (Webster). Perhaps it was by choice. That was the kind of guy he was.

Not much coverage of him in the Detroit area which is unusual considering he was an icon with the Lions for many years. That may change with his death. One of the problems with White people being ethnically cleansed from the cities they built is that the new regimes have no reason to celebrate the old White guard when they pass away unless there is some financial incentive. What does the mayor of Detroit (Dave Bing--a Detroit sports star from roughly the same era as Karras) care about some old dead White guy. And the city council and other govt people that control those types of civic celebrations see nothing to gain from remembering a time when Whitey ran things--and ran them much better then now.
 

Liverlips

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The black Detroit "leaders" are racist to a man. Even if they knew who Karras was they wouldn't care.
 

jaxvid

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Alex Karras finally passed away a couple of days ago. There were some tributes in the local media and I have linked to an album of photographs mostly from back in the day covering Alex Karras colorful career. Karras was a real chararcter. Especially for the era he played in. Besides being one of the best defensesive lineman of his time he also was one of the few football players to succeed in his post career life also.

Before Karras joined the Lions he made $25 grand as a pro wrestler, pretty good money for those days, he was suspended for one season for gambling, having bet on pro-games and after reinstatement refused to call the coin toss before a game as he told the ref "he was prohibited from gambling".

Nick-named the "Mad Duck" he was famous as a near sighted charging rhino that used his myopia as an identifying characteristic for his professional image. He starred as himself in a movie based on George Plimptons book "Paper Lion" about an author that tries to make it as a pro-QB. Alan Alda played the Plimpton role and the movie is worth catching if you ever have the chance.

Like many "characters" from the '60's I'm sure Karras was a flaming liberal. His "Webster" TV series created by ultra-lib wife and co-star Susan Clark, was a first go at the now all too common theme of black adopted kid as status symbol "pet". Too bad that this silly Hollywierd habit that started so long ago still continues to this day with the likes of Madonna and Angela Jolie.

Karras also signed onto the latest round of lawsuits against the NFL alleging that the unsafe equipment (helmets) are the cause of future health problems of so many ex NFL players. How the deficient helmets cause heart disease and kidney failure is beyond me but anyway Karras died at home in LA with his family by his side. A nice ending to the man's long interesting life story.

http://apps.detroitnews.com/apps/multimedia/gallery.php?id=14941
 
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