Caste Football Time Machine
- Thread starter Don Wassall
- Start date
You younguns are likely not aware of how American sports fans were for many years forced to suffer the ubiquitous presence on their TV sets of the pompous, insufferable ass Howard Cosell. He was one of the three announcers in the booth for a long time on Monday Night Football -- though it was entertaining the way Don Meredith would slyly play off him for laughs -- and appeared on countless other media vehicles. Cosell almost single-handedly enhanced Muhammad Ali's stature through his many interviews with him, and was the first sports figure to start calling him by his Muslim name after he changed it from Cassius Clay. Clay/Ali was a widely disliked figure in the America 1.0 of the 1960s, because of his name and religion change, his aggressive self-admiring personality, and because he wouldn't enlist to fight in Vietnam. Cosell was likewise widely disliked for his entire career, but DWFs still had to see his homely face and hear his annoying voice for what seemed forever. Thankfully there's no one like him today.
white is right
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Cosell had become a bit of a cartoon character by the late late 70's with his persona portrayed by various level comedians from Billy Crystal to the class clown in the back of the room in school.
I can still pull off a mediocre Cosell but beyond people in my age range the cornball imitation crashes and burns like the Hindenburg as you said he hasn't been relevant for about 40 years around the time he quit covering professional boxing live on the air when Holmes fought Randall Cobb and he openly questioned why professional boxing existed on national tv.
I didn't watch many Woody Allen movies but one I did like and found quite funny was Bananas (1971) in which Cosell made a cameo. Also remember this scene from Sleepers (1973) which takes place 200 years in the future and was on the mark satirizing Howard Cosell and his nauseating impact on society at the time:
Agree with that, I was writing about how he was viewed in the '60s. Over time Ali developed into almost a saint, much like another very controversial and divisive figure from the 1960s, Martin Luther King.
I have had the misfortune of trying to get Cossell's autograph. He was calling the USA VS Cuba boxing matches in Charlotte, N.C. I approached him walking to his seat at ringside and he called the security guards over and they made us leave. The matches hadn't even started. It was 43 years ago and I am still mad about it. Cossell was a much taller man than I thought he was. He walked hunch over, but he still looked like he was 6'2" or better.
I'd say both "were" developed into secular saints. My WAG going forward few people in a few decades will know who either were, they have their use in the degenerate Liberal/Conservative debate but that is winding down IMO.
I attended a Pirates game in Three Rivers Stadium that was nationally televised circa late '70s early '80s. Afterwards, as the fans were walking en masse down the diagonal ramps that led to ground level, we spotted Cosell a level below us, also surprisingly using the public ramps to make his exit. The fans were mostly well lubricated and there were lots of fairly good-natured insults loudly directed his way. And yeah, I remember how unexpectedly tall he seemed.
sport historian
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I first noticed Howard Cosell in the 60s when he wrote a monthly feature in Sport Magazine on famous sporting events. It was pretty good, neutral in fact.
I heard him on the radio doing the 1964 Clay-Liston fight in which Liston quit on his stool after Round 6. Cosell shouted, "HE's NOT COMING OUT! SONNY LISTON IS NOT COMING OUT!"
I first remember him on TV doing highlights of late 60s World Series games for ABC news. Cosell wasn't a household name until fall 1970 when ABC Monday Night Football became a big hit. There wasn't a national Pro and Anti-Cosell thing until he was on Monday Night Football.
Howard Cosell's self-proclaimed trademark was, "I tell it like it is." A big feature was how Don Meredith would slap Cosell down when he said something stupid, which was a frequent occurrence.
I remember when Ali briefly retired in 1979 after winning the rematch with Leon Spinks. I read that Ali was going into doing commercials big time but the corporate sponsors had to back off. Why? It was found Ali had a sky-high NEGATIVE rating among the general public despite being worshipped by the Establishment Media. Opinion Makers, etc.
I specifically recall Toyota was about to sign Ali for Toyota ads but had to cancel. This might account for Ali deciding to fight Larry Holmes for big money in 1980 although he had nothing left.
The result was Ali did TV ads aimed at the black audience. Remember those Roach Spray commercials Ali did? Black folks were the market for Roach Spray.
Howard Cosell was Sugar Ray Leonard's main media booster. This actually made Leonard unpopular to people who loathed Cosell. The anti-Cosell people rooted for Sugar Ray Leonard to get beat.
I heard him on the radio doing the 1964 Clay-Liston fight in which Liston quit on his stool after Round 6. Cosell shouted, "HE's NOT COMING OUT! SONNY LISTON IS NOT COMING OUT!"
I first remember him on TV doing highlights of late 60s World Series games for ABC news. Cosell wasn't a household name until fall 1970 when ABC Monday Night Football became a big hit. There wasn't a national Pro and Anti-Cosell thing until he was on Monday Night Football.
Howard Cosell's self-proclaimed trademark was, "I tell it like it is." A big feature was how Don Meredith would slap Cosell down when he said something stupid, which was a frequent occurrence.
I remember when Ali briefly retired in 1979 after winning the rematch with Leon Spinks. I read that Ali was going into doing commercials big time but the corporate sponsors had to back off. Why? It was found Ali had a sky-high NEGATIVE rating among the general public despite being worshipped by the Establishment Media. Opinion Makers, etc.
I specifically recall Toyota was about to sign Ali for Toyota ads but had to cancel. This might account for Ali deciding to fight Larry Holmes for big money in 1980 although he had nothing left.
The result was Ali did TV ads aimed at the black audience. Remember those Roach Spray commercials Ali did? Black folks were the market for Roach Spray.
Howard Cosell was Sugar Ray Leonard's main media booster. This actually made Leonard unpopular to people who loathed Cosell. The anti-Cosell people rooted for Sugar Ray Leonard to get beat.
In honor of MLK Day, just wanted to add some stuff my dad told me. Young people don't realize just how unpopular MLK was back in the 60s. He was widely (and correctly) seen as a divisive, agitating figure rather than the "great uniter" he's worshipped as today. Even some blacks thought MLK was a lot more trouble than he was worth and that he would make things worse for them.
FootballDad
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My dad simply referred to him as a “rabble rouser.”
Ali's famous line about Vietnam and the draft could be used to inspire a modern-day version should the Soros/Biden administration try to send young conservative white men off to die in a globalist war: "Ain't no Russian ever called me deplorable."
Freethinker
Hall of Famer
Or equally relevant, “Ain’t no Palestinian ever called me goyim”.
Regarding Cosell, I’m guessing this fella didn’t celebrate Christmas…
Some things are so obvious that they don't always have to be spelled out.
Leonardfan
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I think you certainly deserve some credit. After reading that article you saw it all coming. To be able to see it all coming and essentially foretell the future and the current dystopia in which we live. Did you think it was going to get so bad so fast? The Great Replacement seems to have really picked up steam in the past 15 years. I certainly noticed it growing up in the 90s and seeing a slow burn through the early to mid 2000s. Really seems to have picked up steam around 2010 and then 2015 went into overdrive to overwhelm.
The "Scorecard" section of the November 21, 1966 issue of Sports Illustrated has an item worth reading. The Scorecard was featured in the beginning of each SI, consisting of a few pages of brief summaries of what SI considered to be interesting news bits that had taken place in the previous week, some straightforward, some opinionated, and others pretty much pure snark, even back then.
The item called "Most Likely to Succeed" reads:
"This week the Dallas Cowboys are second in the NFL's Eastern Division. Their eminence is not so much attributable to signing All-Americas as it is to culling the overlooked, unappreciated and unwanted -- the free agents, 15 of whom are now on the Cowboys' roster. Two regulars, cornerback Cornell Green and split end Pete Gent, played basketball in college, while safety Mike Gaechter was primarily a track man. And Dan Reeves, who is second in the league in scoring, wasn't even picked on the 20th and final round of the draft. What, for example, did Dallas see in Reeves that the other 14 teams didn't? 'Just say we're lucky,' says Gil Brandt, the Cowboys' scouting director.
"Some luck. Brandt and the Cowboys have a system -- a $250,000 computer system that catalogues and analyzes every prospect. In addition, Dallas relies on an intelligence test and a four-hour motivation and personality exam -- lately shortened to 45 minutes. 'The motivation exam is uncanny,' says Brandt. 'Nine times out of 10 it will accurately predict which player will drop out or be dropped because he lacks the drive or toughness to compete in the big league. Some of the hardest-nosed prospects have failed to fool the test. I frequently disagree with its findings, but you can't argue with accuracy.'
"Dallas has further discovered that a football player is most likely to succeed in the pros if his IQ is between 90 and 124. If it's below 90 a player is just not sharp enough to master the intricacies of the game, and if it is above 124, the player is apt to be too inclined to think for himself, to be overly creative.
"We suppose the exception proves the rule: St. Louis is first in the Eastern Division, thanks to [quarterback] Charley Johnson, who has an IQ of 'over 137,' and Cleveland is third, ditto to [quarterback] Frank Ryan, whose IQ is 155."
Reading that it's not hard to see why the Wonderlic test was first downplayed and then eliminated, with 40 times becoming the foundation of the Caste System and all its lies and exaggerations. And Brandt himself later "grew" to become a reliable Caste Clown.
Of the Cowboys' four free agents mentioned, three are White. Peter Gent, an early White counter-culture flakey athlete, became famous after his career for writing the book "North Dallas Forty," loosely based on his experiences with the Cowboys. The book was later made into a movie of the same name starring Nick Nolte.
Dan Reeves of course later became a long-time NFL head coach with the Broncos, Giants and Falcons, taking Denver and Atlanta to the Super Bowl once, both ending in losses. His teams were relatively White friendly but safely within Caste System boundaries. A good example is Bob Christian, who would have been a very good starting NFL tailback but who in his long career with Atlanta was limited to being a blocking fullback who caught a fair amount of passes for the position but was greatly underused as a runner.
The item called "Most Likely to Succeed" reads:
"This week the Dallas Cowboys are second in the NFL's Eastern Division. Their eminence is not so much attributable to signing All-Americas as it is to culling the overlooked, unappreciated and unwanted -- the free agents, 15 of whom are now on the Cowboys' roster. Two regulars, cornerback Cornell Green and split end Pete Gent, played basketball in college, while safety Mike Gaechter was primarily a track man. And Dan Reeves, who is second in the league in scoring, wasn't even picked on the 20th and final round of the draft. What, for example, did Dallas see in Reeves that the other 14 teams didn't? 'Just say we're lucky,' says Gil Brandt, the Cowboys' scouting director.
"Some luck. Brandt and the Cowboys have a system -- a $250,000 computer system that catalogues and analyzes every prospect. In addition, Dallas relies on an intelligence test and a four-hour motivation and personality exam -- lately shortened to 45 minutes. 'The motivation exam is uncanny,' says Brandt. 'Nine times out of 10 it will accurately predict which player will drop out or be dropped because he lacks the drive or toughness to compete in the big league. Some of the hardest-nosed prospects have failed to fool the test. I frequently disagree with its findings, but you can't argue with accuracy.'
"Dallas has further discovered that a football player is most likely to succeed in the pros if his IQ is between 90 and 124. If it's below 90 a player is just not sharp enough to master the intricacies of the game, and if it is above 124, the player is apt to be too inclined to think for himself, to be overly creative.
"We suppose the exception proves the rule: St. Louis is first in the Eastern Division, thanks to [quarterback] Charley Johnson, who has an IQ of 'over 137,' and Cleveland is third, ditto to [quarterback] Frank Ryan, whose IQ is 155."
Reading that it's not hard to see why the Wonderlic test was first downplayed and then eliminated, with 40 times becoming the foundation of the Caste System and all its lies and exaggerations. And Brandt himself later "grew" to become a reliable Caste Clown.
Of the Cowboys' four free agents mentioned, three are White. Peter Gent, an early White counter-culture flakey athlete, became famous after his career for writing the book "North Dallas Forty," loosely based on his experiences with the Cowboys. The book was later made into a movie of the same name starring Nick Nolte.
Dan Reeves of course later became a long-time NFL head coach with the Broncos, Giants and Falcons, taking Denver and Atlanta to the Super Bowl once, both ending in losses. His teams were relatively White friendly but safely within Caste System boundaries. A good example is Bob Christian, who would have been a very good starting NFL tailback but who in his long career with Atlanta was limited to being a blocking fullback who caught a fair amount of passes for the position but was greatly underused as a runner.
SneakyQuick
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Whatever it entailed back then, you can be sure it wouldn’t be allowed now.
white is right
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Robin Earl for me was a player who slipped through the cracks with name recognition as he played on awful Bears teams prior to the hiring of Mike Ditka and was in the doghouse with new head coach Ditka and eventually was cut before the Bears flourished to a championship level in 85'.
He was coke machine with legs who was 6'5" and weighed 250 and was probably the biggest running back in his era and he wasn't just a pure short yardage handcuff for Walter Payton as he averaged 4.1 yards per carry for his career and he eventually was switched to tight end and was a respectable starting tight end on some stone age Bears offensive teams.
Anyway here's a piece on his career and how it fizzled out with Ditka who when he took over in Chicago cleaned house and tended to make examples of veterans.
He was coke machine with legs who was 6'5" and weighed 250 and was probably the biggest running back in his era and he wasn't just a pure short yardage handcuff for Walter Payton as he averaged 4.1 yards per carry for his career and he eventually was switched to tight end and was a respectable starting tight end on some stone age Bears offensive teams.
Anyway here's a piece on his career and how it fizzled out with Ditka who when he took over in Chicago cleaned house and tended to make examples of veterans.