Eddie Robinson: ...He Was the Martin Luther King of Football Book

I don't know if there is a more interesting figure of the Twentieth Century than Ali and there is certainly not one that I find more compelling to read about. This book is a biography not only of Ali, but also of Howard Cosell, the man forever linked with Ali. Although there was not a whole lot new that I learned from this book (Ali has been well covered elsewhere and I have also seen a fascinating HBO piece on Cosell), but I still found the book to be remarkable. They say that the heroes of our parents are the ones we most admire. Cosell and Ali are both of my parents era and not mine, and maybe that has something to do with why I find their story to be so interesting, but I think anyone interested in the 1960s in this country and its legacy, not only sports fans, would wnjoy this book.

I don't really know where to begin with this book, but I guess my favorite part of the story is the whole Ali legacy. As we all know, Ali is today viewed as a (perhaps our only) living saint. No other athlete is more identified with their time period than Ali. He is synonymous with the 1960s and 1970s in this country. From his gold medal performance in the Rome Olympics of 1960 until his third fight with Frazier in 1975, nobody was better and nobody personified the spirit of the time more. As for his personal legacy, one of the greatest riddle is that Ali has come to represent all that is romanticized about the time period when he stood in such sharp contrast to so many of those ideals, but this book is certainly not a hatchet job - Kindred is clearly a fan and a confidant of Ali. The book does not gloss over Ali and his beliefs (the Nation of Islam in the 1960s was not quite the bastion of 1960s ideals, even ignoring the whole assassination of Malcolm X thing) that you see in so many Ali portraits (I am looking at you nearly every popular culture portrayal of Ali, especially the Will Smith movie). I will leave it to other readers to decide whether the explanation provided for Ali's actions are compelling.

Putting aside his legacy as a social figure, the legacy of Ali as a boxer is almost equally as compelling. I have seen tapes of his fights and when he was on, there was quite simply no one better. Whether they were fixed or not, you cannot watch the fights against Liston and not be convinced that you are watching the greatest athlete you have ever seen, bar none. A lot of people think boxing is dead in this country, but until MMA produces human drama like the Rumble in the Jungle or the Thrilla in Manila, I don't think it can be considered a worthy successor.

Cosell is almost as interesting a figure to me as Ali. The debt that modern sports journalists owe to win will never be properly tallied. His ability and talent has never been close to replaced and perhaps it is a bit foolish of ABC to keep trying. There is no denying that he was crusty, moody, wildly overestimated his abilities as an entertainer, and must have been a nightmare to work with, but he was brilliant.

There is much more I could write about and I feel I have not given this book the proper attention it deserves, but read it yourself. Quite simply, you cannot really understand America and life in the 1960s without knowing about Ali and this book is as entertaining to begin that process as any out there, plus you get the added bonus of the mini-biography of Cosell, who is well worth the time.