From Hunter S. Thompson's first collection of Fear and Loathing letters, 1997's The Proud Highway: The Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman 1955-1967.
My interest -- at least for this piece -- is the view of pro football from an insider's off-season perspective. Not the boom-boom bullshit of the Sam Huff films, but a sort of investor's view . . . since it's obviously a business, not a sport . . . and what kind of a business it really is.
There are oddities in the same . . . such as Frank Ryan's Ph.D. in math, and Lance Rentzel's conviction for child molesting. And what caused the Bears to fold in 1966, when all the in-money had them as champs? I don't know, but I think some good legwork -- which the sportswriters either won't do or can't write -- might pay off with a mean fat article, which none of the league's PR men (Rozelle's included) will want any part of when it's published.
But of course there's always the objection that pro football is an "American Institution," like the hollow husk of baseball, and that only an Un-American Freak would write ugly words on the subject as long as everybody in the game or in any way connected with it is making good money. That's not my concern. I'd like to write something real about the "game," and I already know enough about it to guarantee that anything I write won't be a PR puff.
Tags: Hunter S. Thompson, NFL, The Proud Highway
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