1. Keane was out of action for nearly a year and, knowing what we do about him, it is not easy to imagine the silent fury that built up in his mind. Keane could never let it go that, while he was at his most vulnerable, Haaland had been leaning over him and accusing him of putting it on. The grudge festered. David Wetherall, another Leeds player, had also told Keane to get up. Keane didn’t forget that, either. But Haaland was the priority.
Daniel Taylor sifts through the backstory of Roy Keane’s infamous tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland, 20 years later, for The Athletic. (€)
2. ‘Kobe was about the 10,000-hour rule even as a teenager. In high school, on Saturdays he’d lift at St. Joseph’s and then I’d rebound for him when he’d shoot. He had just started when the lady who ran the gym yelled, “We’re closing!” and then, boom, with no warning she shut off all the lights. I’m holding the ball in the dark, thinking, OK, I guess we’re done, and Kobe yells, “Give me the ball!” I was actually afraid for a little bit because he yelled it so loud. But I gave him the ball and he kept shooting in the dark for another half-hour. Swish. Swish. Swish.’
ESPN’s David Fleming delves into Kobe Bryant’s legendary 1996 pre-draft workout, and how the New Jersey Nets were beaten to the signature of a generational talent.
3. He was the perfect foil for Hunt, but he was also something more. He was brash and irreverent, full of ideas. When he (Bill Shankly) introduced red shorts to replace the traditional white before a European Cup game against Anderlecht in 1964, it was St John who suggested going the whole hog and wearing red socks as well. For the sociologist John Williams in his book Red Men, “St John symbolised the arrival of the 1960s at Anfield”.
In The Guardian, Jonathan Wilson remembers the seismic impact the late Ian St John made at Liverpool.
4. “I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it.”
In the film, they are, of course, spoken by Marlon Brando, sitting in the rear of a taxi cab with Rod Steiger, who plays his older brother Charley. Brando, caught in the noir-ish, crystal clear black and white cinematography, would never look more soulful or anguished. His delivery is like an epitaph for the unaccountable millions who have fallen on the wrong side of the American dream.
As part of an Irish Times series on the stories behind sports movies, Keith Duggan takes a look at the life of Budd Schulberg, the man who wrote On The Waterfront.
5. The consistency and solidity of Munster’s lineout over the years is the perfect illustration of the fact that in the age of freakishly big men and car-crash collisions, there is a still a place for people to outsmart and out-think their opponents.
That encapsulates Billy Holland as a player. He isn’t the biggest. He isn’t the most powerful. But rather than trying to be something he was not, he had the confidence and self-assuredness to back what he had, in the knowledge that he could offer something other players could not.
Writing in The Irish Examiner, former Munster player Duncan Casey salutes Billy Holland following the announcement that he will retire at the end of the season.
