R.I.P. Mongo
:good:
A really funny guy.
My favorite Karras comment was on Monday Night Football about Otis Sistrunk...
...who he said had played at the University of Mars.
One of the great pleasures of my teen reading years was "Paper Lion", George Plimpton's book about spending a training camp with the Detroit Lions and getting to practice and eventually play QB in an exhibition game.
There's a copy in a waiting room where I often find myself, and I grab the book and read a chapter or two while I can. I recently read one of the chapters that dealt with Alex Karras, who wasn't actually on the team the year Plimpton wrote about, because of his gambling suspension. But Plimpton gives him his due and you get a fine sense of what Karras meant to the Lions.
Apparently, Karras was too good a character to leave out, so when they made the movie "Paper Lion", he played himself, which led to his movie and TV acting career.
While his "Mongo" in "Blazing Saddles" is one of his best known roles, catch him in "Victor/Victoria" as the mob bodyguard.
From Wikipedia
During his exile, Karras returned to pro wrestling, taking on such memorable characters as Dick the Bruiser, but was then reinstated, along with Hornung, on March 16, 1964 by NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. Upon returning to action in 1964, Karras once refused when an official asked him to call the pregame coin toss. "I'm sorry, sir," Karras replied. "I'm not permitted to gamble."
Has anyone told little Webster yet?
I enjoyed the heck out of Alex Karras, both as a football player and as an actor.
Alex Karras was probably among a few players that led me to have an early interest in football.
He was awesome and put himself and his body on the line every play of the game.
A gladiator among sports figures for sure.
He had a great personality about him that did shine bright.
R.I.P.