San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
In these divided times, where are the Alis?
It may be apocryphal, but like most such stories, it has acquired the power of truth over the years.
Muhammad
Ali, who had a bullhorn where his throat should have been, was relaxing in a plane, en route to one of his classic, overseas fights. The flight attendant told him to buckle his seat belt.
“Superman don’t need no seat belt,” Ali said.
“Superman don’t need no plane, either,” she responded.
It was a first. Ali with no comeback, no counter. The flight attendant did what opponents had been trying to do for years — shut him up.
For millions of fans throughout the world, the Oscar-nominated movie “One Night in Miami” must have inspired similar reveries of “The Greatest.” It tells the story of Ali, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Malcolm X. It depicts the intersection of sports, politics and society.
Close your eyes ... Defy the calendar ... Let your memory swallow the years, gulp after gulp, until you reach 1964 ... Muhammad Ali is still Cassius Clay, his rhetoric and delivery so outlandish that a sportswriter calls him “Gaseous Cassius.”
The young challenger meets Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title on February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach, and the world witnesses the elegance that makes this terrible sport beautiful. He moves with a frantic but fluid grace — Nureyev in short pants. And those hands, loaded
with hellfire but flashing with blinding speed.
Clay wins, but if he shocks the world, he will soon change it. He morphs into Ali, defying the U.S. government by refusing to fight in Vietnam. Like Joe Louis, Wilma Rudolph and Jackie Robinson before him, he becomes a living symbol of the quest for civil rights.
No, Ali was no Superman, but he was great, in and out of the ring. Divisive in his day, he evolved into a popular, almost sainted figure, beloved by disparate people. He lit the flame at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and it was the highlight of the games,
his core untouched by the Parkinson’s that afflicted his body.
Where are the Alis of today? Where are the men and women who transcend politics and become heroes for all of us? LeBron James? Megan Rapinoe? Colin Kaepernick?
Too divisive, all of them. Their failure to resonate with the people reflects our divisions, Americans vs. Americans, stuck where we were 50 years ago. The Vietnam Era without the Vietnam War.
“Doug Williams brought together Redskins fans (now known as the Washington Football Team), but he took it a step further
and united people from different backgrounds, races and careers — everyone celebrating a common goal,” Steve Goodman, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, told a sports reporter in 2018.
Goodman grew up cheering for Williams, the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl in 1987.
“Winning and becoming MVP of the Super Bowl is hard enough,” Goodman said. “Doing it when your ability is questioned simply because of your race is even harder.”
Williams became a hero because of his qualities on and off the field. Are those days gone? Do we live in an era so divisive that Williams would fail to be the inspirational figure he was in the ’80s?
It is not a rhetorical question. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently said 1619 was not one of the most important points in American history. The first African slaves landed on U.S. soil that year — a date that continues to stain us 400 years later. The New York Times produced a prizewinning project.
“There are a lot of exotic notions about what are the most important points in American history,” McConnell said. “I simply disagree with the notion that the New York Times laid out there that the year 1619 was one of those years.”
An exotic notion? How do you answer a man blind to the pain and suffering that have afflicted our society for centuries? It would be easy to say we need a Muhammad Ali today, but Ali faced his fiercest critics outside the ring, and there is no guarantee his reception would be any different today. Probably not, which indicates why 1619 was such a critical year.
Like all great men and women, Ali died twice. First, when age robbed him of the skills that made him unique. Second, when his heart stopped beating. But there is solace. Also like all great men and women, he will live in our hearts and minds, whatever the divisions in our country at the moment.