by Robert Morales
Longtime boxing commentator Jim Lampley sat in trainer Freddie Roach's Wild Card Boxing Club on Friday and was asked why people should tune in next Friday when HBO's six-episode series "On Freddie Roach" makes its debut (at 9:30 p.m.).
The show will center on Roach's career as well as his life outside the ring and how he handles it all while dealing with Parkinson's disease, from which Roach has been suffering for 21 years.
Lampley, one of four executive producers of the series, spoke animatedly about what promises to capture many hearts.
"Of all the prominent figures in the sport, who has the most complex and interesting life?" Lampley said. "Freddie was diagnosed with Parkinson's 21 years ago. Here he is training fighters both from off the street, and at the pinnacle of the sport, any and all of whom may be subject to the same effects that he himself experiences."
Roach had 53 pro fights during a career that ended in 1986. He said doctors have told him his Parkinson's is probably, but not certainly, a result of boxing.
"What are the inner ironies of that?" Lampley said. "Where did it all come from? Who is Freddie Roach? What's his family background? What's his life like away from the ring? How does this all fit into the backdrop of Parkinson's?"
Lampley recalled something he mentioned to fellow executive producer, actor/filmmaker Peter Berg, during one discussion.
"Suppose there was out there in your mind some target date at which you thought the curtains were going to close," Lampley said. "What's your urge and your instinct in the face of that, if you're ambitious, if you're driven, like Freddie?
"He's trying to put as many marks on the board as he possibly can before those curtains close. And not just in his professional life, in his personal life as well. And it leads to this sort of driven, hectic existence, which also adds these amazing moments of supreme solitude because at the end of the day Parkinson's is a very lonely experience."
Lampley said Roach will describe how loneliness is his greatest fear.
"And yet we see him throughout the series over and over alone in his house, organizing, wiping, putting things in order, unconsciously wiping the sinks and the faucets," Lampley said. "All of these (are) visible elements of a man trying to apply control to a life which ultimately is beyond his control.
"It makes for amazing pictures, pictures which in our view required no narration."
Lampley is excited about the series, which he said was the brainchild of himself, Roach, Nick Khan - the agent of Lampley and Roach - and Lampley's manager, Michael Price.
Roach modestly intimated he wasn't sure what to think about it at first.
"I think I'm kind of a boring person, to be honest with you, and Jim and Peter thought otherwise," Roach said. "They asked me if I can be open like I am in (HBO's) "24/7." Can I be myself with the camera crew being around?
"And I thought about it and I always wanted to be a little bit famous and I chose to do the show. They filmed me for almost a year and the crew was great."
Sometimes his disposition was good, sometimes not.
"They catch me in good moods and sometimes in bad moods and you really get to see what my life is about and how I deal with it," said Roach who trains, among many others, Manny Pacquiao. "And Parkinson's is always there, of course, but it's something I try to ignore as much as I can and I try to just like don't even think about that.
"Just work, work, work and get done what I have to do."
Berg as well-known as an actor - he played Dr. Billy Kronk on the CBS series "Chicago Hope" - and a director of such films as "Friday Night Lights," "The Kingdom," "The Rundown" and "Battleship."
Lampley said he wanted a major cinematic theatrical director involved in the project, and he said Berg was an easy choice because, "If you start the list of sports-related directors in the industry right now, it's a no-brainer who's No. 1."
Berg jumped at the chance when Lampley contacted him. Part of the reason was his relationship with Roach, who saw Berg trying to hit a heavy bag about 17 years ago at the Outlaw Gym in Hollywood.
"I came in a couple of times and nobody would talk to me and Freddie, who hasn't changed since then, was the first one to come up to me and say, `God, you look horrible. Your hands are wrong, you're slow, there is no turn in your hook,"' Berg said, laughing.
Seriously, Berg was on board the moment he was asked.
"I've known Freddie on and off for many years and it just instantly clicked as something that could be very unique, complex, could work on a lot of different levels," Berg said.
"And Freddie, despite his own humble self-perception, he's an incredibly unique individual who's at the top of his game right now."
Roach is the only five-time Trainer of the Year and will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in June.
