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by David P. Greisman - There are but three truths on this earthly plain, three realities as incurable as they are inevitable: death, taxes and professional athletes who are never able to fully recover from the addiction of competition.
Their lives were once cycles of constant training and travel mixed in with glorious victorious days and sleepless winless nights. And when it’s gone, emptiness sets in, followed by a search for meaning in a future that is as yet undefined.
It never helps that others are able to come back with apparent ease, be it Michael Jordan averaging 20 points per game as a 40-year-old Washington Wizard or Pete Sampras winning an exhibition match at the ancient tennis age of 36 against Roger Federer, an exceptional player 10 years his junior.
The Sweet Science is far from immune when it comes to retirements that end up as extended sabbaticals and careers that continue long past a pugilist’s best days. George Foreman was 45 when he recaptured the heavyweight championship, setting the stage for fellow big men with big dreams to keep on punching long after they should have punched out. At 40, Bernard Hopkins still ruled the middleweight division. Two years later he is the light heavyweight king. [details]
Their lives were once cycles of constant training and travel mixed in with glorious victorious days and sleepless winless nights. And when it’s gone, emptiness sets in, followed by a search for meaning in a future that is as yet undefined.
It never helps that others are able to come back with apparent ease, be it Michael Jordan averaging 20 points per game as a 40-year-old Washington Wizard or Pete Sampras winning an exhibition match at the ancient tennis age of 36 against Roger Federer, an exceptional player 10 years his junior.
The Sweet Science is far from immune when it comes to retirements that end up as extended sabbaticals and careers that continue long past a pugilist’s best days. George Foreman was 45 when he recaptured the heavyweight championship, setting the stage for fellow big men with big dreams to keep on punching long after they should have punched out. At 40, Bernard Hopkins still ruled the middleweight division. Two years later he is the light heavyweight king. [details]
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