Quotes by Frank Deford - Page 3

I think there are more good sportswriters doing more good sportswriting than ever before. But I also believe that the one thing that's largely gone out is what made sport such fertile literary territory - the characters, the tales, the humor, the pain, what Hollywood calls 'the arc.'
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Fertile
Tales
Territory
Arc
Calls
Literary
Largely
Sportswriter
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If the players aren't getting paid, there's something terribly, terribly wrong, and that's true only in the United States. Everywhere else, where money is involved with sport, the players get paid. But these poor kids in college, they're doing it for free, and that's just disgraceful.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Kids
Sports
Player
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To compare writing an article for 'Sports Illustrated' to doing a piece for 'Real Sports', the article, it was all me. You know, I'm out there by myself with my pad and pencil. 'Real Sports,' I've got a producer, an assistant producer, and cameramen. It's an individual game versus a team game.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Compare
Sports Illustrated
Versus
Sports Myself Me
Article
Assistant
Illustrated
Producer
Pad
Pencil
Team Game
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In days of yore, Opening Day of the baseball season was special, signifying that spring had come at last. Today, however, Opening Day sort of dribbles into existence, and the spiritual start of spring now belongs to the Masters golf tournament, where the azaleas and magnolias and dogwood bloom.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Masters
Opening
Opening Day
Spring
Belongs
Bloom
Golf Tournament
Tournament
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As it happens, Cumberland was on the verge of bankruptcy and had to give up football. But the villainous Heisman made it play a game that had been scheduled when Cumberland still had a team, or Heisman threatened to demand a $3,000 forfeiture fee that could well have put the school out of existence.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Bankruptcy
Demand
Threatened
Verge
Fee
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I remember one time I wrote something very, very critical about Wilt Chamberlain. The next time I saw him - and Wilt was not a man, as huge as he was - he was not a man of confrontation. And we were in the Lakers locker room. And he sent Jerry West over, and he said, 'Frank, Wilt would like you to leave.'
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Chamberlain
Confrontation
Frank
Lakers
Locker Room
Next Time
One Time
Time Man Remember
Locker
Wilt
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When I was covering games, and this is back in the '60s, you'd go into the manager's office. I can still visualize Earl Weaver from the Baltimore Orioles. I can just see Earl now in his underwear... with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, holding court. And that was the way it was done then.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Beer
Cigarette
Covering
Underwear
Earl
Holding
Manager
Visualize
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It was not that long ago when the accepted wisdom in football was that the running game had to be established - that was always the obligatory verb: established - before passes could become effective. My, we know how that has changed. Now the pass is established from the get-go, and running is an afterthought.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Accepted
Afterthought
Established
Effective
Obligatory
Passes
Verb
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First and foremost, Howard Cosell is sports. There are all these people, these fans, who claim that when Cosell does a game on television, they turn off the sound on the TV and listen to the radio broadcast. Oh, sure. You probably know critics in your neighborhood who vow the same thing. Well, too bad for them.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Critics
Neighborhood
Vow
Broadcast
Claim
Foremost
Same Thing
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I think the four major leagues ought to set up a joint commission - say, of retired judges - to rule on athletes who are accused of doing bad things away from the game. Then each league would retain its independence in determining what penalties their players should get for infractions committed within the sport.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Independence
Accused
Bad Things
Committed
Ought
Penalties
Retired
Athletes
Determining
Joint
Judges
Major Leagues
Retain
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To write long pieces - or not even long pieces - to write stuff like the columns of Red Smith and people like that - they're different then what it is today. Everything today is based on x's and o's. Inside baseball, it's all, 'Who's gonna win?' or you're comparing things - it's not as thoughtful as it used to be.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Baseball
Columns
Red
Thoughtful
Based
Comparing
Smith
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Once again it is peaceful at Augusta National Golf Club, after some rather ugly stand-offs in recent years, when the club balked at changing its all-white, all-male membership tradition. African-Americans and female Americans are on the club manifest now along with other golf-Americans, and all is serene once again.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Manifest
Membership
Peaceful
Serene
Tradition
Ugly
Golf Club
Recent
Recent Years
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How did females become 'guys?' How did everyone become 'guys?' Remember, too, that a male guy was something of a scoundrel. And a wise guy was a fresh kid, a whippersnapper. In its most other famous evocation, men in Brooklyn said 'youse guys.' Damon Runyon referred to hustlers, gamblers, and other nefarious types as guys.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Wise
Famous
Brooklyn
Male
Females
Gamblers
Referred
Scoundrel
Types
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I think, in accepting the amount of money that athletes make, I think that fans accept that now. It's the nature of the beast; that's the way it is, so they understand it. All, I think, fans have changed - because the price of tickets has gone up so much - that they feel a certain sense of entitlement when they go to a game.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Entitlement
Tickets
Athletes
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I think we have enough trouble finding community in this country, and sport does provide that. It is a mediocrisy, the greatest mediocrisy. If you're the best, it shows in sports. Nobody can say, 'Well, he's only there because of his connections,' or whatever. In that sense, I suppose it upholds democracy and the best in us.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Connections
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In the summer of 1963, my second with 'Sports Illustrated,' Jerry Tax, the basketball editor, got the Celtics' Frank Ramsey, the NBA's first famous sixth man, to do a piece for the magazine revealing some of the devious little tricks of his trade. Things like surreptitiously holding an opponent's shorts - nickel-and-dime stuff.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Devious
Frank
Nba
Revealing
Shorts
Sports Illustrated
Tricks
Sixth
Editor
Holding
Illustrated
Magazine
Opponent
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Remember when John Roberts was seeking confirmation of the Supreme Court, and he said judges should be just like umpires, just calling balls and strikes? Well, turnabout is fair play. What baseball needs behind the plate are umpires like those judges who are called strict constructionists, which means you follow subtle law to the letter.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Balls
Calling
Confirmation
Fair Play
Remember When
Seeking
Strict
Subtle
Supreme
Supreme Court
Umpires
John Roberts
Judges
Letter
Plate
Roberts
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You can stand at a bar and scream all you want about who was the greatest athlete and which was the greatest sports dynasty, and you can shout out your precious statistics, and maybe you're right, and maybe the red-faced guy down the bar - the one with the foam on his beer and the fancy computer rankings - is right, but nobody really knows.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Athlete
Beer
Dynasty
Fancy
Foam
Scream
Statistics
Bar
Precious
Shout
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If you're a father of a child who dies, it's an experience that never leaves you. It scars you forever and ever and ever. And so when I do any kind of story with somebody who's in the same position as my daughter was, there's no question that something comes out of me and embraces that story in a way that only a father who lost a child could.
Frank Deford / Sportswriter
Embraces
Experience Father Me
Leaves
No Question
Scars
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