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Paper Lion
''Paper Lion'' is a 1966 non-fiction book by American author George Plimpton. In 1960, Plimpton, not an athlete, arranged to pitch to a lineup of professional baseball players in an All-Star exhibition, presumably to answer the question, "How would the average man off of the street fare in an attempt to compete with the stars of professional sports?" He chronicled this experience in his book, ''Out of My League''. To write ''Paper Lion'', Plimpton repeated the experiment in the National Football League, joining the training camp of the 1963 Detroit Lions on the premise of trying out to be the team's third-string quarterback. Plimpton, then 36 years old, showed how unlikely it would be for an "average" person to succeed as a professional football player. The book is an expanded version of Plimpton's two-part series which appeared in back-to-back issues of ''Sports Illustrated'' in September 1964. The book's epilogue is also an expanded article from ''Sports Illustrated'' which ...
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Paper Lion (film)
''Paper Lion'' is a 1968 Sports film, sports comedy film starring Alan Alda as writer George Plimpton, based on Plimpton's 1966 Paper Lion, nonfiction book of the same name depicting his tryout with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League. The film premiered in Detroit on October 2, 1968, and was released nationwide the week of October 14, 1968. Plot George Plimpton, a writer for ''Sports Illustrated'', has been indulging in a variety of Walter Mitty-like whims and stunts, trying his hand at being a professional athlete (such as briefly pitching in an exhibition game against Major League Baseball All-Star Game, All-Star baseball players or boxing a round with Sugar Ray Robinson), then writing about the experience. During a game of touch football, his editor gets an idea that Plimpton should try going to a professional football team's training camp as a player. A number of teams say no, but the Detroit Lions agree. Plimpton attempts at first to disguise the fact that ...
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George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was also known for "participatory journalism," including accounts of his active involvement in professional sporting events, acting in a Western, performing a comedy act at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra''The Best of Plimpton'', p. 72 and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur. Early life Plimpton was born in New York City on March 18, 1927, and spent his childhood there, attending St. Bernard's School and growing up in an apartment duplex on Manhattan's Upper East Side located at 1165 Fifth Avenue.Aldrich, p. 18 During the summers, he lived in the hamlet of West Hills, Huntington, Suffolk County on Long Island. He was the son of Francis T. P. Plimpton and the grandson of France ...
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Linebacker
Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, playing closer to the line of scrimmage than the defensive backs (secondary), but farther back than the defensive linemen. As such, linebackers play a hybrid role and are often the most versatile players on the defensive side of the ball; they can be asked to play roles similar to either a defensive lineman (such as stopping the runner on a running play) or a defensive back (such as dropping back into pass coverage). How a linebacker plays their position depends on the defensive alignment, the philosophy of the coaching staff, and the particular play the offense may call. Linebackers are divided into middle linebackers, sometimes called inside linebackers, and outside linebackers. The middle linebacker, often called "Mike", is frequently ...
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Golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping with the varied terrains encountered on different courses is a key part of the game. Courses typically have either 18 or 9 ''holes'', regions of terrain that each contain a ''cup'', the hole that receives the ball. Each hole on a course contains a teeing ground to start from, and a putting green containing the cup. There are several standard forms of terrain between the tee and the green, such as the fairway, rough (tall grass), and various ''hazards'' such as water, rocks, or sand-filled ''bunkers''. Each hole on a course is unique in its specific layout. Golf is played for the lowest number of strokes by an individual, known as stroke play, or the lowest score on the most individual holes in a complete round by an individual or team, k ...
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Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war comedy-drama television series ''M*A*S*H'' (1972–1983). He also wrote and directed numerous episodes of the series. Alda is also known for recurring roles on television series, such as ''The West Wing'' and ''Ray Donovan'', and received critical acclaim for his appearances in films such as '' Same Time, Next Year'' (1978) alongside Ellen Burstyn and for his directorial debut film '' The Four Seasons'' (1981). Other film appearances include ''Crimes and Misdemeanors'' (1989), '' Flirting with Disaster'' (1996), the Cold War drama '' Bridge of Spies'' (2015), and ''Marriage Story'' (2019). In 2004, Alda was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in '' The Aviator''. Alda has also received three Tony Award no ...
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Archie Moore
Archie Moore (born Archibald Lee Wright; December 13, 1913 – December 9, 1998) was an American professional boxer and the longest reigning World Light Heavyweight Champion of all time (December 1952 – May 1962). He had one of the longest professional careers in the history of the sport, competing from 1935 to 1963. Nicknamed "The Mongoose", and then "The Old Mongoose" in the latter half of his career, Moore was a highly strategic and defensive boxer. As of December 2020, BoxRec ranks Moore as the third greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all time. He also ranks fourth on '' The Ring''s list of "100 greatest punchers of all time". Moore was also a trainer for a short time after retirement, training Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and James Tillis. A native of Benoit, Mississippi, Moore was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in poverty. Moore was denied a shot at the world title for 15 years, and spent many of those years fighting on the road with little to show for it. A ...
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Boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time in a boxing ring. Although the term "boxing" is commonly attributed to "western boxing", in which only the fists are involved, boxing has developed in various ways in different geographical areas and cultures. In global terms, boxing is a set of combat sports focused on striking, in which two opponents face each other in a fight using at least their fists, and possibly involving other actions such as kicks, elbow strikes, Knee (strike), knee strikes, and headbutts, depending on the rules. Some of the forms of the modern sport are western boxing, Bare-knuckle boxing, bare knuckle boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, muay-thai, lethwei, savate, and Sanda (sport), sanda. Boxing techniques have been incorporated into many martial ar ...
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Alex Karras
Alexander George Karras (July 15, 1935 – October 10, 2012) was an American football player, professional wrestler, sportscaster, and actor. He was a four-time Pro Bowl player with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), where he played from 1958 to 1970. As an actor, Karras played Mongo in the 1974 comedy film '' Blazing Saddles''. He starred as George Papadopolis, the adoptive father of Webster Long (Emmanuel Lewis), in the ABC sitcom '' Webster'' (1983–1989) alongside his wife Susan Clark. Karras also had a prominent role in ''Victor/Victoria'', starring Julie Andrews and James Garner. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the Centennial class. Early life Born and raised in Gary, Indiana, Karras was the son of Dr. George Karras, a Greek immigrant (from Chios) who graduated from the University of Chicago and pursued his medical degree in Canada. There, George Karras met and married ...
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Defensive Tackle
A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the largest and strongest of the defensive players. Depending on a team's individual defensive scheme, a defensive tackle may be called upon to fill several different roles. These roles may include merely holding the point of attack by refusing to be moved, or penetrating a certain gap between offensive linemen to break up a play in the opponent's backfield. If a defensive tackle reads a pass play, his primary responsibility is to pursue the quarterback, or simply knock the pass down at the line if it is within arm's reach. Other responsibilities of the defensive tackle may be to pursue the screen pass or drop into coverage in a zone blitz scheme. In a traditional 4–3 defense, there is no nose tackle. Instead there is a left and right defensi ...
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Joe Schmidt (American Football)
Joseph Paul Schmidt (born January 19, 1932) is an American former professional football player and coach. Schmidt played professional linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions for 13 years from 1953 to 1965. He won two NFL championships with the Lions (1953 and 1957), and, between 1954 and 1963, he played in ten consecutive Pro Bowl games and was selected each year as a first-team All-Pro player. He was also voted by his fellow NFL players as the NFL's most valuable defensive player in 1960 and 1963, named to the NFL 1950s All-Decade Team, and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973. From 1967 to 1972, Schmidt was the head coach of the Detroit Lions. In six years under Schmidt, the Lions compiled a 43–34–7 record and finished in second place each year from 1969 to 1972. After retiring from the Lions, Schmidt worked as a manufacturer's representative in the automobile industry in Detroit. A native of Pittsburgh, he played college f ...
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Middle Linebacker
Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, playing closer to the line of scrimmage than the defensive backs (secondary), but farther back than the defensive linemen. As such, linebackers play a hybrid role and are often the most versatile players on the defensive side of the ball; they can be asked to play roles similar to either a defensive lineman (such as stopping the runner on a running play) or a defensive back (such as dropping back into pass coverage). How a linebacker plays their position depends on the defensive alignment, the philosophy of the coaching staff, and the particular play the offense may call. Linebackers are divided into middle linebackers, sometimes called inside linebackers, and outside linebackers. The middle linebacker, often called "Mike", is frequentl ...
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Dick Lane (American Football)
Richard Lane (April 16, 1928 – January 29, 2002), commonly known as Dick "Night Train" Lane, was an American professional football player who was a cornerback for 14 years in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the Los Angeles Rams ( 1952–1953), Chicago Cardinals (1954–1959), and Detroit Lions (1960–1965). As a rookie in 1952, Lane had 14 interceptions, a mark that remains a NFL record 70 years later. He played in the Pro Bowl seven times and was selected as a first-team All-Pro player seven times between 1956 and 1963. His 68 career interceptions ranked second in NFL history at the time of his retirement and still ranks fourth in NFL history. He was also known as one of the most ferocious tacklers in NFL history and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974. He was named to the National Football League 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1969, named to the 75th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1994 and unanimously named to the National Footbal ...
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