Money, money, money: In sport, excess has become disturbingly normal

Do young people ever wonder why older folk say Muhammad Ali’s name like a prayer? He was scarcely a saint, yet we keep returning to him, talking about his hands, his feet, his mouth and his bravery. Just to remind ourselves of what he represented and also what we’ve lost.

“I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs,” Ali said when he refused to be drafted to fight in Vietnam. “So I’ll go to jail, so what?” He didn’t but he was banned from boxing from 1967 to 1970. For him, principle trumped profession.