George Best

[chrishansenhome]

I'm watching FBI Files right now instead of BBC 10'o clock news. George Best died today and all the news outlets have been full of it. He's said to be the best football player ever (=US soccer, of course), but his last years have been marred by his alcoholism, his liver transplant, and his subsequent return to drinking. There won't be much on this in the US (although it was on CNN online). He's been dying by degrees for the past month, and last night he was supposed to be imminently dying. It took a while. The satellite trucks and commentators were hovering around the hospital. So I presume that the first 10-15 minutes of the news tonight, like the first 10 minutes of the BBC4 6 o'clock news, will be devoted to him. I already know enough about him.

So while I'm sad he's gone, and gone in that particularly unfortunate way, I just want to avoid the news until he's been planted.

Comments

[besskeloid.livejournal.com]

his last years have been marred by his alcoholism, his liver transplant, and his subsequent return to drinking.

Not to mention his wifebeating.

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks but no thanks for reminding me of that. The beatification process has already started, and people are saying, "Remember him as he was, not how he ended up." Bushwah.

I hear they're burying him in Belfast, next to his mother. The way they're going, they'll be demanding that he be buried next to Diana.

[vasilatos]

He took up a bit of the national morning news in the U.S. If he'd lived here, he would have been vilified, methinks. Our news just picked up the sympathy reporting from Britain.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

I never saw him play, of course, but I would be surprised if he were better than Pelé or Diego Armando Maradona. I had never heard of George Best until yesterday, and I do somewhat follow international soccer, having grown up outside the US. Maybe it's because Best played so long ago, but so did Pelé.