I'll be in Louisville, Kentucky, today for the dedication of the Muhammad Ali Center.
For many too young to remember, Ali is the former boxing champion who has waged a valiant fight against Parkinson's disease. For many others, Ali is the embodiment of courage and living proof of the idea that time heals wounds and opens eyes.
Ali was the T.O. of his time in terms of rubbing the public the wrong way. Then he was the A-Rod of his time in terms of being the master of his craft. He became larger than his sport because of his refusal to serve in the Army during the Vietnam War and his various stands on principle.
The Muhammad Ali you see revered now was reviled by many of the same people. That was even before he refused to serve in the military. They despised Ali because he talked too much, because he was a pretty boy, because he was too flashy, because he was too flamboyant. Ali pricked the same nerve in the 1960s that Terrell Owens has pricked in 2005.
What if Ali were Floyd Patterson? We may have liked him more, but we wouldn't be dedicating a museum in his honor.
A-Rod and T.O. will never reach that pinnacle -- A-Rod precisely because he does not take chances, Owens because he is absorbed with himself.
We have to stop inventing role models and pariahs on the fly. We have to give events time and space to play themselves out.
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