Alex Karras, football great and TV/movie star, reportedly has only days to live after suffering kidney failure.
He's also suffering from dementia, likely accelerated from the battering he got and gave in football. Especially sad, considering the lively personality and humor he brought to his efforts in sports broadcasting and showbiz.
Awwww man......first football game I ever saw, he had Bart Starr eating dirt all day long. The Lions fearsome foursome of those days was truly a fearsome sight for the opposing quarterback.
Thanks for many fine Sunday afternoons of my youth, Alex.
He was on the losing side of Tom Dempsey's record-setting 63yd field goal and if you see the video you can see a Detroit Lion flinging his helmet across the field in disgust. That was Karras.
He despised kickers, especially the imported soccer-style kickers. If I recall correctly, he's the one who coined the insulting "I vant to keeck a touchdown!" utterance to characterize the bunch. Some attribute it to Garo Yepremian.
He also played himself in the movie, "Paper Lion," about writer George Plimpton going through Lions training camp as quarterback.
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