Frank Deford is a such a well respected literary lion that many do refuse to refer to him as a mere sportswriter.
That label seems too small, too confining for the Connecticut based Sports Illustrated scribe.
A better way to describe Deford would be to call him an essayist, a serious man of letters who can write about weighty matters above and beyond the thimble world of sports.
If there was one print sports journalist, my late boss and American broadcasting legend Howard Cosell had respect for, it was the courtly Deford.
Now Deford is no boxing advocate, not by any means. He objects morally to the idea of a sport riddled with athletes getting their brains damaged and rife with corruption.
Yet and so, from his lofty perch at National Public Radio, Deford has just contributed a paen to the massive popularity of Pinoy Idol Manny Pacquiao.
It only runs three minutes, 37 seconds but, being typically Deford, every word is meaningful.
You may hear it, right here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121482903
Clearly, precincts which usually disdain boxing by and large feel that the Pacquiao story cannot go unnoticed.
Journalist Frank Deford
NPR is considered the educated, thinking person’s public radio network of choice in America and with good reason.
Sports marketing agent Greg Marotta, whose late uncle was legendary cutman Ace Marotta, knows something about icons.
As a high school football standout in New Jersey, he was recruited to play at Memphis State by a singer you may have heard of, a guy named Elvis Presley.
Marotta is impressed by the NPR/SDeford essay.
“It shows you how big Manny is getting in this country, it shows you he is exceeding the boundaries of boxing. It seems the sky is the limit because love his story.”
