dragit

Don't worry about it. I believe the research suggests CTE comes from repetitive hitting. Training camp and a little practice squad work shouldn't put him in danger.

Just a remarkable person.

He is a titanic intellect. Tempered by his great respect for others' views and his ability to disagree and argue in good faith. And the ellipses punctuated such an effective writing style . . .

OK I'll imagine that. 20-25 points at heavyweight guaranteed. Potential high finisher at 197 if everything goes exactly right. But the more likely range of outcomes is somewhere in the range of mid AA to different guy wins the spot to gets thrown off the team to gets thrown in jail. And with a very high probability of hurting team morale under all scenarios.

I think the best athletes in the world (top tier at their sport plus athleticism) are probably Carlos Alcaraz, Jalen Ramsay, and Mookie Betts.

People, Gable Steveson is not going to play in the NFL. He knows it and if he doesn't then the NFL does. Hopefully he will wrestle again. I expect he will. It's the thing he can make the most money doing. It's also a noble pursuit with respect to which he is the best in the world, whereas he will not be particularly good, let alone great, at anything else he does. That is not an insult; instead it is a commentary on how good he is at wrestling.

Best in the world at the first two. Zero chance he'd be successful at the next two. Doubt he'd be particularly successful at either of the last two. But only he can decide what he thinks is best for his life.

Strongly agree with the basic premises. Not a serious NFL prospect, and at some point he'll realize that real wrestling is his best shot at steady income. I draw a different conclusion from these starting points about whether he would go to college -- why wouldn't he do one more year if he can get that retroactive bogus Olympic redshirt approved for a high six figure payday. He is a different kind of guy. Better at wrestling than literally everyone else but not nearly as interested in wrestling as everyone else. My fervent hope is that he comes back to the thing he is singularly great. I'd be surprised if he'll be any kind of successful at anything else he's interested in. He is however (sadly for anyone who wants to watch the greatest wrestler wrestle) as a man of free will to be entitled to be interested in other things, including that he's entitled to go to a football training camp if a team is willing to invite him (think they like wrestling in Buffalo, Burroughs spoke to them once at practice) and see if it generates any worthless publicity regarding something that isn't going to happen. Just gotta wait for this to blow itself out and see if we're lucky enough to get him back.

Heart condition or no, does anyone seriously think there is any chance that Steveson is ever going to play a down in a regular season NFL game? This is all part of the show -- not his strong suit. His strong suit is in being the best heavyweight wrestler on the planet, a true, can't-take-your-eyes-off-him, force of nature on a wrestling mat. All that's left is for him to decide if that's what he wants to do. If not, then he can go be mediocre at best at whatever else he wants to try next. Everything else is just noise, noise that not as many are as interested in as there used to be.

Definitely a teasing aspect to all this as best demonstrated by them claiming he could be a serious NFL prospect which doesn't seem credible to me. My guess is that if he can get granted the eligibility he'll wrestle in college. Would be a big payday and he has to think he is a commanding favorite to win. It would beat taking your chances on MMA where it's not clear at all you'd dominate competition, guys would literally be trying to kill you, and your trash talking skill which wasn't strong in WWE would still be a problem. Why literally get kicked in the head if you don't have to?

I doubt it will be a consideration for Taylor in his hiring one way or the other.

Agree. Not a chance.

The only pictures and videos I've seen are innocuous. I think this was a very bad call. No indication it affected anything. Unlike the headgear grab that was called in the Zahid-Hall match and the even worse one that wasn't called in Fix-Suriano.

yep that is a really strong union.

You wouldn't even boo this? Sorry couldn't help myself.

I agree with this well put post and have argued for the same result and still do. But I have to admit that there probably ain't much more action in these world and Olympic team finals matches than there is in NCAA finals matches, maybe less. I think the wrestlers have gotten so good at keeping the freestyle matches under control and minimizing risk that they've managed to find a way to cause a similar problem re action that many of us have complained about in folk.

I don't know if they instructed him to yap, I thought it was more that they hired Cormier to do that and Burroughs was just trying to keep up with Cormier. When Burroughs announced with Gibbons in the Iowa/Iowa State match it was a nice pleasant respectful cerebral pairing.

Burroughs is not a saint nor a sportsman nor lovable. He's got an arrogance and a hard edge to him, but he's never claimed otherwise, he's a ruthless competitor who explicitly says that the guy he's wrestling is trying to take something away from him. That's part of what made him a great champion and the leader of a golden age in American wrestling, a career and a role that demands respect. And off the mat he appears to be a true family man, grounds for more respect.

Finally got through my tape of the matches, few random thoughts. Great to see Spencer Lee having persevered to look like Spencer Lee again. The announcers on the main broadcast weren't good or knowledgeable, but honestly I liked them better than BTN or ESPN simply because they were quiet and didn't get in the way of the wrestling. Snyder is just a wrestler's wrestler. All he does is get in great position and do basic wrestling incredibly well. Taylor did look a little flat, but Brooks is a beast. I remember watching him stop Amine, an Olympic medalist, when he was in as deep as humanly possible on a shot a couple of years ago. And now he's just even stronger and better. Flat or not, that was David Taylor who couldn't finish against him. Best wishes to Kyle Dake, an extraordinary technical wrestler who showed a true human side today. I'm generally only interested in MFS, but I have to say the women are improving at lightning speed. You can see why it's such a growing sport. Maybe Jimenez could be our Caitlin Clark in a few years.

Headgear

Wow that wasn't boring. An uncharacteristically bad challenge by Penn State. Looks like the point for lost challenge will cost them the match. Then Zahid gets another penalty to lose a match against a PSU guy in a semifinal for an equipment grab. Really? Then Zahid doesn't challenge??? Double really??? Even if he lost he'd still just need a takedown. Which he wasn't gonna get anyway with so little time left. And I think he could have won the challenge. Not sure we can't know now. Wild.

Now that was entertainment.

Which guy? Pat Downey?!

That would be quite surprising, for starters, he has zero arrests, legal problems, and near fatal reckless accidents, and four national championships, a lot less, and a lot more, respectively, than the other two buffoons combined. I am not a Starocci fan, was very critical of his behavior at Big Tens, but his only basic problem is that he doesn't present himself well in the media, social and otherwise. He's a hard edged unsophisticated guy with nothing in common with Downey and Ferrari.

Wasn't the point of Rocky that he was likeable so you rooted for him?