Are You Finished Yet?

The mind of an athlete is complicated. They are consistently striving to be the best, to work at a level that not many others can fathom and are always in competition. This last point is what makes stepping away from sports so difficult. Athlete’s, especially those that reach the professional level thrive on the competition. When this is taken away from in the form of retirement, there is usually a feeling that one could still compete at high enough level and therefore they should return from their hiatus.

Coming out of retirement is nothing new in professional sports. We see it constantly with boxers. George Foreman retired for the first time in 1977, then made a comeback in 1987, then another in 1994. If some promoter offered him enough money, he might consider fighting this year. Floyd Merriweather is another shining example of someone who thinks he will always have the chops to fight and would step back in the ring if there was a decent offer.

Boxing isn’t the only sport to be affected by this phenomenon. Basketball also has there share. The most prominent player in this group being Michael Jordan. Jordan retired from the game to pursue a dream of playing baseball. When then didn’t work out so well (or in reality his suspension for gambling was finished), he returned to the game. He also retired one other time only to come back and play with the Washington Wizards which was only good for Nike based on merchandise sales.

Now we get to the story of Lance Armstrong. The American cyclist owns the Tour de France by winning it a record seven times. He had most of his success after being diagnosed with cancer in 1996. After his seventh win in 2005, and amid lots of controversy in the cycling world surrounding blood doping and performance enhancing drugs, Armstrong retired…only to return in 2009 to the Tour de France. His years off did not make him any stronger and he imposed drug testing on himself that surely took lots of mental and physical wear on his body and he ended up third in the race. This year, Armstrong has said that this will be his last, but can we believe him? He is getting up there in age, but is coming in third place really that bad? If he can still compete and ends of top five this year, what stops him from coming back in 2011. In his mind he will be on the edge of victory - one excellent time trial or one small mistake from an opponent would hand him the win and an eighth Tour de France win, why step away from that?

The other major retirement in sports in the last month or so was Scott Niedermayer from the NHL. After a story book career where he has won everything possible, including a Memorial Cup, Stanley Cup, World Championship, World Junior Championship and Olympic gold medal, Niedermayer figured he had enough hardware and put the skates and stick away. Hypothetically, what if Anaheim is one solid defenceman away from being a favourite in the Stanley Cup playoffs next season? Do you think Niedermayer contemplates returning to the ice…of course he does and that would add to the long list of athlete’s returning to the games they love.

Who do you think have been the best and worst athlete’s to come out of retirement?

Tyson

Tyson

Last night in Toronto was the Canadian premiere of Tyson, the documentary from filmmaker James Toback (Harvard Man, Pick-Up Artist). The film made its debut last year at the Cannes Film Festival. It showed again to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, so the audience was expecting big things during the showing at Hot Docs at the Isabel Bader Theatre on the University of Toronto campus.

The film is billed as a “frank look at the life of Mike Tyson” and that is spot on. Director James Toback who attended the screening last night, put a camera in front of Tyson during a recent stay at a rehabilitation facility and had him speak on boxing, girls, fame, money and life. The camera just rolls, we see 90 minutes of the over 30 hours of footage that Toback shot.

The footage is just Tyson on a couch, speaking on the different topics, or walking by the water’s edge, philosophizing on how he got to where he is now. There are no other people interviewed during the piece to add fluff about how great a fighter Tyson was and how he ruined himself. It is Tyson speaking on how great he was and how he ruined himself. He is very honest with the camera, admitting to cheating on his wife, doing drugs, not training hard for fights, among other things.

You may think that watching Tyson on a couch for 90 minutes wouldn’t be interesting, but the man is insane and admits it. His ramblings on some of his personal activities, how he values money and people and how deadly he could be if unleashed in society scarred some in the audience, but made others laugh out loud.

The documentary does have footage of Tyson in the ring, on display is his power and speed. You forget how young he was (18 years old) when he turned pro. The film they have of him working out and developing while under the watchful eye of his first trainer Cus D’Amato is great to see. They also use some of his press conference footage (Lewis-Tyson Press Conference) and interview footage of old news shows, including a great one with Barbara Walters and Robin Givens where you see a man that has been sideswiped by the media.

Mike Tyson was a simple man. He grew up with a broken home, robbed and beat people up to make cash between the ages of 10 and 13. That was his lifestyle until he found boxing. He took all the rage and anger that society had thrust upon him and used that in the ring. When society decided to give back, with money and adoration he didn’t know how to handle it. It broke him and it led to him going to prison. He tried to recover, but his mind would no longer believe that boxing was right for him.

Now, he has had the chance to look back at his life at the early age of 40, scared himself and has almost righted the ship. Tyson will be a great mentor to young people one day. Showing them that fame and money are not everything it is cracked up to be.

For the boxing and sports fan, this is a no brainer – go see Tyson. For the non-sports fan, you get a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary man who crashed and is trying to build himself up.

10 Rocky Balboa’s out of 10 Rocky Balboa’s!