The Best
I noticed that George Best is hospitalized yet again. This is as good a time as any to say briefly why I think he may have been the best footballer the game has yet produced. What it boils down to is that he was the complete package plus he was fearless to the point of recklessness. (Not to mention amazingly tough.) It’s actually a bit more than that; he actually seemed to relish the physical danger of the game. This is confirmed by Best’s own words, in Mike Parkinson’s books about him, for example. Without denigrating the great Pele, the presumed greatest player, it’s this that separates the two. It’s not that I’m alleging Pele lacked courage or daring or toughness. No, it’s that Best was extraordinary. However, let me put it bluntly. Pele would not have scored 1,000 goals in English football. Based on how he was hacked out of the ’66 World Cup, I have my doubts that he would have had a ten-year career. Best took that kind of thuggery week in and week out and came up smiling. There’s always a reluctance in official media to discuss the intimidation side of football, just as there is in ice hockey (Don Cherry’s honesty in this regard is why he’s like by hockey fans and why he’s always on the edge of being canned). Which is why George will always be not quite given his full due.