@Ticomaya,
The video has been blocked from coming in to my neck of the woods Tico so I have been denied a good laugh I suppose.
Not having seen it I don't know whether it was as good a laugh as one I came across a while ago in my eclectic reading material. Anthony Burgess has this tough guy on a ship making his way to Rome in a slow boat. He's called Caleb. He's knifed the undercook in the brothel area so as to take his place and thus "work his passage". And he hasn't been that well brought up and certainly not to the standards of an American college where, unlike here, the future stars of our two forms of football are nurtured and cultivated. He's big and strong and a tough guy. And there's fame and fortune in Rome for tough guys and they come from all points and over long distances to try their luck before what was a very objective audience.
And he knows "Greek holds, Judeaen feints" and on top of that "points on the human frame which, if pressed, can induce temporary paralysis". And his mission in to free his sisters from enslavement in which goodness knows what is happening to them since they were abducted and to lift the Roman heel from off the throat of his homeland. And to manage that he has to become a famous sporting hero of the city and secure the admiration of the well-to-do ladies and thus a possible key to the door.
He is thin-skinned as well and quick to get riled up. And Burgess deems it "unworthy" of him to also having a quiet fancy for applause for itself and a lifestyle in which sisters and Roman heels are put on the back burner. Selling out we call it. The sort of thing that if you mentioned it to Caleb you would be better off running away quick. He can't take a joke either.
A patrician on the ship after seeing Caleb throw the largest of his piss-takers overboard in a formal Roman-style fight, he arranged on the foredeck after seeing the snarling match, and then, on being told the guy couldn't swim, fishes him out himself to general applause, he finds out he is going to work in the arena. He's a part-time talent scout who gives Caleb a name to look up and get a fast start. A franchise shareholder possibly. He's been investigating fraudulent practices in Alexandria and Petra but, being a regular traveler, he keeps on the look out for other business opportunities and promising sportsmen are one of those. A fast horse just as well. A few lions, crocodiles and rare birds for the table of those with the most exquisite taste. Anything as a matter of fact. Female slaves. Contortionists. He knew that man did not live by bread alone.
He says, "His is a manly trade; sybaritic Rome, that is becoming effeminate, needs to see muscle at work, recalling more primitive glories."
Caleb thanks him for the name.
You do see the joke don't you Tico? I would hate to have to explain it to you.
The fame and fortune of top sportsmen then was much the same as it is now and they were not subject to the restrictions Tiger Woods is labouring under.
