06 March 2013
By Dave Zirin
As 80,000 Baltimore Ravens fans gathered at MB&T Bank
Stadium to rally and celebrate their team's triumph in
Sunday's Super Bowl, head coach John Harbaugh had
something to say to the massive crowd. "We
had a visit from the greatest of all time, Muhammad
Ali.... And he used to say, ‘What's my name?' We're
going to finish it off right here, with our whole
stadium declaring to the football world, loud and
clear who we are. Three times. Are you ready? What's
our name? [crowd answers "Ravens"] What's our name?
[crowd answers "Ravens"] What's our name? [crowd
answers "Ravens"] Yeah! Thank you!"
It was deeply moving to hear Coach Harbaugh invoke the
champ. Ali visited the team before the start of the
season and was a source of inspiration throughout the
year. There were stories over the weekend that the
great Ali was close to death. Thankfully, this turned
out to be false and his daughter Laila tweeted a
picture of him getting ready for the big game and very
much alive.
The words of Muhammad Ali are also a beautiful thing
to hear in the 21st century. Harbaugh is keenly aware
of its history and what Ali meant in his day. As he
said in September, "He molded a generation. He was
courage for a generation. He changed the world, but
not just in the ring. The ring was his platform to
change the world."
Harbaugh is absolutely right and the phrase "What's my
name?" encapsulates that courage. In 1967, heavyweight
champ Muhammad Ali was defending his title against
challenger Ernie Terrell. By now, "the Greatest" had
already cemented his position as the most
controversial and derided athlete in the history of
the United States. Ali had already changed his name
from Cassius Clay after joining the Nation of Islam.
His name change meant that he had declared allegiance
to an organization that called white people "devils"
and believed racism was an incurable part of the
United States.
He had also by this
time become an anti-war lightning rod by becoming a
draft resistor and refusing to be any part of the
US war in Vietnam.
Sportswriter Murray Robinson echoed the overwhelming
majority of the media when he said, "[Clay] the adult
brat, who has boasted ad nauseam of his fighting skill
but who squealed like a cornered rat when tapped for
the Army, should be shorn of his title."
This is what was swirling before his fight against
Terrell yet Ali was his typical, Louisville Lip cool.
He uncorked a classic poem saying, "I predict that
Terrell will catch hell at the sound of the bell. He
is going around saying he's a championship fighter but
when he meets me he'll fall 20 pounds lighter. He
thinks he's a champ but after I'm finished hell just
be a tramp. Now I'm not saying this just to be funny.
But I'm fighting Ernie because he needs the money."
But in advance of the opening bell, the tenor changed.
"I had a question for him when we met to sign [the
fight contract]," Ali said two days before the fight.
"It was only three words: ‘What's my name?' Terrell
said, ‘Cassius Clay,' using my slave name. That made
it a personal thing, so I'm gonna whup him until he
addresses me by my proper name. I'm gonna give him a
whupping and a spanking, and a humiliation." Terrell
continued to call Ali "Clay" in the lead up which
turned out to be a very bad idea. Ali decimated
Terrell, calling out with near every punch, "What's
my name? What's my name? What's my name fool?"
It's beautiful that Coach Harbaugh chose this
particular moment of triumph to honor the Greatest.
It's also ironic, given what took place before the
rally. To get to the stadium, the Ravens all traveled
in massive military Humvees as adoring crowds
cheered. If we are to remember the Ali who said,
"What's my name", it would be myopic to not also
remember the Ali who said, "The object of war is to
kill, kill, kill, and continue to murder innocent
people." Many in the sports media saw the use of
military Humvees as a fantastic tribute to the
troops.
One can only wonder what
these same sportswriters would have said about Ali in
the 1960s. One can only wonder what they would write
if a modern-day Ali emerged to say, "The object of
drones, the object of assassination lists, the object
of war is to kill, kill, kill, and continue to murder
innocent people."
We need to remember what
it was that made Ali so hated as well as so dangerous.
It wasn't his quotes. It was, as Coach Harbaugh said,
his courage.
[Dave Zirin is the author of the forthcoming "Game
Over: How Politics Has Turned the SportsWorld Upside
Down" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by
emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.]
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