Though it's not the most famous sports broadcasting phrase from t.v. in the U.S. in the 1960s, something Howard Cosell once said during a broadcast is the one to which I think I need to resort. Cosell, who had completed a law degree earlier in his somewhat storied career, commented on some legal point that had come up during the play-by-play, about "the drag chain of the law," and in a tone of derision.
Indeed -- Hot 'n' High -- I carry around that chain, nowadays trying to buck its tendency to resist common sense as well as plain speaking. And also, where I can, to decry its incentives to turn young people into mere accounts, collections of client revenue, and rungs on ladders of professional status. It took me a good many years compared to peers who went straight through college and then law school in the standard seven years, actually to complete a law degree and get licensed to practice. But that doesn't stop me from speaking with disdain about the many, and deep, corruptions of the soul which the practice in the U.S. nowadays encourages if not requires in way too many instances.
The most famous sports broadcasting phrase is, of course, at the start of Wide World of Sports: The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. In the background, a skier tumbling out of control. Whether that can be compared to the sense many pro pilots and safety advocates have when seeing the out-of-control debacle which the 737 MAX became, well that's not a legal question.
There are a good many connections between the pathway I traversed eventually to take the oath of the "bureau petit" which is a license to practice law in the U.S., and the way in which flying machines have captivated my imagination. But this is an anonymous posting board, I guess.