INCONSOLABLE GRIEF, DEATH THREATS AND CRIMINAL ACCUSATIONS AS THOUSANDS CRASH BARRICADES
THREE DAYS OF NATIONAL MOURNING
Thousands of mourners crushed police barricades in Buenos Aires on Thursday for a last glimpse of the great soccer player Diego Maradona as his body lay in state in the presidential palace.
On the first of three days of national mourning in Argentina for the superhero, distraught fans pumped their fists, clapped their hands and threw flowers, flags and football shirts at the foot of the casket.
DEATH THREATS FOR FUNERAL WORKER
One of the men who prepared Maradona’s body for a private open-coffin wake for family and friends has received death threats for desecrating the body after he posed for a photo with one hand resting on Maradona’s head and the other giving a thumbs up.
The worker, Diego Molina was fired on the spot and now lives in fear for his life.
LAWYER CLAIMS “CRIMINAL IDIOCY’
Maradona’s lawyer Matias Morla claimed that the football hero was left for twelve hours without aid before his death on Wednesday, which came two weeks after he had brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
“It is inexplicable that for twelve hours my friend had no attention or check-up from the personnel dedicated to these ends,” he said.
Morla also charged it was “criminal idiocy” that an ambulance took thirty minutes to arrive. He vowed that Maradona’s death will be be “investigated to the end.”
UPDATE: DOCTORS CHARGED WITH ‘RECKLESSNESS’
TURBULENT LIFESTYLE
Regarded by many as the greatest player of all time, Maradona’s life was a combination of breath-taking football skill, showmanship and a turbulent personal life of women, cocaine and alcohol.
On the field, Diego Maradona had an uncanny control of the ball. His intuitive passing and rapid dribbling were combined with his small stature — 5-foot-five (1.65 m) — which gave him a low centre of gravity allowing him to maneuver past multiple opposing players on a run.
MARADONA IN ACTION
SPECTACULAR DEBUT AT 16
Ten days before his 16th birthday, on October 20, 1976, Diego Maradona made his professional debut with the Argentinos Juniors, becoming the youngest player in the history of Argentine Primera Division.
In the first few minutes of the game, Maradona kicked the ball through his opponent’s legs, making a ‘nutmeg’ that would become legendary.
After the game, Maradona said, “That day I felt I had held the sky in my hands.”
American Daze Purple Haze Magazine
It never ceases to amaze me how high on a pedestal we put our athletes, especially in death. Their life’s claim to fame in reality is simply being good at kicking a ball, hitting a home run, or scoring a touchdown. Yet whole countries morn their death even though most, as you’ve stated with Maradona, are as immorally imperfect just like the rest of us. Usually, because of the power that their sport has given them, even more so!
People living under police-state laws and under the jackbooted heel of dictatorial governments — as they in Argentina, America and most other countries in the world — seek joy and distraction and some kind of freedom in sports and if they want to revere their sports heroes for setting them free for a few hours, what’s wrong with that? Sports stars are the antithesis of lying corrupt low-life war-mongering politicians and the common man needs some relief from the filth of the Swamp.
Nobody said its wrong, simply notable as to human nature. I just find it curious how passionate we can get about our sports heroes, music and actor celebrities who’s basic claim to fame is that they are/were good at the one thing that they do. I too have my sports heroes and when they pass I also feel a moment of loss. But to elevate them to national icon status because they exceled at a sports game? Or as an actor or actress in the entertainment industry? What does that tell us about our species? I just think we can learn a lot about our human nature by the choices we make in picking our heroes. There is no judgement here, simply a curious observant perspective.
Corky, I didn’t mean to say it’s wrong in a judgmental sense, I was just using the expression “what’s wrong with that” in a general way. Anyway I see your point and as for me I don’t particularly have any sports heroes. I do however get a kick out of watching a remarkable sports moment, like a triple play in baseball or a 60-yard field goal in football, or Secretariat winning the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths but sports is not really my thing, especially these days when it has become so politicized. In the Maradona post I was writing objectively about his fans — and he was a bloody good soccer player.
All good buddy! I never saw him play, not really into soccer. I’m from Canada so Hockey is what we live for here. But nothing it seems draws more passion than soccer to those who were brought up with it. They can get really crazy over it like a matter of life and death even! Hooligans, riots in the stands, wow!
Now hockey is one game I do like, really liked watching how the Great One knew where the puck was going before it got there. When I first started watching hockey back in the whenever the Maple Leafs were on top, last championship 1967, then the longest losing streak in NHL history (my recollection may be a little off here). Yep, every Saturday night I’d be in front of the TV with plenty of Red Cap on tap watching Hockey Night in Canada — enjoying the acerbic commentary of Don Cherry, the guy in the outlandish outfits — that was before hockey spread throughout the U.S. of A and brought in the era of the enforcers. P.S. I see you keep late hours like me, but now I’m gonna try and catch some ZZZZZZs. Good to chat communicate with an good ole Canuck.