The beginning of the NFL season inaugurates a de facto debate at the watercooler, or thereabouts: who's the toughest guy you saw this weekend?
Tom Brady? Maybe.
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Richard Seymour? If I'm the Patriots, I wish I never let him go.
But I want to run something back here, an athlete whose virtues were lost in the news cycle, woefully unacknowledged by the first week of pro football. Turns out the toughest guy isn't even a guy. She isn't even a football player.
Kim Clijsters. Yes, that's right. The U.S. Open champion, mommy.
Look, I've been on the field and seen, no, felt, the concussive hits up close. I've been ringside for the most brutal knockouts. But I've also been in the delivery room. It's like the first 20 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" — except it goes on for hours.
I'm a devout believer in the miracle of birth, which, like most miracles, is a test of faith.
Happens the same every time. The nurse says, "There it is. See?"
And the guy says, "Where?" All the while thinking: "Are you ------- kidding me? No way that's getting through there."
No one should ever come back from that kind of physical trauma. No one.
Now you want me to weep because Brett Favre got his shoulder scoped? Please.
Favre had the trainer from Minnesota flying out to give him pep talks and shoulder rubs. New mothers are sent home, still wounded, and left to deal with prolonged sleep deprivation and psychiatric torture that would've shamed the most sadistic masters at GITMO.
Which brings me back to Kim Clijsters, who has an 18-month-old daughter named Jada, winning the U.S. Open tennis tournament.
Hot mommas
 Photos: Kim Clijsters isn't the only woman to experience athletic success after giving birth. We've come up with a whole list of winning moms. |
I know other athletes have done extraordinary things after giving birth. There are those crazy distance runners, and Dara Torres and Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes, to name a prominent few. Still, with another NFL season now begun, the attributes celebrated by the TV announcers like John Madden were best displayed by Clijsters.
There goes your week's toughest ballplayer. Turns out Clijsters is the first mother to win a Grand Slam since Evonne Goolagong won at Wimbledon in 1980. But she's also the first unseeded woman to win the Open, and she only had to defeat both of the Williams sisters to do it.
As comebacks go, I'll take that over Brady's knee and Favre's shoulder.
Anyone who's witnessed the metamorphosis — from woman to baby mama — would tell you the same: they're tougher than we are.
On the Mark
Can't wait to see which comedy did better ratings, Leno or the Bills?
LaDainian Tomlinson — 55 yards, one fumble, one catch — says he's a more complete back than Adrian Peterson.
Truth is, he's less complete than Darren Sproles.
Nice to see Matt Barkley come off the field and immediately give credit to the Almighty.
Obviously, God likes Southern Cal a lot more than Ohio State.
And why not? I mean, those kids at SC have already been through so much.
Speaking of Barkley, if you graduate high school early, attend spring practice and workouts with your college team, then celebrate your 19th birthday in September, are you really a true freshman?
