“... those who helped make the world a better place were far more often chess players than football gorillas”.
You are right, IJ. The chess type players were the people who left England to come to America. The chess type players were also the ones to fight in the Revolution. I am sure close to 100% of the men fought on Iwo Jima were chess players. Google West Point and Naval Academy football players. An interesting person was Pete Dawkins (West Point class of 1959). Brigadier General, Heisman Tophy Maxwell award winner, Rhodes Scholar, Ph.D from Princeton, paratrooper, recipient of two Bronze Stars during Vietnam, and the only cadet in history to be a Brigadier Commander, President of his class, captain of the football team and a “Star Man” (top 5% of his class academically. Your issue is that you see black and white. A man with strong athletic ability cannot possess intellect. An intelligent man cannot possess strong athletic quality. Check mate.
I said that? I believe it was you who suggested that I must have been "in the chess club" because I opposed football on college campuses. Besides the glaring non sequitur, you're also guilty of putting words in my mouth.
My stance is that football -- athletics in general -- are not proper sponsored activities in an academic setting. I don't care how many manly men are football players; that has nothing to do with the argument. Those men would have been manly -- and presumably have demonstrated the same qualities of leadership and courage -- regardless of the setting in which they indulged their passion for sports. How does that argue in favor of football on campus?
Check mate.
More like Fool's Mate. And you're playing Black.