Tuesday, July 27, 2004

"...choked my nuts off.":  Yes, it's everyone's favorite tennis player from Down Undah, talking about life after the ATP: Patrick Rafter (the link may be for SI subscribers only, not sure what kind of embedded cookies my browers has currently).  This link has the part of the conversation that was not included in the print-version of SI this past week. 

The above quote refers to the 2000 finals between Raffie and Sampras, and how Pat wishes he could have played it over and not choked his proverbial nuts off. 

So he's not playing pro tennis anymore, just some World Team Tennis (which is barely tennis).  What is he doing then?

SI: Do you keep up with your training at all?

Rafter: I play a sport called Aussie Rules Footie and play for a [Sydney-based] team called the North Shore Bombers. Sydney is a rugby-dominated city. There are two types of rugby in Australia. We have the Rugby Union and Rugby League. This is like the third tier. They're not quite sure where to put me. I'm not a little player, so they think I should be up with the forwards, sort of muscling around a bit. I'm still fit, and I still run pretty quick so they are now putting me in faster positions. The great thing about it is the sport is played in a really good spirit. We go in hard. We tackle hard. We hit hard. But outside of that, there's no cheap shots at the head, and we sit down and have a chat after the game with all the guys. It's done in a really great manner. I just love playing a team sport. The one thing I really missed in tennis was not having that opportunity enough. We had the Davis Cup and that was it.

Other than that, he's playing golf, hanging out with his kid, and enjoying a nice beer and barbie.

We, of course, hate him.

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