[a little elbow grease]

"I’ve often said if steroids are unfair, why isn’t Tommy John surgery unfair? You’re replacing a worn elbow ligament with a relatively unused one and guys return with more zip on their fastballs than before the surgery. Both are getting an artificial result that the human body couldn’t produce on its own. The only difference is one is done in an operating room and the other can be self-administered."

That is an interesting point of view.

Along those lines, I sometimes wondered about this:

"Tom Dempsey was an inspirational NFL player. Despite being born with only half a right foot and no right hand, the tenacious kicker had an 11-year NFL career. Dempsey kicked a record 63-yard field goal with the New Orleans Saints in 1970."

He also had a shoe on his kicking foot with a FLAT front. I wonder if that was fair.

[OrangeHoof]

"Tom Dempsey was an inspirational NFL player. Despite being born with only half a right foot and no right hand, the tenacious kicker had an 11-year NFL career. Dempsey kicked a record 63-yard field goal with the New Orleans Saints in 1970." He also had a shoe on his kicking foot with a FLAT front. I wonder if that was fair.

Not only that, but the kicking shoe had a wooden block inside to make the front of it flat. Dempsey essentially had a croquet mallet for a foot which meant he could get great distance but he was not very accurate. I would lump him in with pitcher Antonio Alfonseca who was born with six fingers on his pitching hand - he was an oddity but the oddity didn't exactly help him.

BTW, Detroit Lions great Alex Karras was asked why nobody rushed Dempsey on that famous kick. He said, "We were too busy laughing. Nobody thought he could make it." Also, the New Orleans coach said he got confused about which side of the field they were on or he would have never sent Dempsey out there. At the time, the NFL record was like 55 or 56 yards.