Proof honesty is the best policy

“The second thing that made him interesting was that he was honest. He talked about his fears. He wasn’t reticent. He acknowledged what so many athletes have, which is a real internal fear.”

That’s the immortal Gay Talese, talking about the heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson. Talese wrote dozens of pieces about Patterson because he found the boxer such an interesting character — for the reasons cited above.

I was reminded of this description after the Ronan O’Gara documentary, which aired on Thursday night. Don’t pretend you didn’t see it; I doubt anyone within the jurisdiction was watching anything else that evening.