In the Arena

Maybe you never watched Eliot Spitzer's news/talk show on CNN. Maybe that's one reason why it's just been canceled. But Spitzer did leave with a farewell quote from Teddy Roosevelt that I think all of us boxing writers would be smart to keep in mind. Here's a snippet of the sign-off:

SPITZER: That's it for tonight. This is my last program. And I thought the best way to sign off is with a quotation from Theodore Roosevelt. It is, in fact, the passage from which we took the title of the program "IN THE ARENA."

Here it is: It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood which strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Thanks for watching. Good night from New York.