Opinion: A True 'Sports Hero,' Jackie Robinson At 100

I try not to say, "sports hero." An athlete may be electrifying and adored, and do much for their communities. But real heroes are people who run into burning buildings to save lives. Heroes are people who enrich the lives of others — and sometimes — move along history.

There is one athlete who has to be called a hero.

Jackie Robinson was born a hundred years ago next week, Jan. 31, 1919, in the small, segregated town of Cairo, Ga., the youngest of five children. A year later, his father left, and the Robinsons moved to southern California, where Jackie Robinson became one of the most celebrated young athletes in America.

He became 2nd Lt. Robinson in the segregated U.S. Army during World War II, but was court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a bus on the U.S. Army base in Ft. Hood, Texas.

Jackie Robinson was proudly unapologetic and was acquitted. As he said — many times — "I am not concerned with your liking or disliking me. ... All I ask is that you respect me."

He began to play baseball in the old Negro Leagues after the war. There were many talented stars there, like Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, who could and would eventually be signed. But Branch Rickey, who ran the Brooklyn Dodgers, foresaw that the first African-American player in major league baseball would also be the star of a daily national drama.

"I had to get a man who could carry the burden," said Mr. Rickey. "I needed a man to carry the badge of martyrdom."

He signed Jackie Robinson.

He broke into the big leagues in 1947. Most Americans saw baseball then in black and white. Jackie Robinson brought fire. Bigots in the stands hurled curses — and sometimes bottles and threats. Some opposing players slid into him with their spikes. Some opposing pitchers threw at his head. Jackie Robinson played, calmly, nobly and superbly under that profane hail.

When civil rights marchers of the 1960s walked across a bridge in Selma, or the streets of Birmingham, through a blizzard of police sticks, snarling dogs and water cannons, they could hold in their minds the image of Jackie Robinson, walking brave and unbowed to home plate.

Jackie Robinson was an athlete, not Martin Luther King Jr. in baseball stripes. But his own story galvanized his life, and when he left baseball, he became an activist for integration and justice. As President Barack Obama said, "There's a direct line between Jackie Robinson and me." The history Jackie Robinson made helped make America better.

Remembering Julius Peppers the UNC basketball player before what could be his final NFL game

Before he was spending most of his Sundays every fall tracking down quarterbacks, forcing offensive linemen to stumble and ball-carriers to fumble, Julius Peppers was emptying the breadth of his athletic gifts by making hoopers on the hardwood crumble, too.

Peppers, a transcendent athlete with an array of talents, was a surefire star on the gridiron early on. There was no questioning his dominance as an edge rusher. Out of high school, he had numerous opportunities before staying close to home -- and shining -- for the North Carolina Tar Heels. And shine he did. He became a two-time All-American for the Heels before he left school early and saw the Carolina Panthers make him the No. 2 pick in the 2002 NFL Draft.

But few know he also played a role in basketball for the Tar Heels -- and one larger than you might expect. Peppers played 56 games and started in three at UNC as a hooper, and just as he's done skillfully as an elite NFL edge-rusher over the last 17 seasons, Peppers leveraged his 6-7, 290-pound frame with grace and power. He was a dynamic rebounder and rim-rocker. The same unstoppable force he's channeled to hunt down quarterbacks in the backfield for close to two decades in the NFL, is the same he used at North Carolina to power through alley-oops and putbacks.

There's some who even believe he could have pursued a professional career in basketball -- and succeeded.

"I'll tell you this, I do believe if Pep would've just focused on basketball, he could've played in the NBA," Matt Doherty, a former coach at UNC told ESPN in 2015. "[Julius] had feel. He wasn't just a rebounder or banger. He could pass the ball, make the 15-18 foot shot and had soft hands."

Peppers could be playing in his final NFL game on Sunday, fittingly, with the Carolina Panthers. The same team that drafted him, from which the same state he attended college, and the same state he was born and raised in. He says he has no doubts about which path he ultimately chose -- and if you watch his incredible UNC football highlights, you'd likely agree -- but it's incredible to think what might have been. How many high caliber players could realistically have pursued pro careers in two sports?

As Peppers races onto the turf in New Orleans on Sunday, he can do so knowing he probably made the right choice -- probably being the operative term for absolutely, positively without question. The 38-year-old has played in 265 games, started 240 and put up numbers worthy of a future Hall of Fame enshrinement: 11 interceptions, four touchdowns, 81 pass deflections, 52 forced fumbles, 720 tackles, 172 tackles for loss, and oh, 158.5 sacks for good measure. For perspective: That's more sacks than Jason Taylor (a Hall of Famer enshrined in 2017), more tackles for loss than Michael Strahan (a Hall of Famer enshrined in 2014), and excluding Taylor, more touchdowns than the four defensive linemen enshrined into the Hall ahead of him.

Peppers is a lock to one day have a Gold Jacket custom-tailored for his jumbo body, and you can bet he'll have a carefully crafted bust made and featured in the halls of Canton, Ohio, too. He's earned it all, incredibly, with basketball as no more than a footnote -- a did you know as interesting and entertaining to relive as his legendary cameo in the 'Hot in Here' music video -- to his illustrious career.

How the sports book of the year reached the right result – with a dead heat

Cricket and football matches often end as draws, and individual sporting events sometimes finish in a dead heat. The women's 100m freestyle in the 2016 summer Olympics, for example, awarded two gold medals and no silver as the first and second swimmers finished in identical times.

It has taken 30 years, though, for shared spoils to occur in the William Hill sports book of the year, with the un-splittable 2018 decision between Paul Gibson's The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee, a biography of a troubled Ulster boxer, and A Boy in the Water, Tom Gregory's memoir of swimming the Channel at the age of 11 in 1988, the youngest person to have done so.

The consequence of this judging deadlock is that the winning writers divide the £30,000 prize. And anyone who bet on either book winning will – under dead-heat racing rules – lose half their stake money and have the other half paid as a winner at the starting price. That said, the William Hill prize doesn't really have a betting market. The sponsors don't run one because of fears that they would be accused of pressuring the judges to select short-odds favourites, and other turf accountants would likely be reluctant to promote a rival's trophy.

However, any punter who had studied form could have had a clue to what might happen with this year's prize. One of the judges had previously been part of another panel that refused at the final fence. It was me, having also served on the Man Booker jury that proved unable in 1992 to decide between Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient and Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger.

On that occasion, we were criticised for judicial weakness and accused – ironically, given what has now happened with the William Hill – of applying to literature a scientific inseparability that exists only in sports that are timed by the clock.

Prize-giving panels usually have an uneven number of jurors to prevent this happening. But on the William Hill, one judge was unable to take part in the final meeting, and, on the Booker, a colleague who loved both finalists equally felt unable to make the casting vote, although live TV coverage of the ceremony had already begun.

Even with even-numbered panels, a draw will only happen when half the arbiters are not only passionately committed to their own choice but would be horrified if the other lot's favourite came home.

Ondaatje v Unsworth 26 years ago became a standoff between experimental and traditional storytelling; Gibson v Gregory was a similarly oppositional clash between provocative biography and uplifting autobiography. Although what happens in the jury room mainly should stay there, some judges had, from a shortlist of seven, Gregory as their favourite and Gibson as their least, or vice versa. As in Brexit, which all human actions perhaps now reflect, compromise is only possible if there is some shared ground.

Because I am the only factor common to the Booker '92 and William Hill '18 decisions, some may blame me. Certainly, some of my family have suggested that an alleged stubbornness may have played a part. However, on both occasions, it was me who first asked whether a long standoff could be resolved by sharing the prize.

Twice, the only alternative outcome would have been for both factions to peel off on to a third book, which nobody really liked. I've judged dozens of book prizes, and such results are depressingly common. Twice, in order to prevent another judge's threat to resign, I compromised by voting for books that were far from my favourite, and still regret it.

It's true that literary preference is subjective – whereas athletes and horses can be ranked by fancy watches – but sometimes a dead heat is the right result of a book prize, at least ensuring that the winners have, between them, unanimous backing.

Mexican GP: Lewis Hamilton says fifth F1 title would be his 'proudest'

The Englishman will become world champion for the fifth time in Sunday's Mexican GP, live only on Sky Sports, if he finishes in the top seven - a position he has occupied at every race since July.

Were he to do so, Hamilton would clinch the world title with two rounds to go for the second consecutive year despite a fierce rivalry with Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari.

The Mercedes driver insists when and where the title would be won is not important given the task of becoming champion is not getting any easier, a fact the 33-year-old appreciates more with age.

"Just winning the championship has always been the goal," he said in the Mexican GP paddock.

"I remember when I won my first, one of the ex-champions had said its always harder to get the second, which it felt like it was. The first one felt incredibly hard already but from then on it just got harder and harder to win a championship.

"Even though you're improving, the competition improves, different circumstances arise, but this year particularly has been one of the most enjoyable years with the things that I have been faced with.

"So if I were to win the title, I think it would definitely be one that I would be probably most proud of and be able to appreciate most.

"Just being that I'm older and that's what happens when you get old, I guess."

Hamilton has spoken repeatedly over the last 18 months of the satisfaction he takes from battling with Vettel - although, having gone through nerve-jangling final-race showdowns in the past, the Englishman said he would still much rather wrap up the title as early as he could.

Hamilton recalled how he "did not sleep in Abu Dhabi" when the title went down to the wire against Nico Rosberg in 2014 and 2016.

"In the past sitting back and watching grands prix on TV with bacon toasties in the morning, I would have wanted it to go to the end. But I'm not in that seat," he said.

"When you're in it and living it you just want to get it done. As long as you get it done."

Few are backing against Hamilton closing out the championship in Sunday evening's race to cement his place among F1's legends - but, with a new two-year contract to come at Mercedes from 2019, he has already made clear he is far from finished yet.

"I do feel like I've got quite a lot left to do, so just going to get on with it," he promised.

Hamilton credits experience

While Vettel's challenge has faltered repeatedly in recent months, Hamilton's has flourished to put him on the brink of an early title coronation for the second time in a row.

Yet despite being on the cusp of a significant piece of F1 history - only two drivers have previously won five titles - Hamilton has appeared calm and relaxed in both Austin last weekend, when he had his first outside shot at the title, and again on his arrival in the Mexican paddock.

"I've been here before," said Hamilton when asked if he could explain his calmness. "It's just the place I'm in my life I guess. Being that I'm just older, I've had the experience and know what I need to do to get myself into shape.

"I'm just really enjoying racing. I'm here to race. I'm here to win. I'm here to deliver this championship for the team. So I choose what I put my focus towards, I don't really allow any negativity in, so I'm just on a positive wave.

"If I was here and there was one point between us, I'm sure things would probably be a bit different. It would be a lot more intense. I've got a decent amount of points ahead so I guess that naturally does help a little bit, but I think it's more the experience."

There is a new set of sports stars on billboards now

There's a new breed of sportspersons on the endorsement circuit, although it may be a while before they give cricketers a run for their money. Gold medallist athlete Hima Das, the newest backer of sportswear giant Adidas, is set to be named as the face of two more brands over the next fortnight.

Table tennis player Manika Batra was signed as the brand ambassador of global nutrition company Herbalife last week and two brands are in talks with her agency. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu is now associated with financial services company Edelweiss. "Emerging sportspersons from outside of cricket have created a new wave of success stories — they are world beaters, consistent, glamorous, humble and controversy-free," said Tuhin Mishra, managing director at sports marketing company Baseline Ventures.

Baseline Ventures represents badminton champions PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth, billiards player Pankaj Advani and racing driver Arjun Maini. Although the new crop of sportspersons earn much less than leading cricketers, managers say they get good recall. "Sustainability is the key. The market value of an athlete depends on her or his performance. It's like the stock market and the market creates their valuation by itself," said Neerav Tomar, managing director of IOS Sports & Entertainment, which represents Das and Batra.

Besides the three-year contract with Adidas, IOS Sports is in talks with four brands in insurance, nutrition, banking and cement for Das. "Corporates help in promoting sports. When brands advertise with sports players, it inspires people to be part of and play sport," Das had said in an interview with ET last week. Last month, Forbes magazine named Sindhu as the world's seventh-highest paid sportswoman, with $8 million of her income from endorsements. At 23, her on-court earnings were $500,000 between June 2017 and June 2018, Forbes says. She has surpassed many cricketers, except blue chip league players Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni.

Batra, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, joins players including Kohli as the face of Herbalife. She also endorses Edelweiss Financial Services and Stag sports equipment. Her management agency, IOS, is talking to two brands in the packaged food and energy drink space. Chanu, who won gold at the Commonwealth Games this year, may be roped in for a textile brand's CSR division and sportswear brand. Saina Nehwal has been endorsing Edelweiss, Herbalife, Huawei Honor and Savlon antiseptic.