After reading the good news about Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' win over cancer, it led to some thinking.
This week Nate Allen sent in a column to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
He started covering the Arkansas Razorbacks in 1973 after graduating from Missouri and he's been doing it ever since despite obstacles.
He's written tens of thousands of words about the toughness of the Hogs, but he may be the toughest journalist in history.
A few years ago Nate missed several weeks of work after throat cancer surgery, but he bounced back.
Then he became a caregiver for his beloved bride, Nancy, and he had to have at least thought about stepping away from writing when she passed.
Nope. After a respectable mourning period, Nate was back his computer.
Then the throat cancer came back and it was worse and surgery took part of his jaw. Yet, there he was back on the Hog beat a short time later.
Last May he announced he was retiring from Nate Allen News Service, but he missed the grind and his passion for writing was too much.
The column he emailed in this week was just after a bout with pneumonia, but he was back on the job. He plays with pain.
When Nate was inducted into the Arkansas Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 2018, he said:
"If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a metropolis to raise the likes of me into a Hall of Fame," he said.
Always humble, often computer-challenged, Nate Allen is a hard-nosed champion.
. . .
Speaking of it takes a village, something former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said many times, President Bill Clinton will celebrate his 79th birthday next week and his daughter is inviting the world to help celebrate the day.
Chelsea Clinton has added a link to the clintonfoundation.org and invited everyone who wanted to send a message to her dad.
President Clinton is the only Arkansan to be elected POTUS in 1992, and he may not be the last. Born in Hope and raised in Hot Springs, he was the last president to balance the budget and he did it three times.
He was and is an avid Arkansas Razorback fan and there is memorabilia in the Clinton Presidential Library to show it, including a handwritten letter from former Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson, who won the national championship in 1994 with the president in attendance.
. . .
According to a May article in Forbes magazine, four Americans made the top 10 list of highest-paid athletes in the world.
Steph Curry from the Golden State Warriors was No. 2 with total earnings of $156 million a year with $100 million of that coming off the court.
The Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was No. 4 at $137 million with all of that coming from the Cowboys but $10 million.
LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers was No. 6 with $133.8 million and $85 million was off-the-court earnings.
Coming in at No. 10 was the much-traveled NBA veteran Kevin Durant at $101.4 million with $50 million coming off the court.
Juan Soto of the New York Mets was No. 7 with $114 million, but he lists his home as the Dominican Republic. Shohei Ohtani was No. 9, but the Los Angeles Dodgers star's home is Japan.
The highest-paid athlete in the world is Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays soccer for Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr at a mind-boggling $275 million a year, with $225 million in his salary.
Ronaldo made his reputation playing for Manchester United, but the Portugal native jumped to Saudi Arabia in 2023.
The United States was the only country with more than one athlete in the top 10.