Mongo No Longer Pawn in Game of Life

Alex Karras, best remembered as the cock-fighting oil rigger in When Time Ran Out, has died of kidney disease, heart disease and stomach cancer at the age of 77. This marks the first time that Karras has ever assisted the NFL, as the league has one fewer plaintiff trying to claim he had no idea that running full speed and slamming his head against helmeted, padded men every Sunday would have negative health consequences. After an All-America career at Iowa, including finishing second in the Heisman balloting in 1957, he embarked on a semi-pro career with the Detroit Lions. He emerged as one of the league’s most feared defensive lineman, earning Pro Bowl honors 4 times and making the NFL All-1960s team, despite missing a season when commissioner Pete Rozelle decided that betting on 6 NFL games a year represented a slap at the integrity of the game and suspended him for the 1963 season. He appeared in 1968’s Paper Lion, based on George Plimpton’s story of his training camp experiences as a QB, which opened his second career in Hollywood. A series of guest spots, including a Marine devoted to saving Hawkeye on MASH, and his horse-punching, ox-riding stint as Mongo in Blazing Saddles earned him a starring role in The Diff’rent Strokes rip-off Webster as Emmanuel Lewis’ adoptive father.