Dave Zirin rightly calls Muhammad Ali "a powerful, dangerous political force":
He was willing to go to jail in opposition to the war in Vietnam. But one has to hear the voice, and read the words, to understand what exactly made it so dangerous and, by extension, made it all matter.
Imagine not only an athlete but a public figure telling these kinds of unvarnished truths. To this day it is awe-inspiring that he once bellowed "God damn the white man's money" at a time when such words were more than shocking — they were sacrilege.