The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
When I was in school, everyone knew about Michael Jordan. Everyone knew who Nolan Ryan was. there was no argument, even from non-hockey people that Wayne Gretzky was the greatest to ever skate on ice. Ask anyone at the school I went to who was the best skateboarder in the world though, and you would be met with silence. Ask them who their favorite freestyle BMX rider was, silence again. All of that changed in the late 90's thanks to the X-Games, the success of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video games and the video masterpiece, Crusty Demons of Dirt. Extreme sports blew up. They made covers of Sports Illustrated. They made the late-night tv talk show circuits. They got all the sponsorships and endorsements they had dreamed of. Then, they got trading cards. To me this was a huge deal as I had always been a fan of collecting cards and extreme sports. to me, seeing some of these childhood heroes of mine immortalized on cardboard somehow made what they did more legitimat...