An excerpt from “Ink,” an essay in Fighters & Writers:
Jaguars have a distinctive style of killing their prey, which can include virtually any other creature, since jaguars eat mammals, reptiles and fish. While other large cats rely on throat holds to strangle other beasts, jaguars can kill with a single bite through the neck – or right through the skull. One theory of the etymology of their name is that it derives from the word used by the Guarani Indians of the AmazonBasinin Brazil: yaguara, meaning an animal that can kill with one leap.
In his memoir Somebody’s Gotta Tell It, Jack Newfield outlines what he calls the “Joe Frazier method” of journalism. For him, the boxer “represented discipline, tenacity, courage, and maximizing whatever talent God gives you.” These qualities can be used as the foundation for an approach to writing: “keep coming forward. Don’t get discouraged. Be relentless. Don’t stop moving your hands. Break the others guy’s will.” Such an approach could also be seen as jaguar-like, since the cats display all the qualities Newfield describes.
After his too-early death, Frazier’s legacy lives on.
