“Father Time is undefeated” (sports adage)
“Father Time is undefeated” means that age catches up and eventually defeats all athletes. American football analyst Michael Irvin made the comment about quarterback Brett Favre in September 2005.
Basketball analyst Charles Barkley has said “Father Time is undefeated” about several NBA players.
Google Groups: alt.sports.football.pro.gb-packers
Childress on horizon?
NERDMANN
9/26/05
(...)
Young said Favre’s passing skills had not diminished, but his “Sunday NFL Countdown” colleague Michael Irvin thinks time has caught up with the Packers’ quarterback.
“Father Time is undefeated,” Irvin said. “A lot of those tight spots, I have watched him squeeze the ball in there a lot of times. He no longer has that arm to squeeze the ball in.”
Bleacher Report
Kansas City Chiefs: Father Time Is Undefeated
By Neil Powell , Correspondent May 30, 2009
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Four others added and projected as starters for the Chiefs in ‘09 have had great careers, but the rigors of the NFL grind may have started to take its tole on these accomplished players.
Google Groups: alt.sports.basketball.nba.la-lakers
Letters to LA Times - “I hate Kobe haters”
Alson Wong
6/6/09
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-letters6-2009jun06,0,6589153.story
From the Los Angeles Times
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Life’s too short to hate
June 6, 2009
I hate Kobe haters. Particularly, Los Angeles Kobe haters. They must be the dumbest self-hating group of sports fans anywhere. Here they have arguably one of the top five players to ever play the game, an athlete who has grown up and played in a Lakers uniform since he was 17 years old and today has the Lakers poised again for greatness other franchises only dream of.
It doesn’t make sense. Soon he’ll be gone—as NBA analyst Mark Jackson says, “Father Time is undefeated”—and the Kobe haters will have missed out on one of the all-time greats of sports.
Richard Karliss
Malibu
2 December 2010, The Carlton (Steinbach, Manitoba), “From the Sidelines” by Bruce Penton, pg. 5C, col. 3:
TNT’s Charles Barkley, on 36-year-old Suns guard Steve Nash missing a game with a groin injury: “Just like Brett Favre is finding out. Father Time is undefeated.”
ESPN.com
Barkley on Dirk: ‘I’m never wrong on Father Time’
April 11, 2012 4:44PM CT
Barkley on Dirk: ‘I’m never wrong on Father Time’
By Tim MacMahon | ESPNDallas.com
Charles Barkley made major waves around these parts earlier this season when he declared that Dirk Nowitzki’s days as a dependable go-to guy were done.
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“Bro, I’m never wrong on Father Time,” said Barkley, whom Nowitzki recently bumped to No. 20 on the all-time scoring list. “I said the same thing about Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan. They can have spurts because they’re great players. You can have spurts, but you can’t do it consistently. I mean, Father Time is undefeated.”
Google Books
Seeds of Revolution: A Collection of Axioms, Passages and Proverbs ..., Volume 1
By Iam A. Freeman
Bloomington, IN: iUniverse LLC
2014
Pg. 575:
You can’t beat Father Time. Father Time is undefeated!
~ Charles Barkley ~
Bleacher Report
Bleacher Report’s Midseason NFL All-Pro Team
By Gary Davenport , Featured Columnist Oct 30, 2014
(...)
There’s a saying in sports: Father Time is undefeated.
No player can escape the ravages of age, but in Antonio Gates’ case, the 34-year-old is doing a pretty good job of postponing them.
Twitter
Jason Visser
@viss9
most over used sports quote ever, rattles me everytime"father time is undefeated” @THEREALBHOP is 1st ever to prove it wrong #inspiration
2:52 AM - 1 Nov 2014