Beatball

Jun 13, 2001 at 12:00 am

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Speaking of weird post-mortem commercialization, what would Jack Kerouac think about the recent purchase of his famous one-piece-scroll manuscript of the classic novel On the Road? At a Christie’s auction last month, the winning bid of $2.46 million was made by Jim Irsay, owner of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. It was the most ever paid at an auction for a literary manuscript. Kerouac did play football in college for a while, so the thought of a football-team owner buying On the Road is not as absurd as it first appears. But considering the recent image problems for the NFL, the irony of NFL money buying beat literature is amazing. Think of the possibilities of combing the two — a football team made up of Kerouac and all his Road scholars such as Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs.