"Work release" for Tank Younger

Uncommon commons. Contemporary accounts of tidbits that as a collector of baseball and football cards I found interesting because they helped bring to life the faces on the cards I collected. I figure that if I found these items of interest, so would other vintage card collectors.

L.A. Rams fullback Paul "Tank" Younger played before his hometeam fans in the Jan. 10, 1953, Pro Bowl game.

Few of those fans, though, knew that Younger was in the game on something of a "work release" program. A Los Angeles judge had earlier sentenced Young to 14 days in jail for assault, plus a year on probation, but stayed the sentence so Younger could participate in the charity game.

Younger had been convicted of giving his mother-in-law, Neatheola Olermo, a "shove" after she had called him a "bum football player," and threw a Moscow Mule -- complete with copper mug -- at him.

Younger earned $600 playing in the game, which his National Conference team won, 27-7.

Later that year, Younger's 19-year-old wife Wylene sued him for divorce for the second time in their year-old marriage, alleging that he had struck her, "on numerous occasions."