Uncle Junior's "Varsity Athlete" Comments

Sometime after the death of Carmine Sr. on the Sopranos, Junior started to fixate on the athletic potential of others.

In particular at times he would make comments such as "He never had the makings of a varsity athlete". Junior would make these remarks at awkward times such as during a sit down with Carmine Jr.'s supporters or at dinner with Tony which angered the latter greatly.

What was with Junior and this "Varsity Athlete" obsession? I figured it was part of the many signs that he was gradually developing alzheimer's/dementia. Esp. since these remarks made little sense in their context at least to me. But then again it also seemed to be playing on Tony's insecurities.

Can anyone shine any light on this?

This is where Uncle Junior's Dementia started to come into play and ultimately led to the shooting of Tony in Season 6. I took it as Junior representing the last of the "Old School" Mobsters, and like all things, will fade into oblivion. Dementia patients can remember thoughts and events from 50+ years ago with absolute clarity, but cannot remember the last 10 words you spoke to them. Junior's only constant memory of Tony seemed to stem from a disappointment.

As for the "Varsity Athlete" comment and why it cut so deep, it was the idea of coming up short and being a disappointment/failure and not "special". With Junior and his HS Coach, they had high hopes for Tony and he let them down in his eyes. Now he has a son, AJ who could have been a varsity athlete, but had serious panic attacks, thus ending any chance at ball.

2 generations of "failures" would be pretty heavy for him to carry around like that.

Tony alluded to it in the Pilot episode:

Tony Soprano – Uncle Junior’s my father’s brother. Good guy. Just gettin’ old. Cranky. Used to take me to Yankee games when I was a kid. I love my uncle. At the same time, when I was young, he told my girl cousins I would never be a varsity athlete, and frankly, that was a tremendous blow to my self-esteem.

Some say dementia but I think Junior faked his mental illness to an extent.