It's not a class war

Last night I watched the lastest ESPN reality TV series called "Bound For Glory." It's about a PA high school football team who use to have glory years and most recently have just plain sucked. So ESPN hired Dick Butkis, the legendary Bears coach, to coach these pansies and turn them into a championship team.

 

What first got me was how much I miss those days of putting on pads and going out there to lay someone out. It wasn't so much laying someone out, then the tough practices, the hustling, the competition to see who is stronger, not just physically, but mentally.

 

The second thing that got to me is how this group of kids are such pansies. They don't even practice all that hard. Here you are, at the center of the ESPN world at 10pm on Tuesdays, and you're moving like Fat Albert on Sundays. They have a beautiful football field. Our football field spilled onto the track field. It was possible to be in the end zone and on the track at the same time. They have a beautiful weight room and are allowed (more forced) to lift during study hours. We had a hole in the wall, in a dank basement lockerroom, right next to the men's urinals. And we were lucky to have teachers with free time to keep it open. They have twelve coaches!! We had four and only two of them knew what they were talking about. 

 

I think our high school football team would have made a better drama. Here are the charecters:

 

Serano - A RB/Nose tackle. puerto rican jew. He's short, fiesty, very big mouth but hard hitter.

Brit - CB/ Star tailback. Pretty boy with good moves and a slick attitude. Needs stronger legs.

Justin - A monster of a linebacker. Fast, 200+, 6'1". Big, lots of attitude, lovable and at the same time gets in a lot of trouble. Can be a baby.

Reggie - Biggest and fastest guy on the team. Angry, strong fullback. Quiet.

Bobby - Big and fast quarterback. Definetly a big head. big talker. Sometimes a head case and gets in a lot of trouble.

Dat - Good kid. LB. Hardest working mofo. Smart, lots of heart, quiet.

Visbares- only kid to have a moustache since 8th grade. Big, naturally strong. The gets called white trash a lot. gets in trouble, but good heart. Offesive and Defensive line.

 

It wasn't that these kids in "Bound For Glory," were bad people. They were regular high school kids caught up in High school drama. What got to me is how oblivious they were to how lucky they were. It's not a class war for me, it's a war against the oblivious. Inform, inform, inform.

 

Once Reggie, Justin, Brit and I were all invited to go on a radio interview after we all were named league all-stars one week. The interview was in Hingham and I was the only one with the car. I would also pickup and drop off these guys everyday during the summer for practice and the weight room, and drop them off everyday after practice. We all loaded into my 1983 nissian 200sx. My car would sink down low. I had to open the driver door by going to the passanger door first. My radio would only get AM and forget about a cassett deck. So we all got in my car and did the hour drive down to Hingham together and sat around a table with the local sports radio host, Tom. He asked us the general questions. How does it feel? what do you expect from the rest of the season? etc. Tom then asked me, "What makes it great?" I told him. It's the people. It's the effort the coaches put into us, the effort everyone puts in to win games. It's how lucky we were to have so much support, from our coaches, our town, our families, our school and from each other.

 

Those are the things that made playing football great.