I am not an athlete, although there was a day and age when I could press a bundle of roofing shingles over my head all day long. A bundle weighed about 80 pounds.
I’m quick to tell people I practiced a lot more football than I ever played. And I usually didn’t get to play unless we were about 28-points ahead and it was the fourth quarter.
But the best friends I ever had played football and that’s just what you did in rural Mississippi in the fall. Those guys are the ones I look up when in go back home.
I liked baseball more than I did football. Baseball is much more of a mind game and a finesse sport.
Football hurts, practice is not fun, the game itself is violent. But there is no other sport on the face of this Earth that satisfies like football.
If you have never pumped your helmet in victory into a fall night sky after a close win, you have not lived.
Football Friday night
We open the high school football season Friday night.
Lee takes on Pillow.
Clarksdale hosts Grenada.
Coahoma opens their season next week at Edwards.
It has been scorching hot this summer and coaches have learned to turn down practices when the temperature goes above. It’s a safety thing and safety is job one no matter the situation.
Do you remember your high school coach? Sure you do.
I dare say after your father, a coach probably had the greatest influence on your life. In a day and age when dads are often absent from the home, they now have a greated role and influence in training boys to be men.
Coach quotes
They once asked coach Bum Phillips if his running back Earl Campbell was in a class by himself.
“I wouldn’t say he’s in a class by himself,” Phillips said with that Texas drawl, “But it doesn’t take long to call role.
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I once asked Coach James Wicks at rural West Lowndes High School why he didn’t have a weight room.
“Look, my boys chop wood in the winter and haul hay in the summer. Football is a nice break for them. We don’t need a weight room.”
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A coach in Dyersburg Tennessee had his first winning season in five years. They actually went 10-2 and made it two games into the playoffs.
“This has been a nice little ride and I hope you enjoyed it,” he told his team after they lost their last game. “I don’t want tears and whining. You’ve done yourselves proud. You’ve done your school proud. You will remember what you’ve done for the rest of your life.
“You will walk off this field as men and not some whining boy.”
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They sent me into the game late in the fourth quarter to carry a play to our second string quarterback.
We were up 48-0 in Aberdeen, Mississippi.
“You tell Robert Earl to call the next four plays,” said Coach Langford looking me in the eye. Then he smiled, which is a rare thing for any coach with the clock ticking.
“And you tell every man in that huddle to smile and have a little fun.”
Go to the game
For next 10 weeks I will go to a football game every Friday night.
I hope you will schedule a few for you and yours this fall.
Football in the South is a social event. The Grove in Oxford and Old Five Points in Starkville are classic examples.
Carry the family. Sit beside someone you know and let the kids run around for a while. Once it gets cold share a blanket with Momma and savor the excitment of life and a Friday night under the lights.
Floyd Ingram is the Editor of your Clarksdale Press Register. He’s on your team. Call him at 662-627-2201 if you want him to block or tackle.
