I was reading an article on SI yesterday about the upcoming training camps. (let's hear it for the forlorned two-a-days; man, at least teams like the Cowboys will be practicing indoors--at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Tx.) The article by Ross Tucker, dated the 24th, spoke about what the players go through just thinking about what's upcoming such as players going off to a far-away land, having to leave their families, to prepare for their upcoming battles in the formidable NFL season. As the article so poignantly states, ". . . Most players liken this period (the week before the start of camp) to the dread of knowing root canal surgery is scheduled the next day."
Well, I can pretty much identify with that, remembering my days of Texas high school football back in the 70's. I too dreaded getting that phone call or letter in the mail from the coach declaring, "Greetings from the Almighty One. Your Mama for the next couple of weeks." Whew boy, that sure did set the tone. "Don't bother hiding because we will find you, son." Yeah, I still think of a teammate who once said he had taken his phone off the hook so he wouldn't get that dreaded call. I'm sure he was jesting, but you can perceive the mentality of a player at any level when it comes to that dreaded grind.
How insane I must have been too ever have gotten involved in football knowing I would be out there twice--twice--a day out in some dried-grassy, dusty field getting my head knocked in; and I'm sure if it were up to many of those coaches, we would've been out there three times a day. So hot out there. Body achin'. Head throbbing. Where were the dudes in the white coats with their nets and straight-jackets to come take us off to the "funny farm?" Save us from ourselves. You talk about global warming. You don't know what global warming is until you've spent a few days doing all that in all that thar Texas heat.
No, it didn't help that we practiced in the morning. All I remember was being sore, barely able to move. . . stomach bloated from drinking gallons of the H2O. Going home for a few precious hours of rest, then coming back for another round. What were we practicing for anyhow? We were a lousy team. We weren't going to beat the real good teams in our district. I suppose we were out there because we had a certain pride about us. That's just part of what growing is. . . yessir.
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