It’s a Long Way to Youngstown

I had learned my lesson, or at least I thought I had, until attending another practice a few days later. When I had one of our post photographers take some team photos. I saw a few of our newest team members. There, sitting in the middle of the front row, was my transport buddy, Jack Reale, all five feet four tall and weighing in at about 127 pounds. The measure included the total weight of his complete football uniform. Now, it was a matter of pride (foolish as it seemed) that I had to at least test my possible skills for the next practice. Suddenly, I was taking a few laps, doing drills, and dressed in my football uniform. I decided to participate in the scrimmage, where I was immediately assigned the position of running back. As we huddled, I hoped it would be a passing play where I pretended to block an imaginary rusher. Unfortunately, this was not to be, as I faced our quarterback, who played for three years as the starter at Brown University. Looking at me as I was trying to avoid eye contact, I heard him say, “Jim, I want to sweep left, I’m going to pitch you the ball. Think you can handle that?” I replied, “Sure, no problem,” and at the snap of the football, I started running left. Somehow, I caught this pitch and started running around the left end. At first, I thought I might get away with this unharmed, until I saw John coming at me with destruction in his eyes. I decided to make my “Gale Sayers” cut to avoid injury at the hands of John. I remember the sound and searing pain as my knee decided it was not cooperating, followed immediately by John Completing this play by driving me into the ground, thus ending my brief career in organized football.