I highly recommend keeping files of things in your life. Things you otherwise might throw away. Or just lose track of. Because when you get older, they become precious artifacts of life - your life, which goes by way too fast it seems.
So here's the only season I played organized, real-life, big-boy tackle football.
I was 12. Does it look like I was any good?
I didn't have a horrible experience, but the game was certainly rougher and more physical than I was ready to handle. Still, I am glad I did it. As a Little League baseball kid, I think I had to persuade my mom to let me try football.
I was an offensive lineman, which.. hello.. is a joke, because... look at me. Those pipe cleaner arms. They weren't running any power-toss-sweeps behind ol' "Road Grader 79" - but as you can count from the roster size (about 16 kids) everyone played somewhere.
I was too slow and unathletic to play any skill position on offense, and too much of a pussy to play ANYWHERE on defense. So they threw me on the left side and basically said: "Try to get in somebody's way, kid."
Ol' #82 was Jake McInearney, who went on to be a placekicker at UVA. Even kicked in the Sugar Bowl back in the late 80's. He was my only friend on the team. The dog was our best player, but battled a nasty cocaine addiction, and was frequently suspended by the league.
One of the guys in this photo is local legend John Boobas, easily our toughest and best player on defense. You can try to figure out which one he is. He went to a rival high school, and reportedly got all jacked up with muscles, and ended up setting the Virginia State high school record in the shot put.
Yes. Allegedly. I will likely hear from Mr. Boobas now that this has been posted. The internet has an amazing way of being viral. 'Sup, Boobas! (We weren't friends. Please don't beat me up!)
Believe it or not, my only season in youth football, was cut short by a concussion: FALLING OFF A SKATEBOARD at my buddy Jeff Benjamin's house!
Six stitches to the head, another 6 to a gash on my right elbow, and that was that. Never kissed any of those cheerleaders either. I was 12. I didn't even like girls at the time.
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This artifact here is my first ever official radio contract. Les Carroll was the GM of the station in Santa Barbara, and my job was to do 6 sports updates during morning drive, and a one hour sports talk show from 6-7 p.m. leading into Dodgers play-by-play.
As you can see, they paid me a TON of money!
Of course, I also called UCSB basketball games, at a cool $200 a pop! About 30 games per season, another $6K in my pocket, my god, I was rich!
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And this is a photo I have been looking for now for quite some time - alas, gotcha!
Behold: "The ORIGINAL 5-Hour Energy Dome!"
Circa 1998, it was in our first married house in Charlotte, NC. 9312 Hanover South Trail. Lovely neighborhood, and since homes down there almost never had finished basements (due to the water table in the ground being too close to the surface) they often had "bonus rooms" like this one, over the garage.
Those are some sweet Toshiba, standard DEF, TUBE TV's, baby! That's twin 27 inchers, above a 32. Two Sony VCR's, rack mounted above twin DirecTV receivers.
I left it all with the house. Was likely a nice selling point to the dude and his wife buying it. Wonder if it is still there today.
