Welcome back football

Welcome Back Football

I have been watching Hard Knocks, and it is awesome. There is nothing else in sports quite like it. Eleven guys playing as one, in unison, going to battle together. I miss football.

I spent five seasons at the University of Memphis and one season with the Miami Dolphins, and I miss all of it. I miss the locker room. I miss the camaraderie. The amount of time a team spends together in a season is second only to family.

No other sport has what football has. Practice is intense because at all times, it is offense against defense. Two separate teams wearing the same logo. In youth leagues or high school ball, you might have guys playing both sides of the ball, but in college, that is rare. Half the team, on offense, against the other half, on defense. Those are real battles. It is a war on every single rep, whether it is position work, one on one, inside run, or team period. The music in the locker room is usually what brings everybody back together afterward.

Game day is different. You put that jersey on and suddenly offense and defense are wearing the same colors, and it is war on the opponent instead. There are still moments on the sideline when frustration builds, when one unit is struggling or putting the other in a bad spot. That is when real leadership matters most. True leadership on a team is what pulls everybody back together in those moments. When the player leadership is good, the team finds a way. Twenty-two guys on a field with one job. Score a touchdown, or stop one.

The coaching is intense. I never even played the game, but I have the ultimate respect for the men who play it at a high level. There is a switch that happens when you step inside those lines. A mindset. The amount of force and pressure these guys put their bodies through is wild to witness up close. There is a level of toughness in a true football player, someone getting into the trenches trying to physically overpower the man across from him, that is hard to find anywhere else in life. It is legal violence, and there is something honest about that.

I was an equipment manager. I was their friend. My job was to make their job a little easier, to take care of the gear that helped keep them safe. There were parts of that job that were not glamorous, plenty of hours spent washing pads and jerseys. But being part of a team like that was worth every bit of it.

I will happily admit I was once tied to the goalpost by Jason Taylor, Tim Bowens, and Adewale Ogunleye. I stood no chance.

This one is not a lesson. It is just an appreciation post for the game of football.

Welcome back. What is the game, or the team, or the locker room that had that same kind of grip on you?

— Kevin