Why Not Today?

Two football stories:

The year before I broke my leg this guy dislocated and tore up his knee. It was the ugliest injury I have ever seen. So after I broke my leg, I am on crutches waiting for the "helper" to pick me up and drive me to my next location on campus, and I see this guy. I ask "How did you do it?"

He replied: "You can't depend on that guy; you gotta learn how to hump it across campus. You just gotta do it, man." He was in the National Guard hence the "hump" terminology. It was the best advice I have ever received.


Speaking of luck and talent, my freshman year, there was this fellow freshman running back. We had some good running backs, and he was third or fourth team. He got in during some blowouts and scored a touchdown in every game he played in his freshman year. He was not a great practice player. He did not like to run hard during practice, so he got in the coaches' doghouse and sat on the bench his whole sophomore year. By the middle of his junior year he was playing safety. I always called him "The greatest running back to never a touch a ball when it mattered." He was a hell of a player. He found ways to get yards and score, but he never got out of the coaches' doghouse. It really was a coach's doghouse.

The whole thing makes me wonder.