Freddogg Off The Chain

There is no question that we suppress parts of our History of which we are not proud and also over time slightly embellish and exaggerate stories that cast us in a favorable light. I don’t worry much about favorable light but I do amend a little to achieve humor while suppression of better left forgotten facts is sound advice for any adult wishing to avoid moping about with sloped shoulders.

Last Saturday I was walking out of Saint Cornelius the Centurion Church on the campus of Valley Forge Military Academy after the wedding of my teacher/coach friend and former student young enough to be his wife. The setting was beautiful with an air of opulence and privilege and brought me back 31 years to the last game I ran point as the Head Football Coach at a school for emotionally disturbed adolescence.

We were war painted up and playing a disciplined Valley Forge team that also used post graduates so I didn’t feel so bad having a 19 year old tailback. Ever since I tapped into the mentality “football is a battle in which we take no prisoners” my team had achieved six shutouts and scored at least 38 points a game.

We were beating Valley Forge 38 to 0 in the closing minutes of the last game of the season and trust me with all their discipline and things they taught their kids the fact they were losing to a team of players from a school for the Emotionally Disturbed athletes who turned Disturbance into a face painted badge of honor was not lost on them or us.

Tight end Jim Murphy looked over at me and pointed to his chest. We had the ball on our own 25 yardline and we supposed to run out the clock following the football rules of good sportsmanship for pussies with big leads.

I nodded back 'yes' to Murphy which meant the never used Murphy pass which we ran at the end of each practice as a joke because football is nothing if not boring which is why I insisted on going Looney Toone at the end of each practice with my crazy team.

We can out in a straight T full house backfield and there were fake reverses and real reverses and imitation fumbles and bodies and imaginary balls flying around all over the place. While this was going on Murphy was just running down the field like he was going for a hotdog.

Eddie “Hart Attack” the Quarterback ended up with the ball and threw it 70 yards to Murphy who caught it then backed into the end zone for the final scores of 45 to 0.

My kids were emotionally disturbed so they celebrated with over the top inappropriate fashion which involved a war dance around an imaginary fire. The Valley Forge coach called me a "Pussy" and I just nodded towards the scoreboard like,
So waht does that make you?"

My assistant Coach Tim, who I knew since high school, looked at me laughing and said, ”that was so wrong! They’re going to get you for this!”

“No they are going to get you, ”I said. “I’m moving to Lewes, Delaware. “

So Wrong for So Long

Coach Freddogg