Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Long, Meandering Post on Football

I just heard that Ricky Williams might return to the Dolphins. I hated Williams through no fault of his own. Before he began his career in the NFL, I heard a poll of football fans picked him as a better player than Red Grange. It wasn't Williams' fault that the fans in question made such a bone-headed decision (this was before Williams played a single down in the NFL) but I always kept an irrational dislike for him.

He's going to have his work cut out for him if he does return (and his old suspension will return as well).

As I heard the news on the radio, I remembered my personal experience with a bone-headed football decision. Back in college I was part of an intramural team that went unbeaten and unscored upon for the regular season but lost in the first round of the championships.

Some of the star players kept big egos about their performance. Since intramural games were touch football, they got the idea that the key to a successful football team was skinny, fast wide receivers (for those of you who know me, I didn't play much that season). The skinny boys challenged the other players, including me, to a game and trash-talked nonstop up until it started.

The score was something like 248-0 when they gave up. When we had the ball, we ran one play and scored a touchdown every time. When they had the ball, they either got immediately sacked or fumbled for a touchdown. They were outweighed by at least 100 pounds per player (one guy on our side was over 340) and finally realized that, while fat guys might not do well with touch football, they do a lot better with tackle.

Not much of a point to the story, just aimless reminiscing , but that's what you get with a blog called the Rambler.

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