It’s fun to be a high school football dad again.
Our oldest son was the kicker. Talk about nerve-racking. His very first high school game came down to him running on the field with no time-outs, clock ticking 12, 11, 10 in a tie game. The attempt was from over 40 yards. High enough, long enough 3, 2, 1 wide right. Game ended in a tie. I remember racing down to the fence line to meet him and all he could say was “wow”. It was a rush for him.
Wednesday night, I was at Chandler high school to watch our youngest son play his first ever football game.
I’m not a believer in specialization of sports. Too many college and pro coaches I’ve spent time with over the years want to see athletes, not specialists. Cardinals cornerback Byron Murphy was in studio recently and we got on the topic of playing more than one sport in high school. He said his biggest regret was not playing on his high school baseball team. I’m sure he would’ve made a terrific player. I look at Kyler Murray and what he did with baseball and football and hope that more young athletes take his road rather than the current trend of being directed towards just playing on the school football team.
Freshman football is fun to watch. Kids bumping into each other. Errors of enthusiasm. Coaches trying to polish a bunch of jagged edges. With my double knee replacement just eight days ago, I had circled the calendar of my sons first game as a benchmark for progress in rehab. In my mind there was NO WAY i was going to miss his first ever football game. Today I am paying for it, but the price of pain versus seeing my son play was well worth it.
