Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Monday, September 26, 2005

This weekend I was reminded about what can be good about athletics at the collegiate level. CNNSI ran two stories about games this weekend wherein the power of athletics to encourage and inspire was showcased.

The first was the story of a 40 year old former Army ranger who has walked on to the University of South Carolina football team and earned a spot. This weekend he caught a pass for a nine yard gain and, in doing so, became the oldest person to ever catch a pass in a college football game. The story's cool because it shows that in college there are always opportunities if you're willing to sacrifice what is needed to take advantage of them whether they are found in the classroom, on the athletic field or in extracurricular activities. This guy paid the price to make the team and Spurrier rewarded his effort by putting him in the game and giving him a chance to perform.

The second story was about Charlie Weis at Notre Dame following through on his commitment to run a play called by a 10 year old fan who had died the night before the game from a brain tumor. Weis had promised the young man that he would run the "pass right" call on the first Notre Dame offensive play of the game. When that play happened following a ND fumble recovery on their own 1 yard line, Weis would have been a lot wiser to have called a running play. Instead he followed through on his commitment to the young man and his family. It's not a big thing in the grand scheme but it sure meant a lot to the family of the boy that Weis followed through on his commitment. In the coaching merry-go-round that college football seems to be sometimes, it was a nice thing to here about. I'm sure I'll get an "Amen" from the Alabama readers in the audience...Dennis Franchione comes to mind here.

Given the seemingly unending litany of drug busts and academic scandals and fights and all the rest that plague division I collegiate athletics it was nice to see a couple of coaches act with integrity. While there may be some question about whether this wins games, I know that if I were a parent I would be a lot more comfortable with my son playing for one of those two men.

Thanks for reading.

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