“David, could you introduce Damion to Coach Mason? He’ll be working out with your group today,” Bo told me.
“Sure. Do you have full gear?” I asked Damion.
“No, do I need it?”
“Yep, you’ll need to talk to the equipment manager. We’ll go in early so you’re ready for practice,” I said.
Bo noticed I was wearing the vest.
“How’s it working out?”
“Good, I really appreciate you giving it to me,” I said with a smile.
“If you’re really nice to me, I have the extra weights that go with it. Once you feel yourself plateau, add more weight.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” I said.
Damion and I left for camp.
ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW! Damion was the best receiver I had ever played with. My apologies to Bill, who was my previous top choice. One morning throwing to this six-six freak of nature was all I needed to decide. Was he perfect? No, a long way from it; he still had issues with dropping the ball. Could he look spectacular? Absolutely!
A good example was when we were running end-zone drills. Damion was triple-covered: he had a cornerback in front of him, a safety to his side, another safety behind him, and he was pinned to the sideline. I had receivers running free in the end zone. What did I do? I tossed a jump ball for Damion.
“Holy Crap! Are you brain-damaged?! How many open receivers were there?” Coach Mason boomed.
“Three,” Quaid offered.
They all waved at me from the end zone. Sometimes I think I am brain-damaged.
“I wanted to see if he could catch it,” I said.
That got a lot of laughs from the scouts and coaches watching, but it also got a clipboard thrown at me by Coach Mason.
“I don’t care what you do! Go run! Run far away, and don’t come back until you decide to do it right!” Coach Mason told me.
I’d seen him mad at me before but never like this. I took off to run around the three football fields. Finally, after my third time around, Quaid came and got me.
“I would have done the very same, just to see if he could catch it,” Quaid assured me.
“I couldn’t help myself. I wanted the scouts to see how good he is.”
“You do realize Coach Mason wasn’t really mad. He was as excited as we were, but he couldn’t let it slide, either.”
“Could have fooled me,” I said with a smile.
AT LUNCH, DAMION INTERCEPTED me in the lunch line and wanted to talk to me alone. We found a table on the edge of the cafeteria.
“I’ve got a problem that I need to talk to someone about. I know you don’t know me very well, but I was hoping you’d let me talk it out.”
“Sure,” I said.
“First of all, thanks for today. I only wish we had someone like you to throw me the ball at my school.”
“If you went to Lincoln High, you’d spoil me. I would never throw to anyone else. Today felt like I was throwing to Jerry Rice. I just knew you were going to catch it,” I said.
“Thanks. I don’t really know how to respond to that,” he said, obviously embarrassed.
“What seems to be the problem?”
“You know about the new NCAA rules concerning grades, ACT or SAT scores, and freshman eligibility?”
Crud! I really did need to get the rulebook out and read it.
“No, but I get good grades, so I never worried about it.”
“The standards to get a scholarship have gotten much harder. If current football players were required to follow the new rules, thirty-five percent wouldn’t be eligible. They look at sixteen core classes, of which ten have to be completed before your senior year. David, when I was a freshman and sophomore, I never even thought about going to college. I’ll need to get straight ‘A’s to get my grade-point up high enough in those core classes. Plus, I’ll need to score well on the ACT or SAT test,” he said.
“Have you gotten a tutor to help you with your classes and the college entrance exams?” I asked.
“My family can’t afford it. Right now, it looks like I’ll have to go to a junior college and hope my grades improve.”
“Have you thought about reclassifying? I’ve heard some basketball players who have changed to make sure their academics were taken care of. Could you drop back, and become a junior?” I asked.
“If I did it before my freshman year, I could do it at my high school, but it’s too late to go that route now. The only way I could pull it off is if I went to a private preparatory school. But that’s crazy money. They cost anywhere from ten grand a year on up. I would have to go for two years. My family could never afford to do that.”
My first thought was calling Teddy Wesleyan. I figured it was a long shot at best since the summer was halfway over. I made a point not to mention any of this to Damion. I think he was looking to just talk about his issues and not looking for me to try to solve them. Of course, being a guy, I couldn’t help myself.
DURING THE AFTERNOON session, I soon found Damion wasn’t one of my receivers. The other three guys got opportunities to throw to him, but Coach Mason had other ideas. I only had myself to blame, so I took it in stride.
I had a blast when Coach Mason started sending people to rush me. He was impressed that I was much more disciplined and threw the ball away if I didn’t see anything develop. He was equally impressed when I would do my Houdini act if something were possible. He made sure I set up and threw properly.
The reason most quarterbacks have trouble freelancing is that they don’t get their footwork down. They do stupid things like throw across their body or loft it off their back foot. All it took was to get your base set correctly, which gets your body in the right position before you throw the ball. When you run for your life, your instinct is to just chuck it down the field. With proper planning, you can be in a better position to throw the ball.
Of course, sometimes you just have to throw it. The trick was to learn when and how to do that. I was lucky in that I saw the field well and had an instinct for the game. It didn’t stop me from making mistakes, but I was getting better.
There were times, late in games, when you had to get outside your comfort zone and make plays. We have all seen them. For the most part, the defense gets you and you lose the game. We all remember, though, when it goes right. They still show Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary pass which occurred before I was born. Some quarterbacks just have a knack for taking a team down the field in late game situations.
The other three quarterbacks struggled. I think part of it is attitude. I would take on all comers and see who would end up on top. My aggressive style of play was torching the defense.
Something else it did was draw a big crowd. I’d have to thank Coach Mason later. He allowed me to showcase my talent today. That was until I tucked the ball in and ran it. I would’ve been okay if I hadn’t run right at a linebacker type and flattened him. Coach Mason was not amused. The spectators loved it. I think Coach knew he’d better get this stopped or I might hurt someone. I couldn’t wait until I could hit a real opponent. That was one aspect of the game I cherished.
I was sent to be coached up by Quaid.
“Dumbass, what were you thinking?” Quaid asked.
“I was thinking he wouldn’t rush me so hard if I put him on his butt. Plus, I wanted to hit somebody.”
“You’re a freak; you know that, right?”
“Oh, come on, you’ve never wanted to give someone a little payback on the football field? Half the fun is the contact. If I did half the fun things I can do on the football field anywhere else, they’d arrest me. Where else am I going to get to run somebody over?”
“Yep, a freak. Let me give you a piece of advice. Get this out of your system now. In college, they’ll take your head off. If you even act like you want to mix it up, the coaches will bench you. You’re too valuable to risk injury! There’ll be enough rough stuff; you won’t have to go looking for it,” Quaid said.