For Wilshire Baptist Church
We recently had the surprise of eating dinner with the Corsicana Tigers football team. OK, that’s not entirely true. We didn’t actually eat with them, but we were in the same restaurant, and it was interesting to observe an entire football team in the “pregame zone.”
We were driving to Waco on Friday afternoon for the Baylor-Auburn football game and we stopped in Corsicana for a late lunch/early dinner. Yes, I’ve looked at the map and I know I-35 is the most direct route from Dallas to Waco. But, I discovered more than 20 years ago that I-45 to Corsicana and Texas 31 to Waco is a more sane, peaceful and engaging route. After enduring an hour of trucks and traffic racing to Houston on the interstate, you get an hour of cotton fields and wildflowers, windmills and wind turbines, cattle and horses, and small-town life.
Anyway, we pulled up at Cotton Patch Cafe on Hwy 31 as it courses through town and found two yellow school buses in the parking lot. We decided to go in, hoping the two bus drivers might be taking a break before their afternoon routes. But, if the restaurant was a crazy mass of student chaos instead, we’d walk across the parking lot to Bottlecap Alley, another good stop in Corsicana. When we opened the door, we found the restaurant indeed was packed with students, but the room was oddly quiet. As the hostess led us to a table near the door, we were immediately aware that everyone in the restaurant was wearing the blue and white warm-up gear of the Corsicana Tigers.
Normally, when a restaurant is that full, the air is buzzing from the noise of dozens of conversations. In this case, the only conversation we heard was among the four coaches seated next to us; the student athletes were quiet and seemingly in their “pregame zone.” Many wore headphones as we’ve seen college and pro athletes wear, fueling their psyches with whatever pregame pump-up music is trending right now. Others just sort of sat looking around or down at the table as if deep in thought.
I’ve come to that age where I look at kids and think, “Oh, if only they knew what they don’t yet know about life.” In this case, I might have told them to lighten up, don’t take it so seriously, focus on doing their best but don’t forget to have a good time. And, I would add: Enjoy this while you can because it probably won’t last.
To illustrate that last part, I have a newspaper clip from 1969 showing a team photo of the “Texas Power & Light Co. Steers, Winners of the RSI Midget League.” There in black and white are me and two dozen of my friends and classmates wearing striped socks, white football pants and deep blue jerseys with white numbers. Looking down the rows of faces, I know for a fact some in that photo have passed on by now, including both coaches and a few players. That includes Johnny Hardwick, who grew up to be a comedian and did the voice of Dale Gribble on the “King of the Hill” animated sitcom. We were best friends back then and spent hours kicking field goals over the baseball backstop at the park with visions of gridiron glory in our heads.
The picture, taken when I was in fifth grade, was the last time I wore a football uniform. Some of the boys in the picture went on to play in junior high, high school and perhaps even college. None made the pros, to my knowledge. I never played again, except for two-on-two games with college roommates, because I never grew past 5’8” and 150 pounds. Others who might have gone further due to their size didn’t because they were more interested in other things or they just didn’t have the athletic skills it required. Moving up through the various levels of football or any other athletic competition requires increasing levels of talent. That’s actually true in any profession, trade or artistic expression.
Most of us on the Steers football team had to learn how to be someone else and do something else. Even the pros who make a career of it and prove to be among the best ever are done by age 40. Much was made of Arch Manning’s start as quarterback for the Texas Longhorns last weekend. Time will tell if he reaches the heights reached by his famous uncles Peyton and Eli, but even if he does, he’ll need to have plans for the second half of his life. Of course, he might leave football with enough money to live out his days, but the history of modern sport is full of stories of those who mismanaged their wealth. And sometimes that’s because boredom set in when they discovered they didn’t have a plan for the second half.
In his post-game press conference on Monday after Baylor lost to Auburn, head coach Dave Aranda was asked about student athletes and the NIL funds many receive along with their scholarships. He said he has talked to former players who didn’t get drafted into the NFL or did but their time in the pros was brief and now they’re wanting to finish their degree.
“Getting that degree is just so important,” he said, “and I think what’s hard about it is I think sometimes the money puts distance between how important that is; I feel like there’s a buffer there but it’s just not real; it goes away so fast.”
With social media and popular culture ablaze with celebrity, it’s hard to tell kids that not everyone will be the star athlete, famous actor, hit singer, best-selling author or breakthrough scientist and inventor; not everyone will live in the spotlight. The good news is God has a place and a plan for each of us based on the strengths and talents God gave us. We all were created to contribute to our world and to this life together. But, we must be open to that and willing to search it out — or work it out — until we find it. Often, the sign we’ve reached God’s place and plan for us is when we are simply happy and content.
When it was time for the Corsicana Tigers to board their buses, I asked one of the coaches, “Who you got tonight?” and he said they were headed to Cleburne. “Good luck,” I said. “Thanks,” he answered. The team left as quietly as they had been while sitting, although as one headed to the restroom, he shouted over his shoulder, “Don’t leave without me.” A couple of coaches hung back to make sure everyone got on the bus. They were still just kids after all.
On our way home from Waco later that night we checked scores online and found the Corsicana Tigers got beat by the Cleburne Yellowjackets, 24-3. Further research showed the Tigers haven’t had a winning season since 2021. Still, they’ve fared better than the Yellowjackets, who have had two winless seasons in those same years. But on Friday night, they found something to build on. No doubt those Yellowjackets were in the “zone” before the game, maybe at a local restaurant.