Hittin' the Rock

It's a good thing they didn't have video games and computer games when I was a kid, I'm afraid I would've been playing them all the time. Not that they're a bad thing so much, it's just that it would've taken away my time that I played hard. You see, I've always enjoyed playing games. That's probably part of the reason why I love sports so much. Oh, I did play a lot of board games back then, but that was mostly when it was bad weather outside. I invented a lot of games that I could play solitaire. If I couldn't find some buddies that were playing a game of football, baseball, or even a war game, then I would make up a game. One of the games I invented was called "hitting the rock".

Before I talk about my game of, "hitting the rock", how many of you old-timers out there remember the electronic football game? The game consisted of a large football playing field that had 22 football figures that you put on top of the playing field. You would set up your offense and defense just the way you wanted and turn a switch and the board would begin to vibrate. The vibration caused the players to move and you could watch the play unfold before your very eyes. We thought it was pretty cool, but the drawback was that it took a long time to set up for the next play. Or how about the old All-Star baseball game by Ethan Allen? That game consisted of player cards that you could put on a spinner and would determine whether the player got a hit or made an out. I used to play an entire 162 game schedule with my team. I kept all the stats for every player, batting average, hits, home runs, and RBIs. You can see what kind of gamer I was.

I don't know how I came up with my game of throwing a football at the rock but here's how it went. In our yard we had a big rock that was about 3 feet wide and 2 feet high. I would get into my quarterback stance at the other end of the yard about 15 yards away. At the snap, (to myself)I would either drop back and throw at the rock or rollout, bootleg, scramble, whatever. If I hit the rock it was a complete pass and a 10 yard first down. If I missed the rock it was simply an incomplete pass and I would go to the next down. In this way I could drive the ball down the field by simply playing my passing game of hitting the rock. I would try and make it difficult by scrambling and throwing on the run and making it very real. The best time to play this game would be in October or November when the weather was a little cooler. I did a lot of running around and broke a good sweat. Do you believe I could play that game for a couple of hours? I would have Ohio State versus Michigan, or Alabama versus Penn State. I would usually decide that the first team to a certain score would be the winner. So if I decided that the first team to 28 would win, then I would play until someone reached that score. Any of you out there ever do anything as crazy as that? Or am I the only guy that if I didn't have a game to play would just make one up?

Looking back, I can see why I was always in shape. I never stopped playing. Of course, I still had my Little League games, my high school sports teams and other organized activities. But I think I had just as much fun in some of those board games and crazy made-up games. And you know what? To this day I still love to play games. www.chiefpigskin.com

Staying on the Trail

I take no pleasure in watching any good man take a fall-I still believe coach Jim Tressel, the former Ohio State coach is a good man, but he made some obvious mistakes. I am saddened by the resignation of Tressel at OSU. How the heck does a guy make such poor decisions and lose his dream job? I can imagine his thoughts and tears as he cleans out his office. Does he have to pay the consequences for his actions? Oh, sure. But I'm not going to criticize, there will be plenty of people that do that. Besides, I’ve made my share of mistakes, worse than Tressel’s. I'm not going to rant about all of the other issues that come up with this subject. Yes, the money in college football has become too big. Yes, there is too much pressure on college football coaches to win. The pressure to win overcame Tressel’s good judgement. Yes, the recruiting has become ridiculous. But those are all other stories.

The point is this; we are all one bad decision from losing our dream job or our steps to our dream job. We're all one bad decision from losing our reputation. We are all one bad decision or step away from losing our family. Don't take anything for granted, don't get complacent in where you are.

We've all got to stay on the trail, the good trail of life that God has intended for us. Off the trail is all kind of temptation, glitter, and shortcuts. After Tressel made a mistake (or two) he tried to fix things by taking a shortcut instead of being honest. Shortcuts are tempting. The short cut led to a disastrous patch of underbrush and thistles that became so entangling it cost him his job. We've got to stay on the trail-not get sidetracked-not take shortcuts. When we do get off the trail, and we all do at some point, we must admit our blunders and honestly get back on the trail. We won't be sorry.