Griffs Jobs

I recall after the ball was snapped charging across the line fighting off
a block to defend the play and seeing the Quarterback coming right at
me … For some reason, he dropped the ball (I must have scared him)
and it bounced directly into my arms. Shocked, I started to run luckily
in the right direction to the goal line some 65 yards away. Never known
as being fast I was dragged down from behind by one of the Salesian
players after rambling for about 20 – 30 yards. I ran off the field in a
bit of disbelief which I’m sure shocked our Coach on my freak fumble
recovery. I did not reappear again in the game that eve in our win
against Salesian. For recovering that fumble I was awarded a Tiger Sticker
to patch to my helmet which I wore proudly for the rest of the year as
a member of the South Pas Varsity Football Oski Club. Sometimes you
get lucky which happened to me on that Friday Night which I will always
remember. Aka “One shining Moment… in a less than brilliant Football
Career. I did get to play quite a bit on the Junior Varsity Games which
were played the following Mondays against the same teams we played
the previous Friday Night. I remember we were playing Blair Junior
Varsity and I was playing Defensive back and was starting to finally feel
pretty good as player gaining a bit of confidence. Early in the game the
Blair Halfback a rather large player broke through the line on a sweep. I
was the last defensive player he needed to beat. As the Defensive back, I
saw what looked like a runaway bull with steam coming out of his nostrils
heading right at me. Being all of 5’ 10’ 165 pounds I smashed into
the bull hoping to stop him. The bull all 6’1 210 pounds needless to say
overran me. Luckily, I slowed him up just enough so our Safety and few
other players were able to wrestle the runaway bull to the ground. The
result of that hit caused me to suffer a hip pointer injury which essentially
is a blunt force injury that makes it painful to be hit again. That
injury early on in our second game of the Season affected my ability to
want to smash into players with full force for the rest of year. Yes, those
football injuries stay with you a long time. I should have stuck to Golf. I
did earn a Junior Varsity letter in Football for enduring the 14 weeks of
mostly getting beat up in practice 5 days a week for the season and made
it through the bumps and bruises which I learned quickly is what Football
is all about. I believe the biggest mistake I made in High School was
to never seek any career guidance/vocational counseling during my high
school experience. My Parents had gone through a divorce while I was
in Junior High School and getting advice from my parents was lacking. I
was barely making my way through Junior High and High School being
pretty much on my own with no direction or real parental guidance.
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