12-29-2017, 08:54 AM
A line from "Brian's Song" has stuck with me over the years. Brian Piccolo is talking with Gale Sayers and says, "I know I can't get a sixty yard run, but I can get six yards ten times, and they still add up the same way."
Our defense isn't very deep. The longer our defense is on the field, the worse it is for us. I wonder how we'll do, once we're past the Bryce Love era, but still have running backs averaging 4.5 yards or better, chewing up the clock?
BTW, speaking of Gale Sayers...my dad was a WR and best friends with Bob Berry, the QB at Willow Glen HS when they won 44 games in a row (and were finally beaten by a Bill Walsh coached team). Bob was an All-American at Oregon and went on to a lengthy career with the Vikings and Falcons. In those pre-media days, there was very little information on the athletes, and Bob had just been named to the West team for the 1965 East-West shrine game. Butkus and Staubach were on the East team and Berry, Craig Morton of C.al, and Bob Nichols, Dick Ragsdale and Jack Chapple of Stanford were on the West team. Dad and Berry and some of their former HS teammates were sitting around a kitchen table and talking about the all-stars and who really stood out. My dad asked Berry who the best players were, and Bob said "Well, they're all pretty good. But there's this running back from Kansas named Gale Sayers who's head and shoulders above everyone else."
Our defense isn't very deep. The longer our defense is on the field, the worse it is for us. I wonder how we'll do, once we're past the Bryce Love era, but still have running backs averaging 4.5 yards or better, chewing up the clock?
BTW, speaking of Gale Sayers...my dad was a WR and best friends with Bob Berry, the QB at Willow Glen HS when they won 44 games in a row (and were finally beaten by a Bill Walsh coached team). Bob was an All-American at Oregon and went on to a lengthy career with the Vikings and Falcons. In those pre-media days, there was very little information on the athletes, and Bob had just been named to the West team for the 1965 East-West shrine game. Butkus and Staubach were on the East team and Berry, Craig Morton of C.al, and Bob Nichols, Dick Ragsdale and Jack Chapple of Stanford were on the West team. Dad and Berry and some of their former HS teammates were sitting around a kitchen table and talking about the all-stars and who really stood out. My dad asked Berry who the best players were, and Bob said "Well, they're all pretty good. But there's this running back from Kansas named Gale Sayers who's head and shoulders above everyone else."
Audaces fortuna iuvat