Friday Night Lights...Out

Taylor County paid a visit to my Dixie County Bears Friday night for a tough district matchup. Neither team sported that good of a record coming in, but Taylor is never a team to take lightly. The fallout from last week's game was evident when the kids came out to warm up and Cody Spurlin was wearing his jersey, but with no pads and wearing jeans instead. His younger brother Shawn has decided to not play the last two games because their mom just can't take anything else like what happened last week. He's only a freshman and he'll be back next year.

Before the game started, our own celebrity was in town and was at the football game. Nick Collins, starting strong safety for the Green Bay Packers, was there and unfortunately for him, he had a tough time enjoying the game. Kids, young and old, crowded and followed him everywhere he went. He graciously signed and smiled for the cameras for quite a while. It was also Senior Night, the last home game for the seniors. My nephew Cody is a senior and was escorted across the field by my sister and his step dad. Good feeling, although I knew it was sad for him because it was his last home game. He was going to get his first action at fullback and he was amped up for it. It was all good and great. For a while.

Dixie received the ball to start the game and promptly worked their way down field for a touchdown. Then, just like last week, the breath and every good feeling was sucked out of the stadium. On the ensuing kickoff, another player was hurt. He lay motionless on his side. Fenicks Jackson, #32. It looked bad and only got worse. They brought the ambulance out on to the field and after about 15 minutes they loaded him up and took him to Gainesville. Last word I had on him was that he did have feeling in his legs, but that due to a spinal injury, he will probably never play football again.

After that, the guys just didn't have it. Missed tackles, missed blocks, long plays. My nephews first few plays at fullback didn't go so well. I don't think he made a single block, either because the linebacker was already gone or the play collapsed behind him. I could see by his body language that it wasn't going like he wanted it to. On the next series though, I saw him make a damn good block that sprung Rodney for about 9 yards and a first down. He came out and they went to the single wing formation until they scored. When he came out on defense, I noticed he was acting kinda gingerly on his left side, like his side or his hip was hurting. He played a few plays but you could tell he was hurting. I looked for him a little while later and he had his pads and jersey off and an EMT was fashioning a sling. Slight seperation of the left shoulder. Man, he was so upset. Means that more than likely he's done. They told him no way he plays next week and depending on how well it heals, he may not play in the last game of the year in two weeks. He's a senior and no chance of playing at the next level, so he knows its more than likely over.

One of the few regrets I have in my life is not playing football. I was scared of getting hurt, I was a pansy. Now, I don't know whats a worse feeling, his or mine. I regret never playing and he hates that his was possibly ended short due to injury. I tried to console him and tell him that he's lucky he even got to play and he's lucky that he wasn't taken away in an ambulance like two of his teammates have been the last two weeks. Either way, this long and frustrating season is almost over and looking at some of the kids Friday night, I don't know that it can get over fast enough. Several have lingering injuries, some are afraid of being the next to get carted off and some are just so small that they almost look comical next to the big boys. I just hope we make it through the next two weeks without any more injuries and such.