Fans follow the football; the hardcore watch the line play

Following the football - Herky Billings was a legendary offensive play caller because he was able to see all 11 players at the same time. It also helps if you're just a little crazy. Most fans just follow the football – photographers too – unless you have a relative playing on the line. If you attend the Salesianum at Cape football game on Thursday night, try disciplining yourself to watch a different offensive lineman on every play. Look for quickness followed by exploding into blocks and feet that keep chopping. See if your player looks active or passive, as attitude is a big part of being a good lineman. Or just follow the ball and if the play doesn’t work, just scream, “C’mon, line, block somebody!” 

Slow cooker - Surf over turf Friday, I was the beached beluga, toasted and roasted, working a hockey play day that ended with a football scrimmage. My photos showed waves of heat. The players looked like mirages, and I wasn’t sure they were even real. Reminds me of the joke about the guy walking across the desert carrying a car door who said, “If it gets any hotter, I’m rolling the window down.” The seriousness of deliriousness, an early warning sign you may be going down dumb, my quadratic formula for heat index is to factor in the air temperature and turf temperature, then add in the age and weight of the roasted and roosting human. You may reach 212, which is the boiling point of vermicelli. Enough already, I’m just playing around. 

The beast in me is the least of me - Last spring, Emma Duffield, Hannah Maney and Alexa Dougherty decided to try track for the first time. I was there for much of their season under coaches Tim Bamforth, Gilbert Maull and Martin Rodriguez. The trio of rookies spoke tough to talent over three months, showing up for every workout while getting after it over multiple events and varying distances. I’ve seen Emma and Hannah in field hockey this preseason, and they are stronger and faster and oddly more skilled than they were a year ago. I saw Alexa at the Sun Festival 5K and she also looked strong. If those girls are available this winter, they should try winter track. It will make you a better player in the sport you think you're best at.

The fun is in the finish - Kids enjoy short races, but if you make the race too long, they will either start to cry or veer side to side with the intent of tripping people. But mostly they like crossing the finish line without the pain of running the race. At the Sun Festival 5K Aug. 29 on the Boardwalk, stroller baby Axel Croll broke loose to cross on foot numerous times. Two young girls watching with their mom from a hotel window hit the boards so they could run across the finish line.

Cricket Challenge - Saturday night, I watched North Carolina Central of the MEAC beat Alcorn State of the SWAC 23-14, a game televised on primetime ESPN. Robert Mitchell, former Cape lineman, wears No. 55 for NCC and plays right guard. The Eagles do not have names on the back of their jerseys, so if a lineman is your dog, sometimes you have to squint to find them. But trust me, Robert Mitchell, at 6-foot-4 and 310 pounds, played his behind off and can drink water with no hands. The Eagles play against the Herd of Marshall University Saturday, Sept. 11. The game will be telecast on ESPN+.

Don’t mask, don’t tell - People on my sports beat are not talking about COVID. Fans are just being fans. I’m good at sensing fear and I sense none. Outside we are watching and playing games, and looking forward to middle school sports. Pandemic 1: There was fear among reasonable people. This time around, Delta variant  and all, the attitudes are different. Plus all the puppies have been adopted. There's not much left but to play games and watch them. I tell people who don’t like mandated rules to just be quiet and cheat like normal people. I’m not joking; just challenging anyone’s idea of what constitutes a normal person.   

Snippets - Josie Holloman, a junior at Delmar, has verbally committed to playing field hockey at the University of Maryland. Search Google for “verbal commitment,” then plan on spending two hours reading and still coming away confused. St. Thomas Aquinas defeated Baltimore's St. Francis Academy in football Saturday 38-23 in a game broadcast by ESPN. I found the young announcers obnoxious, just prattling on the entire game about which players committed to Division I colleges. St. Francis is the first and oldest Black educational facility in the United States. It costs $11,300/year to go there. I missed the WaterMel Run Sunday in Laurel, which was won by the Harrington Harrier Matt Sparacino in 18:42. Just a great race and festival. The Watermelon Queens are awesome. Go on now, git!