I wasn’t a great player, but I knew how to play. I started every year but my senior year as I was just not good enough, but I was scrappy.
This 49ers v Ravens game made me wish I could put the pads on again. Being an offensive lineman is something else. I was a DT for a bit, but when they moved me to Center I hated it. The protector in me took over. You just don’t let your QB get shots he shouldn’t. I broke a guys leg once when he thought he had a clear shot on my QB. I didn’t mean to, but it was muddy, and he leaped, and his leg got caught in the mud and I hit him mid thigh. I can still hear the snap and the scream. Ran into the guy at a nudey bar called “Charlie’s Tendertrap.” He had a permanent limp. We laughed, I bought him a few dances and a handi, and all was forgiven.
My Oline coach, a mean ol SOB named Coach Levings, FSU grad, played for the Packers, Vietnam Vet worked us til we puked damn neat every practice. We don’t take plays off because we must ALWAYS protect our guys. He used to tell us, during the puke workouts, that we’d be the best dancers on the team, but we were so ugly that no one wanted to dance with us. This was the way.
what I would give to puke again on that Leving’s offensive line.