The Football Players of Muck City

From ESPN's Page 2:

In Muck City, the children have nervously followed their fathers and grandfathers into the mud and the fire and emerged with a fearlessness that most of us cannot understand. Soon we will gather in front of our televisions and watch receivers run over the middle and linebackers dive headfirst at loose footballs. We will tell ourselves we could do this too, if we were paid millions, or if we were famous, or if we took steroids. But we'll forget how the game of football is born out of hunger, and courage, and desperation, and community, and hope. And how sometimes it's played in spite of everything else.

The proof is tucked away, far from our malls and mansions, in the endless fields by Lake Okeechobee, where the land burns and the rabbits run.

An awesome story - read the whole thing.

Related Tags: Sports, Football, Lake Okeechobee, Muck City

Comments

[Patricia of Pollywog Creek]

"...born out of hunger, and courage, and desperation, and community, and hope" Truer words have not been written!" Pahokee, Belle Glade and Clewiston are in my backyard, and I can testify to just how tough it has always been to beat them at any sport. Great story, thanks so much for posting the link.

BTW, I was very glad to read that your blogging absence during the last week of the NCAA basketball championship was only because you were away and having fun with your family.