EPIPHANY

hello there boys, girls and those with a little of both. it’s here. the best jumble of words i’ve had in a long time. and it’s just in time for the friday night lights.

gentlemen, tonight we play the defending state champions. we play against the best of the best. they havent lost a conference game in years, and i could care less. im not going out there to play for them. im not going out there to play for me. this is bigger then me, than all of us. when we go onto that battlefield out there tonight, i want everyone to look into those stands. look and see why i play this game. there are kids up there in 5th and 6th grade, who walk past us every day at practice. we’re gods to them. you saw the looks on their faces when we helped them with drills. that’s why i play. because i remember those nights in 8th grade when we’d practice in the shadow of those lights, and we’d give everything in the world to be as great as that. to have earned the right to be on that field of battle. theyre watching us tonight guys, and they’re thinking that exact same thing. the coaches are always talking about starting a tradition. we already have a tradition. those kids in the stands, that cant wait to be one of the great ones. that is our legacy.

tonight when we go out to that field, think of the guy’s that will never play football again. think of your dads, your brothers, anyone who know’s what it’s like to feel what you’re feeling now. think of CJ and Dich. i know for a damn fact that CJ would be out here in a second if he could. and i know that there are alot of people who would give anything to be able to come back and be in our place right now. that’ll be us soon enough. untill then, we have to fight like the hounds of hell, with every drop of furosity we can muster. we have to play for those who cant, and those who will. that’s why im going out there tonight.

if anyone thinks he doesnt have the stomach to fight, he can leave now, and will not be punished, his dishonor will be punishment enough.

but to those of us that go to war tonight: five years from now, when you’re home from wherever you go after this year, you’ll come to the highschool, and you’ll look up at that board, and you’ll see it. 06-07, 07-08, 08-09 and so on. and you’ll stand a little taller when you see it, and you’ll remember this team. and in it you’ll be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother.

you know where i stand. now i have one question for you, and i want you to answer me honestly: are you ready for a war?