I kind of like football, but the best part about the Junior High and High School football games is that you get to hang out with your buddies, without a bunch of teachers breathing down your neck. Seriously though, I just like going so I can see Jewel a bunch because her family never misses those games. Her brother Robert, the one that hangs out with Mullard Muldoon is a lineman. He is pretty good too; I don’t like him, but he IS Jewel’s brother, so I sit with Jewel and her mama and daddy and cheer him on anyway.

This one game, I think it was the season opener the team got a new water boy, and a new towel boy. Some of these kids LIVE for football, and hauling water or handing out fresh towels is as close as some of them can get, because they just can’t play football at all. They take it dead serious too, sometimes too serious. And they get to participate, and ride the football bus, and they love it. And I think that is ok with me, because they are as close as they can get to something they really love.

The game was headed into the second half, and the new towel boy kept yelling to the team on the field, “Give Leroy the ball!” The towel boy did that over and over, but none of us really understood why. Maybe it was because Leroy Dare was our starting first string running back, and he was pretty much the star of the show. He was a bit of a showoff, but nobody minded because he was a fine running back, even for Junior High.

For some strange reason, the towel boy just kept yelling, “Give Leroy the ball! Give Leroy the ball!” The water boy sat beside him, and I could tell he was kind of puzzled too, but he didn’t say anything. About the end of the third quarter, the coach was standing by the water boy, and the towel boy when the towel boy yelled it again, really loud, “Give Leroy the ball! Give Leroy the ball!”

Suddenly they called timeout for some reason or other, and the quarterback ran over to the sidelines next to where the coach, the waterboy and the towel boy were sitting. The quarterback, his name was Tommy Bodine, ran straight off the field, right up to the coach, quickly pulled off his helmet and said, “Co-ach, Leroy say he don’t want that ball.” The coach just shook his head, trying not to laugh and yelled, “Get your butt back on that field, Tommy, and let me handle the coaching chores!”

Tommy slammed his helmet on just as fast as he took it off and ran back on the field. Now that was hilarious! Every single time I thought about it, when Jewel’s daddy drove me home to drop me off, I laughed. Every time I would say to Jewel, “Give Leroy the ball!” Jewel would say, “Co-ach, Leroy say he don’t want that ball.” And we would laugh like crazy.

Even now at school sometimes I will say it to her, just to get her to giggling, and nobody even knows what we are talking about, unless they were at the game. We were right at the sidelines too, so it was even funnier to watch. I think the only thing that is funner than high school football, is watching the little kids play T-ball.

Maybe someday Leroy WILL want that ball. Maybe he will go pro? Who knows?

(Note: Special thanks goes out to “Mama” Paulson for inspiring this story.)