We are now heading into October and here in the US, despite all of my rantings about the PSL over stimulation, it really is officially my favorite time of year — Fall.
For me it’s hard to beat the crisp air, the changing colors of the leaves and, yes, the football season charging into full swing.
Those who have been reading this space for long enough are probably aware of my life long affinity for the sport of American football. Not only have I always enjoyed watching it, I was very lucky to have been able to play it in my younger, high school days.
I was not what you might think a prototypical football player might be. Growing up I was always a bit on the smaller side. School came easier to me and I was always in classes with the better, somewhat nerdier students. But I loved competing and playing in sports. And despite all of my regular pleadings following near daily after school neighborhood pickup football games, my parents were naturally a little apprehensive about allowing me to join the organized mayhem.
Thankfully they relented when I got to high school. And once I strapped on the gear and stepped foot on the gridiron, it was like Popeye eating spinach. I transformed myself into a lean, mean, running and tackling machine. Even though I was usually one of shortest in stature on the field, I was easily the scrappiest. I was smitten by the camaraderie, the intensity, the speed of the game and, believe it or not, the contact.
I loved practice. I loved games. I loved off-season weight training. I loved the summer captain’s practices. I quickly became a de facto little brother for the upper classmen (which, being the oldest of three kids with two younger sisters, was fine by me). It did not take long for football to become a year long obsession (and, I think to my parents’ dismay, a top priority) for me.
Our head coach was a man by the name of Vince Lombardo (yes, this is 10000% true — despite his dismal won-loss record, he was just one letter away from being mistaken for one of the most iconic football coaches of all time, Vince Lombardi).
Coach Lombardo (aka “Vin”) truly embodied almost everything you would expect from an old school football coach — picture a guy that was part gym teacher (his day job), part pizza shop owner (which may have been a side gig), part general contractor (which may have also been a side gig), part GoodFella (no comment) and part locker room philosopher. And his coaching “staff” was a rotating cast of about 10 other characters that he was either related to or grew up with — coaching credentials and background checks be damned.
All that said, I absolutely loved playing for the guy.
The stuff that would come out of his mouth at practice and during games is etched in my memory for forever:
“Whoa, whoa whoa! What the hell happened there?!? You look like you just got caught between a sh*t and a fart!”
“What kind of three point stance is that supposed to be? You couldn’t piss on a flat rock in rain storm in that stance.”
“Daah, boys you can lead a horse to water…but you can’t do everything yourself.”
“Listen…..you gotta do what you gotta do….”
“Boys, if you keep this up, I swear you are going to keep doing up-downs until the cows come home to roost.”
Coach Lombardo’s head assistant was his younger brother Anthony (a hot headed guy in his mid 20s with feathered hair and a mustache who all of the coaches called “Ant.” Apparently three letter nicknames must have been a prerequisite in the Lombardo house growing up).
Late during a game that we had to be losing by no less than 30 points, Coach Lombardo’s headset must have started to malfunction. Unable to communicate plays with the other members of his staff, Coach summoned an assistant over to him and told him to go down the sideline about 40 yards to tell Ant that his headset was dead.
In a flash, the 1980s football assistant incarnation of Paul Revere took off as if the fate of the free world was riding on it, dodging JV bench warmers and stiff arming cheerleaders along the way. He made it down field in record time, quickly caught his breath, and tapped Ant on the shoulder.
Now Ant, who in that moment was either cranking his squeaky mental rolodex for the right combination of plays that might somehow turn the tide of the bloodbath he was witnessing….or may have just been thinking about pizza toppings he was going to need to order for the weekend rush….was standing with his hands on his knees staring at the action on the field.
Motioning to his head, Coach Paul Revere dutifully reported: “Hey Ant…Ant….Ant!…Vin’s dead.”
“What?!?” Ant shouted, eyes bulging, his face turning red with a complete look of horror that had nothing to do with what was on the scoreboard.
“Vin’s DEAD? Oh my god! Vin’s DEAD?!?”
You could tell that, for this first time in his life, a million thoughts flooded Coach Ant’s head. He was used to maybe two to three thoughts at most, and now there were like a million….and in addition to having to break the news to his mother, Coach Lombardo’s wife, goomar and 8 kids about this travesty, give the post game pep talk to the team, game plan for homecoming the following week, call home to tell Michael to stir the sauce and not let it stick, AND maybe having to now write a eulogy for his brother, he still didn’t have the pizza topping situation figured out….
Ant slammed down his own headset on to the ground, destroying it in the process, and anxiously started to jog back up field to where he was sure he would find his older brother lying unconscious.
“No Ant…Ant!” the now flustered assistant coach said as he grabbed Ant’s arm. “Vin’s not dead. Vin’s headset is dead.”
Coach Ant, now mercifully liberated from the burden of too many competing thoughts, stopped his jog and turned back to his post to sheepishly pick up the pieces of his now departed headset. With each yard he walked, the number of players on the sideline who had witnessed the situation unfold and were now laughing at him grew. That day, for 30 or so young men, a legend was born….
That’s the kind of stuff I mostly remember from playing high school football. Sure, there are plays I recall making and little snippets of games I can replay in my head, but I do not remember one final score of any of the games I played. Frankly, the scores don’t matter. We actually lost more games than we won.
Aside from the stupid, carefree fun my teammates and I had, it was the lessons I learned from playing for Coach Lombardo about teamwork, sportsmanship and putting in extra work and effort to improve that endure to this day.
From time to time he would pull me aside, put his arm on around my shoulder and drop coaching pearls of wisdom for just my ears alone like:
“Dave-itt, you’re a smart boy. But this isn’t school out here….you gotta stop thinking so much. Just react.”
“My father once told me ‘if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.’ Always remember dat, Dave-itt…always remember dat.”
“Dave-itt, dahh, I know you’re not the biggest guy out here…but it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the heart in the dog…remember dat Dave-itt.”
People think that youth sports is all about winning and getting college scholarships. It’s not. It’s about developing character, building self esteem, and learning lessons that can prepare you throughout your entire life. Any good coach understands this.
The last time I saw Coach Lombardo was spring of my senior year of high school — I had been named scholar-athlete for my school that year and was invited to a statewide banquet and award ceremony. Coach had actually left our school that year, with Coach Ant and his crew, to bring his talents to another nearby town but I asked him to join my parents and me as our guest at the dinner.
I mean, this was Vince Lombardo. He was technically one letter away from maybe being the greatest football coach ever….how could I not?
XOXO
Dave
And now a few things to make you smarter…
When considering where to live, big cities are attractive to people for a number of reasons, but affordability is usually not one of them.
Using data from Demographia, this graphic highlights the major cities ranked the worst for housing market affordability on a global basis.
More and more offices in major U.S. cities are empty. At the end of March 2023, the national average vacancy rate of U.S. offices had climbed as high as 18.6%.
This ranking uses data out of fDi Intelligence to rank the top 10 cities that have seen the biggest increases in office vacancy rates from Q4’2019 to Q1’2023.
Whether deflecting an awkward moment or lightening the mood in an argument, affecting an accent has become a Gen Z verbal tic.
When the world’s first internet cafe, Cafe Cyberia, first opened its doors in London’s West End in September 1994, its founders could never have imagined what they’d unleashed. By 2002, there were more than 200,000 licensed internet cafes in China alone, and still more operating under the table. It became a staple of local communities in developing nations. But a number of factors, including COVID, have caused the internet cafe to go the way of the dial-up modem.