Sorry this is gonna be a long read.... Several of you have met Brock, so I thought I'd share this. He's pretty bummed out and I'd appreciate any prayers y'all would send on his behalf.

My son is a senior in high school this year. He is a great Christian kid. I'm very proud of the young man he has turned out to be. Unlike his father, he is very even keeled. An admirable trait. He's always been pretty athletic but never an athlete. His older sister was in the marching band at school. I wanted him to play football and when he was in the 6th grade and spring training was rolling around, I encouraged him to play. I loved every snap of football that I played in HS and I wanted him to experience that. He decided he wanted to play the drums in the band and that he'd try football later. So spring training for his upcoming 8th grade season rolls around and again I tried to get him to play. He told me he really liked the band and he'd try football the next year. I finally read between the lines and told him that if he wanted to be in the band, or play football, it didn't matter to me. I wanted him to do what he wanted to do, do it well and I'd be proud of him and support him either way. He worked hard and was the drum line captain last year. He's had "jock" friends for years and played backyard football and basketball with them for years. Around late February this past year, he tells me he's gonna quit the band and play football for his senior year. I knew it wasn't that simple. I told him he'd be very far behind the learning curve and wouldn't get to play. I didn't want him to give up what he'd worked hard to achieve in the band to stand on the sidelines his senior year. He told me he'd work harder than anybody on the team and he wanted to play "more than anything I've ever wanted." I told him if that's what he wanted to do, then I'd support his decision and help him in any way that I could. I did tell him that one thing I couldn't help him with was getting tough. I told him if he wanted to play he was going to have to develop a mental and physical toughness that I didn't think he'd ever had. We start hitting the weights, trying to put some muscle on him.

So, spring camp starts. He wants to play wide receiver. He's not a big ol boy like I am. He's slim and fleet of foot. 5'10" and 150. Now keep in mind, his school has a very rocky football program. We aren't talking Hoover High here. They were horrible last year. They don't have a lot of upper classmen. I go to spring practice every day. I watch him go progress from clueless and catching balls to actually pretty decent by the end of the spring camp. In the jamboree game he started as the #3 receiver and also played a few snaps at corner. He didn't have any catches, but did break up a pass on D. He was on top of the world. He wanted me to make him a strength and conditioning program to work on from then until summer workouts. I got a rear tractor tire and told him that by summer I wanted him flipping it 100 times a day. He started at 20. I worked on his form, making sure he didn't get hurt. I showed him several different exercises he could do with the tire to build all over strength. He worked his butt off. I never had to tell him to work out. Just about afternoon when I'd get home from work, he'd be out in the yard flipping that tire.

Back to the team. The coach, who's under achieved in his 2-3 years there, get's fired, at the end of school. They hire a new coach in late June. He's from AR and he's got one heck of an impressive resume. Rebuilt 3 teams and won state championships at them. The day before he moves down, he has some medical tests and finds out he has an aortic aneurysm. Has to have emergency surgery and will be out for at least 8 weeks. He resigns from the job. So now it's early July and there's no coach. The school board scrambles. It takes a few weeks, but they pull out, IMO, a magnificent hire considering the time of year. The new guy starts ASAP, less than TWO WEEKS BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS. The kids have very little prep time. A new offense and a new defense to learn. They go from a spread formation from the previous year to a 4 yards and a cloud of dust offense. My son is still playing O but also starts practicing some at Safety. The week before the first game, he's playing Safety on 1st D. The new coach is young but impressive. He talks about toughness and grit and makes them display it. He's gotten rid of a few troublemakers and is trying to instill a new mind set in these boys. I'm a fan.

So, first game happens. My son plays safety. He's slow to react on reads but doesn't make any costly mistakes other than having their QB break his flat footed attempt at a tackle that resulted in a touchdown. He looked timid about sticking his helmet in there on tackles. Brock was very disappointed. He said he wouldn't play that way again. The coach told me he knew the "switch would flip" with Brock. He just needed some game time. He's very happy with his progress. Brock and I talked a lot last weekend. He was determined to improve. I went to practice a couple of times this past week and his reaction time did look to be improving.

Last week for game 2.... Opening kickoff, Brock gets the crap knocked out of him but get's up and shakes it off. Second play from scrimmage, he assists on a tackle and makes a pretty good hit on the guy. Right at the end of the play I see him take a pretty good lick from a helmet to his shin area. He get's up limping and shaking his foot. I'm thinking, it's okay be tough, just walk it off. Three or four more plays on that series and he's still limping around but seems to be okay. Second series, he's limping pretty good. They're playing zone and none of the plays have come directly to his side yet. They line up in man. He's on their inside receiver. He runs a flag pattern. Brock plants to cut and comes up hobbling. He did pursue the guy and dives as the ball is thrown. No catch. Brock get's up and is visibly injured. Coach and/or trainer pulls him. I'm thinking he's maybe got a bad bruise on his shin. The trainer gets him down on the sideline and works with him, and just keeps on. I decided to go see what's up. She says she feels some popping in his tibialis anterior muscle. She said she had only felt that in someone one other time. She said that ended up being a tear in the tissue covering the muscle. She said we needed to take him to a football ER clinic at Huntsville Hospital. Brock wants to stay til the end of the game. I told him it was his call. Within 5 minutes he decided he wanted to leave and go then. He said he couldn't take the pain any more.

We get to the ER, they're awesome. Get us back within a few minutes. Takes him for X-rays. Doc comes in. Broken fibula. He's gonna be out for at least 6 weeks. They'll only have 2 games left when he's cleared to play. He takes it all in stride, but is very disappointed. I sure hate it for him.

I guess I won't ever question his toughness again. We haven't seen the game film yet but I know he played at least 6 plays with a broken leg and broke up a possible TD pass. That's pine knot tough in my book.