Georgia On My Mind
Weekly Shot #29
My debut novel Hell or Hangover is available for purchase (e-book or paperback) on Amazon! If you haven’t yet, order a copy!
Here is what , the author of the great novel Why Teach?, had to say about the novel:
“The most drunken love story I’ve ever read: never has a novel of drinking, drugs and debauchery failed the Bechdel test with so much heart and good humor!”
I am thrilled that I failed this test but was able to pass most tests with flying colors in high school. It led me to writing this piece. One question remains…if Peter was fired from his teaching gig to fund a football stadium, would he still watch football? Find out what the fuck I am talking about below!
I “played” college football at Monmouth University for two years. I say “played” because I never got any burn in a real game and decided to quit after getting a concussion in a summer scrimmage. I never disclosed said concussion to trainers or coaches because…I’m a football player. That’s what football players do.1 We were given off the next day, we went out partying that night, and we drank like we had just been released from prison. I woke up the next morning and my brain felt like mashed potatoes. I said, “Why the fuck am I doing this?” and never went back.
Part of this decision chews at me to this day. I still have nightmares where I missed a meeting and was kicked off the team. There are random dreams that pop up where I stayed and played and became a star. These are both laughable, though it turned out later that season our starting weakside safety got hurt and I would’ve gotten burn all year as the nickelback had I stayed.
The journey to “playing” college ball wasn’t your typical one. My high school coach told me he was giving my name out to D3 schools and I laughed at him and decided I’d never play again instead of playing at the lowest tier of college football. I thought I was better than D3 but my high school coach had less brain cells than Forrest Gump. I attended Monmouth University, which has a D1AA football program, on a half scholarship for grades instead. The first half of my freshman year I did not play football and took to partying. My best friend ended up transferring to Monmouth to play football, he saw what I was becoming without football (a pot head) and forced me to walk on. It turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened to me. (Thanks Dr. Jeremy! - RSM Sports Medicine)
My parents and I had a deal since I was young regarding college. They would pay up to half. It was one of the best parenting moves I’ve ever seen and I will use it with my own kids. It encouraged me to do well in school so that I wouldn’t be saddled with debt if I happened to earn, at the bare minimum, a half scholarship. I did earn that scholarship but because there was no money involved in the football situation at Monmouth the concussion made it easy for me to quit. If, let’s say, football was paying the other half of my tuition, I would have stuck it out to the bitter end no matter how many concussions I received to relieve my parents of paying that second half.
For those who don’t know, money plays a big role in college sports. Some of the players that were on scholarship at Monmouth weren’t as good as the kids that didn’t have money tied to them. But because those scholarship athletes were on the payroll, and the doners were the ones paying for them to be there, they occasionally got playing time over other players that might have deserved it more. This wasn’t the case at my position, but I saw it at others. It makes sense. It’s how the world works. Fair aint always the name of the game. It was my first real reality check. It probably helped me understand the publishing industry quicker than others. Money talks.
But even knowing this didn’t stop my jaw from dropping when I read an article about a high school in Buford, Georgia that spent 62 million dollars constructing a football stadium. I audibly laughed. 62 million? For a high school stadium? What the fuck is going on?
High school sports are supposed to be pure as the driven snow. The best players play because it’s about the love of the game. No money is supposed to exchange hands because there is no money to spend except on the bare minimum for shoulder pads and helmets. Even then, the helmets and pads are hand-me-downs. A one-time purchase for the next 20 years of football players.
After reading that article I almost got dragged down into negative town. What are we doing dumping boatloads of money into high school athletics? Aren’t there more important things to be spending the money on? But then I went back to the original tweet with the article and scrolled into the comments that read like a Bernie Sander’s rally.
62 million for the stadium and teachers are getting laid off?
This is Georgia after all, they can’t read books, so why spend the money on a library.
And students have to pay for lunch!
When the players get hurt, they won’t be able to afford health care.
I had to stop.
Whininess annoys me above all else.
Luckily I live in a state that LOVES football and remembered there are plenty of high schools that operate as colleges here. In New Jersey there are two top parochial high schools that dish out cash to get the best athletes in and out of state. St. Peter’s Prep and Don Bosco compete at the highest level of high school football throughout the nation. They are often ranked in the top 10 football high schools in the country. Money aint a thang for these schools (they are private, they charge tuition) and they churn out unbelievable athletes. One athlete I remember watching out of St. Peter’s was Will Hill.
Will Hill was a beast at safety and quarterback and ended up playing for the Florida Gators in college and going on to a sordid NFL career. Will Hill grew up in East Orange. East Orange is not a place that primes its young men for success. It’s got about double the rate of violent crime than NJ’s average and it has a higher overall crime rate than the rest of the country. Who knows what happens to Will Hill had St. Peter’s not come knocking with a bag of cash and a chance to play at an elite high school. He was troubled even after that (partying, drugs, suspensions at Florida University). But who knows where that attitude would have led him had he stayed in East Orange. Definitely nowhere good.
I was going to write the rest of this post as a diatribe to unintended consequences. I was going to shit on every one of those commenters and show them, as if they were children, that taking money from one place could affect the people you are taking it from. I, brilliant Alex, was going to show them the errors in their thinking - “Look at all the things you could have spent 62 million on” instead of “How many lives is this 62 million gonna change for the better?” But that would be sanctimonious. That would be annoying. And you know what? Who gives a fuck!
This is America and Americans love football. I can’t wait for this college football season to start on Saturday. I’m giddy. I’m anxious. I’m excited. I can smell it in the air. I can feel it in my bones. Football is back and wives across this great country have no idea their men are about to be stolen from them. Those people that live near Buford High are probably feeling the same thing. They CAN’T WAIT to enter that 62-million-dollar cathedral to watch their boys play. They’ll probably make that 62 million back on concessions in the first game season. That’s how much we Americans love football.
People might think of a thousand better ways to spend that money. I probably could too. But when I really think about it, there is nothing better than spending money on something people enjoy. In a world where everyone is whining about this or that – football is a beautiful constant. It’s something millions of people in this country love and enjoy. It’s a right of passage for the boys playing, it’s an escape for the people watching, and the probability that any teacher who was fired in order for this stadium to be built will still watch football this Autumn is hovering at 99%.
P.S. – Monmouth University’s football stadium cost 17 million dollars (LOL).
P.P.S. – Some of the most expensive high school stadiums are obviously in Texas with multiple in the 80-100+ million dollar range. Texas Forever.
P.P.P.S. – The last play of my football career was fucking beautiful. I was playing strong side safety, the quarterback dropped back to pass, I read his eyes looking across the field and sprinted about 30 yards to the weak side, dove, and broke up a pass. My head slammed directly into the hard turf. I was concussed. My brain turned to soup. It was worth it.
P.P.P.P.S – My guess is that NONE of those twitter commentors read
’s piece on his Substack where he goes into how Buford high school actually came up with the funds because why would anyone want their priors tested. If you’re interested check it out here!
P.P.P.P.P.S. – Look at Buford High’s fucking library! Turns out they CAN read. Flannery O’Connor is a Georgian after all.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S - Catholics vs. Convicts to start the season is going to be a DOOZY. Go Irish.
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S - Sorry for using you as click bait
. No teachers were fired in the making of this stadium.I will write more about this and other little knocks on the head and how it is quite possible that I don’t become a writer without being on the receiving end of few brain injuries…
Could you have mentioned that your mom cursed your football coach everyday during my morning walks 🥴
Good essay. I am similarly rabid for college ball. Pizza Hut will be ordered and consumed along with a few ice cold Dr. Peppers as we send Farmageddon to Ireland tomorrow. Dublin won't know what hit it.
The sort of big money spent on high school facilities these days demonstrates how the incentive structure has changed with youth sports over the last few decades. The money just gets better and better for even marginal pros. You can claim the kids should be reading classics instead of reading zone coverage but even a marginal college QB makes an awful lot more money these days than your average academic. Sign O the Times.
Old men love grumbling about NIL money and transfer portal players but personally I like it. Means more agency and better compensation for the players. Gives the middle class a chance to compete with your Bama and your Georgia. I always side with labor over management and always side with the petit-bourgeois over the blue bloods. Hail to Pitt. Let's play some football.