stopped playing football after my junior year of high school, and to be honest, “playing football” is probably generous when used to describe what it was that I was doing out there.
I started one varsity game in my life as an undersized and too slow offensive lineman on one of the worst large-school teams in the state — and only because the guy I was backing up had quit the team in protest of a Saturday early-morning practice after one of our regular butt kickings. In that one start, I got whipped so badly and so repeatedly that I was benched at halftime in favor of a freshman.