By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Club honors players from Northeast, Stratford, and FPD

A Raider, Eagle, and Vikings are the final winners of the regular-season.

Northeast receiver, returner, and safety Jacoby Hill is the co-back of the week after 179 yards rushing, 46 receiving, and 40 in punt returns for 265 all-purpose yards. He added six tackles, three for loss and a sack in the 47-16 win over East Laurens.

Stratford QB Christian Palmer is the other co-back, leading the Eagles to an upset over Aquinas with 179 yards rushing on 17 carries with two touchdowns, plus 9-of-13 passing for 66 yards.

FPD’s Wesley Wilson had seven tackles and four for loss on the line to earn lineman of the week. On offense, he helped the Vikings to 250 yards rushing.

A major topic in college football these days is Alabama’s quarterback.

A former Alabama quarterback was town Monday night speaking to the Macon Touchdown Club. But wearing crimson is about all that Brodie Croyle has in common with Tua Tagovailoa.

He was part of a very different period of Alabama football, before the current head coach took over.

“People ask me about (Nick Saban),what was it like,” said Croyle, who flew in with his wife and two sons. “I don’t know. I was one of those fortunate few that was recruited by (Mike) DuBose, I played for Fran (Dennis Franchione), practiced for (Mike) Price, and finished with (Mike) Shula. God was preparing me for dealing with a lot of personalities.”

Mike DuBose went 24-23 at Alabama in a stint marked by an alleged affair with a secretary and then and NCAA investigation and penalties.

Dennis Franchione came before the 2001 season and left after the 2002 season, Croyle’s first, and bolted for Texas A&M. Mike Price was hired, and lasted five months, his unsigned contract being rescinded after reports of a visit to a Pensacola strip club and an unidentified woman charging $1,000 to his room.

On came Mike Shula, son of the legendary NFL head coach, who lasted four seasons, getting fired a year after Croyle’s injury-filled career there ended.

It was a major learning experience for a man who went on to five seasons in the NFL before embarking on a life of helping youngsters escaping or being dumped from wretched family conditions.

His parents started the Big Oak Ranch in the 1970s, a collection of Christian homes for displaced youth.

Croyle recalled one day as a 5-year-old a few days before Christmas watching a truck drive up, and a man tell John Croyle about having been given an ultimatum: her or his sons.

He dropped off his sons – 11,10, and 6 - in an emotional scene; one ran away for three hours. The 6-year-old clutched at his father, who pulled away. John Croyle hugged the boy.

The father got in the truck and took off, not seeing his sons again until after they’d graduated high school.

“Little did I know that little boy was going to grow up to be my best friend,” Croyle said. “We were gonna play baseball together, we were gonna rodeo together. He was gonna be in my wedding.”

And a few years ago, the friend called to summon Croyle to be in his wedding.

Croyle, who’s talk went from humorous – yeah, there were Auburn jokes in there – to serious said it was in the early stages of his NFL career that steered him in his life’s direction.

A fresh wide-eyed rookie, he was ready at an early meeting to take notes when the general manager walked in.

“He looks like a GM,” Croyle said. “Slicked-back hair, he’s got the three-piece suit, he’s got the little thing that comes out (of) your pocket – I’m nto sure what that thing is, as you can tell – (and) he’s got a spray tan. He was real pretty.”

His message was short and blunt: Look at yourself as a one-man business. As long as you handle your business, you got a job. As soon as you start worrying about management or coaching decisions or the guy on either side of you, you’ll be replaced.

“My first note ever in the NFL: ‘Forget everything you ever learned about football.’”

So much for playing for the guy to your left or right, for playing something bigger than yourself.

The GM walked out, and in walked the head coach, one Herm Edwards, who eventually went on to a football broadcasting career before returning to coaching this year.

“Forget everything he just said,” Edwards said.

“My second note that I have (in the) NFL: ‘I’m going to need a shrink after this meeting.’”

Edwards talked of football, but said his priority was a little different.

“He said, ‘I’m concerned with you as a man,’” Croyle related. “ ‘I’m concerned with you as a husband. I’m concerned with you as a father. I’m concerned with you as a friend. I’m concerned with you as a teammate, as someone in the community. If I can get you right Monday through Saturday, I know what I’m gonna get on Sunday.”

Edward said a man’s measure wasn’t about wealth, but how he affects those around them in a positive away. The obsession of being a football player that started when Croyle was 11 began dissipating

“It was the start of this kind of progression,” Croyle said. “I never had thought bigger than football at that point in time. I never had thought bigger, or past what football might be able to bring me. … Relationship truly changes everything.”

Croyle, who first mentioned relationships with the story of the three brothers being discarded, hardly ever talked to the GM, but said he still hears from Edwards a few times a year.

Still, Croyle’s focus on football was large, and he finally had that life-changing moment. The NFL job is an office job, but also plenty of work – like playbook and film study – at home. So Croyle would get home to his new wife and cram in some normal living before he’d get back to learning what he needed to learn.

“I’ve got to know all these things, because I’ve got to make sure I communicate it not only to my guys, but I’ve also got to understand what the other 11 are doing just as well,” Croyle said. “This had been going on and on and on.”

One night, Croyle is poring over the playbook and looks over at his wife, and she’s reading the Bible.

“Everybody’s like, ‘What’s your Jesus moment?’,” Croyle said. “Mine happened in a bed in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting there, because I did all the things I was supposed to do. There was literally something I was supposed to do that I was not doing, and that was being the spiritual leader of our house.

“I’m sitting there and I’m literally looking at my bible while she’s looking at hers.”

He apologized to his wife for that failure.

“Herm Edwards got me thinking about more than football,” Croyle said, “which changed my life, because he got me thinking of something bigger than football.”

Croyle directed most of his words toward the seven or eight high school players in the room, from Northeast, FPD, and Stratford, reiterating in a few ways the importance of relationships, using the Bible at times to connect his broad message.

Croyle pointed the popular criticisms of the younger generation by the older generation, stereotypes exacerbated by technology and social media.

“I don’t believe that. I believe your generation is waiting on somebody getting uncomfortable enough to find their purpose, and then they’re going to be able to lead a group that literally takes what so many people view as lazy and so many people view as different views.

“And they’re going to take that and they’re going to turn it upside down. And y’all are going to go change the world. I believe that.

“The question is can you get uncomfortable enough to go find it. See, because then when you get uncomfortable enough to go find it is when God can really begin to use you.”