Dimon Kendrick-Holmes: There’s a substitute for football

It’s been making the rounds on Facebook, and maybe you saw it, too.

Chris Creighton, the head football coach at Eastern Michigan University, recently wrote a letter addressed to “moms of boys wanting to play football.”

As he explains to all these moms, Creighton’s own mother refused to let him play football until he was a junior in high school, and he hopes other mothers won’t make the same mistake.

It’s a pretty good letter.

“Football taught me what it means to be a part of something bigger than myself,” he wrote. “Success in football requires selflessness and true teamwork. … No matter how talented an individual might be, he will never win one versus eleven.”

He obviously never saw Herschel Walker against Notre Dame in the 1981 Sugar Bowl, but he does make some good points.

Football, he writes, depends on “all kinds of body types and skill sets.” It breaks down race barriers. It builds the kind of character traits that enable young men to be good husbands and fathers.

Um, has he ever heard of the NFL?

But I suppose I can’t disagree. My brother played football at the Naval Academy and today is a college football coach, and he’s a great father and husband.

But football doesn’t work out for everybody.

I was never going to be an all-star player like my brother, but I stuck it out until my freshman year in high school. Then I got two concussions in two games. I’d gotten another concussion during a bike wreck as a child.

I went to the doctor, and he launched into a speech: “Son, I know you live in Bear Bryant country but…”

I cut him off. “Sure, I’ll quit football if you want me to.”

And that was it. I never missed it, but like a good Southern boy I wasn’t going to quit without a medical excuse.

So what about those character traits I would need later in life? What about finding a pursuit that depends on “all kinds of body types and skill sets”? What about teamwork? What about toughness? What about destroying race barriers? What about needing something bigger than myself?

I found a pretty good substitute for football.

I joined the U.S. Army.

Hey, maybe I should write a letter entitled, “To moms of boys wanting to join the Army.”

•••

A special shout-out to Jenny Chandler, our newsroom den mother for 44 years, who retired Friday. She answered the phones, filed stories and photos, kept us out of trouble, and gave us kind words and a shoulder to cry on when we needed it. (But only when we needed it.)

I’m sure she did a lot of other stuff we never noticed, and on Monday we’ll find out exactly what when it doesn’t get done.

We love you and we’ll miss you.

Dimon Kendrick-Holmes, executive editor, dkholmes@ledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published August 7, 2015 at 10:31 PM with the headline "Dimon Kendrick-Holmes: There’s a substitute for football."