Go Long!

Go long, and cut towards the goal post.

So I've been reading this John Grisham book, "Playing for Pizza."

I've not always loved Grisham's work, but I've always admired his attention to detail.

I've been to Memphis, I've been to New Orleans, and I've been to D.C. And it is clear from other novels he has also been to those places.

I have lawyers in the family and it is pretty clear he must know some of them.

But "Playing for Pizza" may be the most convincing evidence Grisham does his homework.

Playing for Pizza is about a washed up NFL quarterback recruited to go play the game in Parma, Italy for virtually nothing.

But this is not a book review, rather a bizarre trip down memory lane.

You see in the last one third of the novel Grisham introduces a character, "Rat Mullins. "Rat" is described as this little high energy football coach that revels in offense, and defense be "damned."

And as Grisham gets on with his description of the man and his style of play, I'm saying, "hey, I know this guy." Except his name isn't "Rat!" It is "MOUSE."

Mouse Davis is his name. And at least for a short period of time he revolutionized the game. He built everything around a scrambling quarterback with a thousand gimmicks to make just about everybody on the field eligible to catch the football.

Every once in a while you'll see an NFL team spread the offensive line to cover the field nearly side to side?

Mouse DOES spread it out side to side, and he does it on every play. It makes it really exciting to watch. It really does. But MOUSE, when I knew him, was not coaching in the NFL.

Heard of the USFL, the United States Football League? How about the Denver Gold? The Chicago fire? Well for a while we had year round football in this country. (It was a total of three years) Denver's contribution, despite recruiting a former Denver Bronco's coach (Red Miller, and then a famous quarterback, Craig Morton,to try his hand at the helm, the win-loss scale had the wins fighting gravity. So why not give this "Mouse Davis" guy a shot at it. And so they did in 1984 to get ready for the the 1985 season.

Well Mouse, if nothing else, knew how to get attention. For that scrambling quarterback position? The coach holds OPEN TRY OUTS.

So here I am, well into my 40's, saying "why not?"

MOUSE TO PAUL

"Okay, Paul. Here is what I want you to do. You'll take the snap from the shotgun position, and then you'll retreat another 6 steps and then curl in the direction of your throwing arm and start looking for a target."

It's a good thing they didn't have any linemen rushing me or I'd be dead. I followed instructions and since nobody was rushing me I got the pass off. It fell about ten feet short of the receiver.

"Want me to try it again coach?"

"Nah, Paul, that's good. Thanks for coming out."

It's a pretty good thing MOUSE didn't give me another shot at it because, as it was? I tore the heck out something and suffered nerve damage that didn't resolve itself for another 20 years.

I've decided to post this BLOG because I always tell my students, "don't ever give up on your dreams."


But, hey, no regrets. It wasn't my dream to Make the team, just to try out. So I sure lived the dream of giving it a shot.

I know John Grisham is still writing books, but I'm curious about Mouse Davis. I'm going to go see if he is still around and I'll get back to you.

If you like football, you'll enjoy "Playing for Pizza."

[ POSTSCRIPT]

I checked on Mouse Davis. At age 75 he is the offensive coordinator at Portland State University where he was head coach back in the 70s. His "run and shoot" offenses are still cranking out more than 340 yards passing a game. Last year Portland State led the nation in passing and offensive yards overall.

"Go Mouse!"