Did anybody get that tag number?
Most of my mornings begin with a rundown of a checklist of what joints in my body actually DON’T hurt. You may be thinking to yourself wait, wasn’t he JUST a kicker? And you would be oh so wrong. The litany of injuries I have sustained paid for many a lake house and Mercedes Benz in my day. I don’t want to name names, Sturkie, Payne, McKinnon. I got to know every doctor in the practice AND the physical therapist, a substantial Greek woman named Suvall. I’m pretty sure Suvall means “sadistic giver of pain” in the original Greek. That practice in Marietta is now known as Pinnacle Orthopedics.
My first broken bone was in 7th grade. Our P.E. coach was the high school wrestling coach, Bubba Davis. During the winter months when we had inclement weather, we would wrestle on the gym stage. The only guy about my size was a guy who had failed a couple of grades and much more developed physically. I was the kid whose mother was in constant search of the “HUSKY” section at Goldstein’s, Leiter’s and Sears. You know, more Incredible Bulk than Hulk. This guy got me down, took my right wrist and broke and dislocated my right elbow. It didn’t feel too good…I have it on good authority, it looked even worse.
The next year, between 8th and 9th grade, I broke my right ankle playing summer league baseball. In 10th grade broken right index finger playing basketball in P.E. There were several sprained ankles, usually doing stupid things. Oddly enough, I never did anything major playing football.
Some of you old timers may remember I did not kick-off my freshman year at UGA. A senior walk-on named Cary Long earned that job. I did kick-off a couple of times though. Once was against Auburn. It was a pretty good kick, several yards deep in the end zone. I was admiring the hang-time when BOOM! One of L.A.’s finest, and that ain’t sayin’ much, decided he was gonna go after the kicker. Ooooo, aren’t we tough?! I have included a recent picture of the perp below.
Anyhoo, I think the technical word is ass over tea-kettle. The first thing that hit the ground was the back side of my shoulder pads and I flipped over backwards(ass over tea kettle). The only thing that stopped me was the hedges. Wow! You know, I never heard the phrase, keep your head on a swivel until the day AFTER the Auburn game. Thanks coach!
To add insult to injury, the next day when we all watched the kick films as a team, they replayed it over and over and over again. The requisite BOOM when contact was made and the laughter that followed. It was special.
The other instance that comes to mind is the 1978 Tech game after Scott Woerner returned a punt for a touchdown. The ensuing kick-off was decent, again several yards deep. I’ll be danged if Drew Hill doesn’t bring it out, right up the Tech sideline. I went down behind the main line of coverage and started bearing left and tried to dive and make the tackle, to no avail. The safety couldn’t get him either, touchdown Tech! My right shoulder took the brunt of that diving attempt, the only positive thing about that play was I took out Pepper Rodgers on the sideline.
Okay I am done complaining, there are so many guys who have it worse than I do. So many more collisions, day in and day out. I am actually thankful to have been, “just a kicker”.
Hey I’m fifty, I am going to deal with it. Pass the Aleve and the ice bag.
Erk Russell in the Hall of Fame?
There’s not much I remember about the spring of 1976, but there is one image burned into my brain that will live forever. Spring football had just started and after calisthenics(old school word), Coach Ray Broadaway let me go down to the game field, better known as Northcutt Stadium to practice alone. He knew he could trust me to work hard, and I did.
After kicking one set of five kicks, I went to retrieve the balls and that’s when it happened. I looked up in the stands and there was this bald head poking out of the aisle.
HOLY CRAP, THAT’S ERK RUSSELL!
I tried to keep it together and I think I did okay. To be honest, that part is a little fuzzy. My mind was racing! After practice Coach Broadaway introduced us. I was pretty intimidated because Coach Russell’s countenance belied his true self. He was a great man. He told me of The University of Georgia having an interest in me as a kicker and hoped I would visit in the fall.
Obviously, it all worked out well and even though I didn’t play defense for Coach Russell, being recruited by him was a great honor. I know I can speak for my team-mates when I say, no one was more respected or beloved than Coach Erk Russell. Coach Dooley as a Head Coach was not in a position to develop those relationships like Coach Russell.
There are many people more qualified to speak to his worthiness as a College Hall of Fame member. I just had to add my two cents worth. It’s not likely anyone would mention his impact on a kicker, but it was there.
My freshman year, things were going okay, but I was a little homesick for Marietta. It was a friday and we had the weekend off. Even so, we were not supposed to leave Athens. Well, one of my newest and best friends, Ronnie Stewart and I went to a Marietta HS Football game. We made the hour and half trip and having just arrived, we learned that Coach Russell was at the game also!
We left immediately, but not before being seen by my hometown pastor, the Reverend Nelson Price. The pastor, who was with Coach Russell up in the press box, exclaimed in his well- known booming voice, there’s Rex Robinson!
Coach Russell said, “Where”!?!
Ronnie and I thought we had escaped certain disaster, until Monday when we reported to practice. Coach Russell came up to me and very quietly said, “Don’t ever do that again”.
Guess what? I didn’t…
Girls, Girls, Girls….
Oh those wonderful women of The Food Network. It has been my favorite for a while. Yes, my wife is fully aware and we are working through it. My original love of cooking and obviously eating found the perfect outlet when the Food Network went on the air. I feel no shame in explaining how my ultimate fantasies went from “whoever” to Paula, Ina, Giada and now Claire. No, Rachel Ray gets on my freakin’ nerves. I don’t care if her food is delish!
Anyhoo. Now, there is nothing sexier than a woman that can cook and is actually willing to do so. My wife cooked alot when we were dating. It was a trick. Now I’m lucky if she does anything more than pop a Lean Cuisine in the micro-wave.
I am exaggerating of course for effect, and real life prevents alot of us from doing all we used to do. That’s why the whole idea of a woman in the kitchen is so dang hot! Is this sexist? Okay, whatever. Call me old fashioned, call me sexist if you must, just don’t call me late to dinner. Especially if one of these Queens of Cuisine are anywhere close.
I guess Paula Dean was my first crush. So cute and such a southern belle, and sooo much butter. Love at first bite fo’ real! Michael is a lucky man! In all seriousness, Paula’s story is inspiring for lots of reasons, not the least of which is her success was a story of survival intially. A true American dream come true.
Ina Garten, another object of my affections, went from the corporate world to starting a catering business. I think the story goes that she enjoyed entertaining so much and was tired of Corporate America. The fact that she was in “The Hampton’s” didn’t hurt I’m sure, but she makes some remarkable dishes. I especially love the picnics she makes for Jeffrey, her husband.
Giada De Laurentis is fun to watch…….I love me some Italian…..and the food looks awesome too.
Man, I hope my wife doesn’t read this….shhhh. I don’t know that much about her background. I do know she went to Culinary Institute of America.
Here’s a little known fact, when I was about a junior in high school , I sent for an application to the CIA in Hyde Park, NY. Then football over shadowed that. I did about 90% of the cooking in my first marriage. I only occasionally feel inspired to go there these days.
Giada is married also, grrrrrrr.
Now, the new lady in my life is Claire Robinson. She apparently can make a gourmet meal with only 5 ingredients. She had me at 5, that is MY number! *sigh* I have only seen her show once, but I see a beautifull relationship developing. Hopefully Paula, Ina and Giada won’t mind.
and oh yeah, my wife either.
Is there a Scholarship Scam?
One of the great achievements for any young athlete is being awarded a scholarship. Whether it’s academic or athletic, it shows a certain level of accomplishment that is recognized by others. That’s a great feeling. I was fortunate enough to be offered a scholarship from several schools as a senior at Marietta High School. Because of rule changes, many kickers have to walk-on first to prove their worth before any scholarship money is provided. But somewhere along the way, what was once a dream come true, has become an entitlement in many people’s minds.
There are many, many more athletes in the world than scholarships to go around. Moms and Dads who have seen their kids excel in youth sports programs, have delusions of granduer concerning their kids. Many lose perspective, and assume the future is set. The fact is many kids peak early, and the other kids catch up as they reach high school. Those kids who specialize in one sport too early can burn out and lose their desire to play at all.
Even so, things like AAU basketball, club soccer and volleyball, and travel baseball have created the environment where dreams are born, no matter how far fetched. High school sports have largely been relegated to something you do to stay in shape until your AAU or Club season starts. These “coaches” many times entice with promises of “playing on the next level”, when their true motivations are more self serving.
These conditions along with true financial need on the part of some parents, have created a large group of companies in the “scholarship business”. Hundreds of companies all over the country all making the same claims. Pay us money and we will get little Johnny or Jenny a scholarship. Most have a menu of services, from a free profile on a website, to email updates to their database of coaches around the country. Do you really think all these services have contacts with this static pool of college coaches? There is no way. A college coach can’t sit at the computer and take emails from dozens of services about thousands of athletes. It just does not add up to me. I am sure some of these recruiting services are totally legitimate, but not all of them can be. On top of that add another burgeoning industry, the phenomenon called the “combine” for high schooler and sometimes middle schoolers and it adds to the frenzy for scholarship money. 
My reason for writing this blog is two-fold. First, be realistic about your sons and daughters abilities and try not to live vicariously through them. Please let kids be kids. Second, be careful when approached by recruiting services, and don’t sign on if the sales pitch feels more like a used car saleman or time share presentation than anything else. Take your time. You should be pro-active about the marketing of your young athlete, if they truly are that gifted. It’s a trade-off. Some people are do-it-yourselfers, others would rather pay some one else to do the work. Just make sure they can follow through on the promises.
The Decision to Excel(from Kicking.com 2003)
It was January 1978, and I was going through my first off-season workouts at the University of Georgia. It was by far the toughest thing I had ever been through physically or mentally. It was tougher than usual because we had just suffered through the only losing season Coach Vince Dooley would ever have while Head coach. We were 5-6 this my freshman year and while I started as a freshman it was anything but an auspicious start.
I was 10-20 on field goals and it was during these same winter workouts that I would watch kicking game film (this is pre-video), and I noticed something. It wasn’t anything technical in my swing. It was the obvious letdown my teammates suffered when I missed perfectly makeable kicks. Now, I was not the reason we went 5-6 but the bottom line is, I was not doing my part for the team to succeed.
My resolve to change this was huge. I worked harder and harder as the winter workouts came to an end and spring football began. The problem was, just like a lot of you, I did not or could not do a lot of kicking during the winter. As spring began I was a little rusty. At the same time, a transfer named Dave Allison became eligible to compete for the job and compete he did.
There were times during that spring that moré than a few people warned me about losing my job. It was a long spring but my goals had been set in February and they never changed. Not only will I keep my job but, I want to be the best in the SEC. I reached my goals. Dave Allison helped make that possible. Don’t ever be afraid of competition. I have known kickers that would rather not go out or transfer to another school than run the risk of not being THE MAN.
I have pretty strong feelings about that type of attitude. In fact, it is not printable. Just let me say this. If you ever shy away from competition, you don’t deserve to be THE MAN. I just told one of my local guys a couple of weeks ago, just because you are going to be a 10th grader this fall, don’t settle for being the JV kicker. Let the head coach make that decision, don’t you make it for him. The good thing is, if you are on this site and reading this you are probably not that kind of person.
If kicking is what you want to do, you have some tough choices to make. Becoming the best at something is not an accident. It has to be intentional. There will be some sacrifice. When you go to the beach, take your footballs. No field, no goal-posts, no problem. Go to a park and kick over the swings or better yet aim at a single object like a light pole and hit it. Yes you heard me, HIT THE POLE. We do this drill every day to warm up. See the Pole, be the pole, hear the ping. If all you ever do is kick between uprights, you’re not going to be focused enough on accuracy. Work hard, be the best.
This article was originally published on kicking.com on 3.14.2003…RR
P.S.- Exactly one year later, I sat to have the picture you see above taken for the 1979 Playboy All-American Team. I am seated by Billy Sims of Oklahoma who had won the Heisman Trophy in 1978. Beside him is the 1979 winner, Charles White from USC. My what a difference a year makes.
Wow, I never dreamed this would happen.
As I continue to to trod through this new universe of online communication and social networking in particular, I have been advised to start a blog. Obviously I am way behind, but I’m catching up. We will find out together if I have anything worthwhile to share. You can rest assured, my mind works differently than most, when it works at all.
Feel free to contact me about anything from my time at UGA to the present.
Let’s see what happens now.
Rex
Tell me what you really think!