By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
High school tailback, Michael Ferns, had just cleared the Edison High secondary and was sprinting unmolested to his 12th touchdown of the season. His undefeated St. Clairsville (Ohio) team was putting the final touches on a significant win over its rival and the senior footballer was trying to impress the University of Michigan scouts who were already considering offering him a full football scholarship. As he crossed over the opponent’s five yard line, Ferns did a curious thing. He slowed down and made a right turn out-of-bounds at the one.
The move was so unexpected that two trailing referees signaled touchdown, but St. Clairsville’s game captain, Dan Monteroso, charged down the sideline to argue the call. Realizing their mistake, the stunned refs placed the ball at the one and Ferns went back into the huddle. It was about this time that unheralded, undersized freshman Logan Thompson entered the game. Ferns changed positions with the newbie and Thompson followed the star player into the end zone for his lone varsity play of the season.
Pretty mundane stuff that occurs most every autumn Friday night somewhere in America. What made this one different is that Logan’s dad, Paul, had died from a sudden stroke on Wednesday. Saying his father would have wanted him to play, Logan suited up with a heavy heart never expecting to see any playing time. Behind the scenes, Coach Brett McLean had encouraged his seniors to get Logan into the game for a meaningful play from scrimmage. The word spread through the team. Despite the cut-throat world of big time high school football where college scholarships ride on every down, the team made a collective decision.
When Ferns made his right turn, all but one kid on the St. Clairsville sideline knew what had happened. “When I saw Mike break away down the sideline I just started yelling for Logan,” McLean said to USA Today. “He was surprised because he — like everyone else — figured Mike would just run it on in. Logan didn’t know anything about what we were doing. His was something that touched the whole team. Logan was going through so much and for a few minutes we helped him get his mind off of things. It honored his dad. It was just an awesome moment,” Mclean added.
Logan was ecstatic. “Looking straight up into the sky after scoring my first varsity touchdown…i know the old man was watching! love and miss you so much daddy,” he tweeted.
Source: USA Today
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
OS
I could have added that it was a nice gesture and hope they all enjoyed it. But that would not placate fools who will not tolerate dissenting opinions without even offering counterargements.
Tell me why you believe the Lousiana police but not the ones in other places. Tell me as a pro how you can buy the accusation of mental instability. Did you have any evidence that we others did not have access to? GeneH came out against her, but gave no sources even when asked.
Do you love football displays and weep for the boy and his family? Fine, have at it. I weep for the kids who get blown up in all the countries where our forces or our CIA have been fighting terror, including Reagan’s Iran-Contra deals.
Where do you hang your head when you come here? It can’t be with you.
And if I had any respect for you et al, then I don’t now. Nor do I need your respect, etc. Keep it for your fellow village dogs.
Have you ever walked around a French village in the daytime. The german shepherds would scare the skit out of you. Right in your cockpit. How was it with combat, pilot?
Beddie bye, have it all now. Tomorrow and tomorrow and all our yesterdays…..
The only thing you/we have was stolen. And only the slaves both free and black have built it. Romney is really scary. And he never built anything. But he is friends with H W Bush. And that is double scary.
I add and tangent as I wish, so FU2 if you object to that. Pay a visit to your home county. Sheeeeit! Such jive!
This story is about Logan Thompson, a young man in a tough spot, and his friends who selflessly rallied behind him. Good people doing a good thing in a time when a good thing needed to be done without regard for their personal glory or other selfish considerations. People thinking about someone other than themselves.
And that is that.
My final words after a rapid scan.
Not a single counterargument on the matters that my opinions touched on. As soon as I say: “J’accuse!” then hackles rise and minds shut.
Pretty weak gang.
Instead just boiler plate. And none from the heart except MikeS. Yapping hound dogs. Read “Fear and loathin on the campaign trail in ’72”. Worth the time for those who can appreciate reading how the press eats and regurgitates Nixon’s (or whoever sits in the WH) crappy diarrhea for us to believe. Otherwise your WH or Capitol beat disappears in practice. Controlling media and controlling us.
————
And as some know, 45 years in Sweden speaking only Swedish leaves a bit to desire in English capability. MikeS had to teach me the construction of a simple declarative sentence, and that to a guy who got excused from freshman english at NCSU because my entry test grade was so high.
How’s your Swedish, Frankly, your french, spanish, italian, empathy for and contact with foreigners? I would guess that I can outdo you on all of them too.
idealist707 sez: “The young man did not EARN the credit he gained. How this could redound to his credit and please his deceased father escapes me.”
*************************************
About the time I think you cannot go any lower, you get in a new shipment of shovels. I really think you are on the wrong site. You make wild accusations, claim some commenters are hiding behind others, and get your widdle feelings hurt when people don’t take you seriously. If you bother to reply, be assured I lost interest in reading your semi-coherent and off-topic ramblings a long time ago.
Your self-importance exists only in your imagination. And I agree with Frankly and Gene. And if you think I give a rat’s a$$ what you think, you are more delusional than I thought.
MikeS,
Cover your a55 if you need to, but I read carefully what you say.
MikeS says:
“Therefore when I run across a beautiful heartwarming story of a boy who lost his Dad and is also a third stringer on the team, being afforded a chance for glory by people with empathy for his pain, my tears flow at the beauty that humanity is capable of if we care for each-other.”
Well, I have NOT at anytime touched on this young man and this elaborately arranged event. But now I will in order to reply to you.
The young man did not EARN the credit he gained. How this could redound to his credit and please his deceased father escapes me.
Instead it is all part of the propaganda promoting football and the industry that thrives off such myths. Such manufactured heroes, gladiators, such glory and money in simulated combat; and we pump our kids full of this crap for years until they can’t think straight but instead volunteer to die for Dick Cheney et al and the plutocrats who stand behind this farcical dumbing down of America.
I have objected to it previously and will continue to do so in the future when occasion arises.
This was NOT a funeral ceremony. This was not a hoorah for the hero. This was football propaganda. And you, who praised GeneH for his propaganda series, should have recognized it for that.
But protocol slaves as most here seem to be, we all are enjoined to lay our stones on the grave (a lovely gesture I feel) and bow, or whatever you do.
I saw only propaganda of the most base type as it appeals to the base side of ourselves.
I say to hell with football and this is a good time to say it, for it will get attention. And hopefully make people aware of what skit propaganda they eat readily.
But no, I knew it would fail. Too big a dose won’t do. I try shock therapy, but I did not have the resources of cunning of thóse who arranged 9/11.
As for empathy, let us not lay our dicks on the table and compare. That is a silly argument. To crow on your account or demean me as to my lack is demeaning to yourself instead. Just as OS is not my psychiatrist and cannot diagnose my mental state, then you have no idea of the dimensions nor qualities of my empathy for ALL life.
I tried to speak against the almost laughable quick condemnation of the young mother burned in LA, while here the police launched alternative was easily swallowed after our leader JT gave a wink in that direction and leading figures hopped on the bandwagon, again IMHO.
Now if JT had asked: Is there possibility of false police evidence in this case? Then might not the outcome in terms of comments on that thread not been different? I say it would.
Hope you have read all that I have said, including the last to GeneH and OS.
An important PS. I hope all have seen the video, posted by “Anonymously posted” which centers on on HW Bush, CIA cocaine crack smuggling and Romney’s net increase of 179 percent per year over a ten year period.
It might also explain why Romney could come out 2 minutes after Hillary’s first announcement on the Libya consulate attack, with his condemnation of Obama.
Who did that black op, muslims or our CIA teams? That is my question, not posed by the video.
That and the coupling between “BAIN” Capital, which had nothing to do with Bain at all, but was wholly owned by Mitt. It is strongly suggested that his incredible ROI was due to laundering of Bush/CIA cocaine moneys in Panama banks, and a CIA op, from Panama, who joined the firm to supervise the setting up of the operation.
And we sit here fighting each other for our similar stupidities and ignore how they are treating us as the Brits did the Chinese when they forced opium on them. Crack anyone? Sure, I’m black, I’ll do it.
Get out the vote or get out the revolution. One or the other. Do it or your grandkids are not going to have grandkids.
yes dear it was a diss aimed at you. One of the nice things about conversations here is that rarely does some troll show up to drag it off into the weeds while grinding an ax that has nothing to do with the thread. If you don’t recognize it thats because you are frequently guilty of it – that was a particularly egregious example you dropped there. It was unworthy of any additional response
As for your pathetic attempt to insult me you’ll have to work a lot harder than that. Commenting online is hardly an act of courage & questioning another commenters courage is pretty pointless. You might as well threaten me with physical violence while you are at it, or question my masculinity. Also, your use of the English language still needs work.
I’m sorry, but if you think this story is about “this sick society, lead by people like [me], and the sheeple who follow [me]” and “I [id707] don’t and never did have to kiss a55 to keep me fed. And I won’t start with you”, then you should realize that’s simply the babbling insanity. You really need to stop proving my point about why your opinions are of limited value, id707.
This story is about Logan Thompson, a young man in a tough spot, and his friends who selflessly rallied behind him. Good people doing a good thing in a time when a good thing needed to be done without regard for their personal glory or other selfish considerations. People thinking about someone other than themselves.
And that is that.
GeneH,
This story is about this sick society, lead by people like you, and the sheeple who follow you.
I did notpromote myself, but I did call attention to your common failings.
And what you say or do is of no interest. But I am concerned for those who are obviously trained RWA adherents.
That is all you will get from me on that subject.
And OS as usual et al hide behind you, the Idealist-killer. What a laugh they are. But you are top dog, Wear the crown with pride. I am still alive and well.
Again I ask you, where did you get the info that Louisiana was not a place where this woman would be attacked, and thus you weakened her story. What other evidence other than the fingerprints, which could be lifted and planted on the objects, has been presented.
Does those only constitute a smoking gun? BS say I, but then I am not a lawyer and am glad for that.
I don’t and never did have to kiss a55 to keep me fed.
And I won’t start with you.
If I wanted to become popular I could imitate Rafflaw, or some other of your cowed constituents. Or join in in these “God Bless Football and this young man” with polite murmurs. Sheeeit!
You sing high praises to freedom of speech and curtail it here with rank bully tactics.
That’s all I’m gonna say. OS did not feel up to taking the final word, so he called in you. Go ahead, such a waste of brains, that you exhibit. And that was no compliment.
“But I can not cheer when one moment of kindness is used to support the effect that football has had and continues to have in our society.”
ID707,
For a smart person sometimes you can’t see the forest for the tress, to use an apt cliche. My struggles against the way of the world all come from the fact that I have a good deal of empathy for the pain of the human condition, having lived and worked with it for most of my life. Not from some political or economic master theory. As I had o luck explain to Enoch the other day, passion is what drives me and empathy is what drives my passion..
Mark’s guest blog was perfectly appropriate for today and equally as important, if not more so than mine. The reason is not that I like and respect him as much as I do, but because part of the strategy of those who would tear humanity apart in their orgiastic greed is to separate us from our fellow human beings. Some of the people that you and I both agree with politically, unwittingly assist the Greedy in their efforts by looking down upon the average person, just trying to make their way through life.
I don’t love the idea of High School football and have never attended a game. Since I’m quite knowledgeable on all sports, I do know a lot about it and in many ways the system is screwed up in a way that is distasteful to me. Therefore when I run across a beautiful heartwarming story of a boy who lost his Dad and is also a third stringer on the team, being afforded a chance for glory by people with empathy for his pain, my tears flow at the beauty that humanity is capable of if we care for each-other. Stories like this are to me not syrupy cover-ups of the ills of the world, I understand them all to well, rather they are guides for how we should look upon other humans.
I know that this was a comfort to Logan, a credit to Coach McLean, a mitzvah by Mike Ferns and a valuable lesson for us all.
Where’s the Adderall?
How’s that attention seeking behavior working out for you today, id707? Winning friends and influencing people I see. This thread is a perfect microcosmic example of why I don’t care what you think in general and about me, the other guest bloggers and the other posters specifically. Instead of focusing on the issue at hand, namely what a good example these people are, you’ve wanted to hijack yet another thread to be all about you, You, YOU.
This story is about Logan Thompson, a young man in a tough spot, and his friends who selflessly rallied behind him. Good people doing a good thing in a time when a good thing needed to be done without regard for their personal glory or other selfish considerations. People thinking about someone other than themselves.
What it isn’t about is you or you trying to change the subject to you and what you want to talk about from another unrelated story or about how you’re a victim because people tire of your endless disjointed rambling bullshit.
This story is about Logan Thompson, a young man in a tough spot, and his friends who selflessly rallied behind him.
The exact opposite of what you are doing.
And that is that.
OS,
Back to your fallback position. Internet diagnoses of people you have never met. Seems like a possible occupational disease, but neither my shrink nor any others I have encountered are afflicted with it.
Could be due to the in-breeding in your background, where all the bridges and crossing are named after your or your wife’s family names. You bragged about it, so stand for the implications of in-breeding.
The non-professional aspect of rendering internet diagnoses should be clear to all, although it escapes you.
I leave the last word to you, being trained in argumenttion by a certain figure here, you will certainly avail yourself of it.
You never attacked my arguments and waited to see which way the wind blew before coming with these snarks. Not very courageous are you, OS.
What else do you care about? If the family searches for support via Google, then that is their problem. And in no way establishes what may be said about our love of killing competition and what football does to our way of life.
Nor does the alacrity with which people hop on the leaders bandwagons here, changing sides from day to day is hardly a subject that the family would even notice, even less would be concerned with.
So you gave up the social etiquette motivation to why you deride me in exchange for a caring for how the son’s family could be effected by my tirade against the “filtered” sheeple here.
I won’t go into other skit which this symbolic tribute amounts to. That was not what I was touching on.
So go back to your planes and derring do. Did you ever fly combat? If so, good for you. But doubt it.
How about telling us how you lifted fingerprints off corpses instead. For use by the police.
Still not a single counterargument. Amazing how well trained some are.
Hypergraphia. Easy to look up if anyone is interested.
Noam Chomsky once wrote an article explaining why Main Stream Media was Main Stream, a phenomena which is basicly the same today. In doing so, he found it necessary to explain the training, he preferred to call it the filter system, to which all were subjected to in their schools and later in life.
If you did not pass the filter, then you would never be approved for advancement to be a journalist or what ever with any responsibility, and be allowed”free” exercixe of your judgement. His point, as I understand it, was that you had to demonstrate that you had internalized and identified so totally with the establishment goals (etc) that not even an idea in oppositiion to them could be conceived in your mind.
You could be trusted then by the establishment.
You may ask yourself where you stand in this filter system and what effect it had on you, if you wish.
I balanced without training a teacup on my knee when sitting in a chair at 12 years of age. Just luck.
Etiquette otherwise, nope. But I prefer my life of never having bowed my head to give assent to unworthy ideas or leaders, higher than any rewards I may have foregone.
And to those who are offended by my ignoring etiquette, I say ignore that for the moment to instead review the arguments of being all too easily sheeple here, when the “leaders” take tone for all to follow.
Who are the leaders who tell you what to “baaaa” at?
Can’t resist, can you sport? When will you get the memo that I really could care less about what you think? I do care about the impact your threadjacking and boorish comments may have on Logan Thompson and the family members of Paul Thompson if they Google his name and find this story.
OS et al including James in LA,
Calling me down on social skills? What a laugh OS.
And why not name me? No one else has done other than refuse to me my arguments/views/opinions.
I tried to bring up the exceedingly quick Pavlovian reaction of the members of this blog, to judge from
the posts which were made on two threads.
So this thread was supposed to be an American moment of expressing our solidarity to the Great American idea. Is that the same Great American idea which produced Vietnam and Kent State massacre, which MikeS writes about today? Go look at his take on America, and read his previous blogs which he lists in the same blog. Read about the American coverup of Kent State, just like the JFK one, the RFK one, the MLKjr one,and on and on.
And here you sit and raise your glasses—-to what? That is all I said. And professional and college football has been discussed here before. Does one exception counterbalance all that evil? Does Obama’s sympathy to drone victims counter the drone deaths? There are those here who say not. GeneH is reported to not plan to vote for him, says MikeS today.
I was nauseated by the quick alacrity of following the leader here, seeking ways to express “me too”. Surely you can do better that that?
I felt that we condemn the police evidence creation on one day, to then accept it on another day. WHY? Is it again a game of “follow the leaders”. If so you are RAWs, all those who do follow, and who do not use their own minds.
And to James in LA, I am an American citizen by birth. And I did serve two years between 1960 and 1962 as a Signal Officer. My roommate went to Nam with a Sig Unit, I stayed in a lab. Not my choice, the army’s. Maybe due to I was first of 25 in my Sig Off course.
American exceptions to me are Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, Manning, and an honorary one to Assange.
Plus MikeS. He has fought for his country and the way we should be as a nation.
I left looking for adventure, first designing B-52 bases in Thailand, but first doing a computer management tool foe controlling 3,000+ “line items” in support of military buildup in the Pacific. So I have been serving my country.
What are your service bonafides, James in LA?
And not a damn person has met my arguements with doodley squat. Socially unacceptable to brawl at a national celebration? Jeepers, how well trained you are here. And you complain of others too, outside the magic circle here. Amazing.
There you are again OS. Pointing fingers but not willing to stand and be identfied for it. There are those who remember the first time that you did it to me. Nor have I.
Thank you, Mark. Your presentation did that young man’s father proud.
Story telling is an art form.
leejcaroll, I agree. The thread hijacking is not appreciated. Instead of support for a touching story, for some folks it is all about, “Me, me, me, and I.” Some people are really lacking in appropriate social skills. Not naming names, but if the shoe fits, they can wear it.