by general jack o'niell » Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:34 pm
i knew!!! but then i played against his faither and young lawrence and his brothers used to come and watch, so he got his first lessons in PAT and fieldgoal kicking from big eddie mitchell who had a pretty good leg on him, unfortunately he'd torn the leg off a U.S. Navy seal who had been drafted for the giants before doing his knee in and having to retire before he ever played a game in the NFL, he then enlisted in the forces like his dad before him.
we used to play against the Seals regularly down the quarry green or out at the base, we even had two american coaches whose names escape me, one was a senior officer with grey hair and a moose tache, who lived next the argyll and then up at kintyre gardens.
lawrence tynes's old man used to play against us but i'd have to see a pic before remembering which one he was
for the record, we won more often than we lost and had up to 20 locals that played regularly, most of us having to double up on offence and defence, myself i played wide reciever (not as fast as terryll owens, better hands, even mouthier) and linebacker (cross between mose tatupu and john lynch)
we played full contact, no helmets, none of this sissy touch or flag football stuff, this did mean an odd injury, my personal total of inflicted hits was two broken collarbones and one victim spending a night in hospital with cracked ribs and bruised kidney. i only suffered the odd knee dislocation and ankle sprain, but our QB was a vet so he came in handy, altho we did get a bit worried when he'd stick on a glove that went up past his elbow.
i have pics of the day that the glasgow diamonds played the the glasgow eagles? at kintyre park, after which we suited up in the eagles pads and helmets and played the diamonds, i even managed to catch a pass and score a touchdown, which is harder than you think wearing one of those helmets as it cuts down your peripheral vision, meaning you have to turn your head right round like a bloody owl in order to see the flight of the ball, while running and trying to get away from the cornerback or safety who usually has the benefit of facing the direction the ball is coming from.
my son and his mates play the odd game up next me in the school playing field, and even tho i have my beloved No.81 art monk redskins shirt and my shoulder pads, they won't let me play, tho i'd be restricted to playing centre or nosetackle these days having probably lost a yard of pace (a yard is still 30 feet isn't it?)
my son emails skysports team everytime they call lawrence tynes british, as we have known since he started playing for kansas city chiefs that he was born in scotland, i think his mother comes from either greenock or dunoon, his father having been based on holy loch before coming to the town. not sure without checking but i think this is his third or fourth season, i know i picked him sometimes for my fantasy team three seasons ago.
i'll have to dig out my pics of me and big eddie all suited up, since we haven't heard from him on here since he went to australia
on the football front i won't claim that calton or davaar were the better teams, simply because they weren't, nothing to do with me of course, i was a cross between andy ritchie and matt le tissier, useful going forward, not to be relied upon when we hadn't got the ball, thats someone elses job
watch it GJO, I'm sure you will elaborate or edit to make your meaning clear.