Talk about tarnishing the game. Just ask these two clowns how that works:
Posted on 09/03/2017 12:45:07 PM PDT by Hojczyk
Turns out, USC’s blind long snapper saw it better than anyone.
“There’s a beauty in it,” Olson said, still sweating through his uniform early Saturday evening. “If you can’t see how God works things out, then I think you’re the blind one.”
The beauty washed over the overheated Coliseum with barely three minutes left Saturday in USC’s 49-31 victory over Western Michigan. Eight years after the USC football program adopted him after he lost both of his eyes to retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer, and three years after he joined the team as a walk-on, Olson snapped the ball in an official game for the first time. junior from Huntington Beach nailed it.
Before the Trojans’ extra-point try, he called his defensive players together and gave them an impromptu speech that could serve as a manual for sportsmanship.
“I told them the entire situation and said, ‘You can’t touch him, you can’t yell at him, everybody get down so it looks like a football play but nobody move,’” Lester recalled. “I told them, ‘What we’re about to do is bigger than the game. This is about what kind of people we want to be, what we represent; this is bigger than us.’”
And what did they say?
“They said, ‘Yes sir.’”
it was an amazing moment, everything great about sports emerging from this afternoon of pain and sweat, Helton and Lester shining like true leaders, the Trojans and Broncos acting like real men.
“I commend and thank coach Lester and entire Western Michigan family for giving us this honor,” Helton said. “That’s a first-class organization.”
In the stands, Jake Olson’s family screamed.
“It’s surreal, it’s absolutely surreal,” his father Brian said.
On the field, their son completed this circle of renewed life that USC has helped him discover.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Very touching story, thanks for posting it.
I think it's pathetic.
Pathetic? Why?
Bet you hated “Rudy” too.
To hell with the detractors.
I demand NASA let me be an astronaut.
Maybe he can play quarterback for Florida, he’d be an improvement.
Welcome to the future of football - no skills, no talent, no contact. But no concussions! So easy, anyone can do it. We have a lottery to get on the team.
It looks like football, but it isn't.
Two teams conspiring just to make one person feel good? I’m sorry I think it’s pathetic.
At first, I thought this was a great story about a blind guy who spent hours on the field working to perfect what is probably the one skill that he could use on the field of play in football -- long snapping.
But then I read this:
But first, he had to call Western Michigan coach Tim Lester and ask for his help. The Broncos needed to know that they might be facing a blind center so they could respond with the appropriate sensitivity.
So on Thursday, Helton called Lester and offered to make a most unique deal. The Trojans would not rush the Broncos’ first extra-point attempt if the Broncos would not rush an extra-point attempt involving Olson.
So it turns out this was all just a staged show after all. It really does detract from what could have been an awesome story.
He could play almost any position for the New York Jets this season.
M.L.B. is way ahead on this, they have been hiring blind umpires for years.
You’re dead wrong. The kid has spent long hours perfecting the one skill he can bring to the field. He was a long snapper in high scool too. I’m sure he’s spwnt a hell of a lot more time on a football field and inspired a hell of a lot more people than you and the other jerks on this thread who can resist making an ass of themselves.
Talk about tarnishing the game. Just ask these two clowns how that works:
They didn’t have to. They did it because they wanted to.
It's the scene where Rudy is lining up with the defensive unit in practice, and is working out against Notre Dame's starting offensive unit. One of the ND linemen doesn't try very hard to block the undersized Rudy who his lined up at left defensive end, and Rudy gets in his face and tells him to get his ass in gear.
I think there's a good chance Rudy would be all over these two coaches in this situation.
Olson, who in high school was the long snapper at Orange Lutheran, met with reporters at a postgame news conference.
USC long snapper Jake Olson aspired to become first blind golfer on the PGA Tour
More talent than you have, and WAY more class.
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