Safety Conscious

It's football season again. I know this because yesterday when I drove by the Krispy Kreme, the billboard advertised little football shaped doughnuts.

Actually, I was aware of football season before then because Lawson has been going to daily football practices for the last week and a half. So you know what that means....

It's almost time for Nancy's football blogging!

So if you've been a fan of my expert Georgia football game analyses, fasten your seat belts, because I've been getting ready. And this year, a nice complement to my Georgia Bulldawg commentary will be my reviews of the games of the St. Peter the Apostle Rams. Lawson is on the SPA varsity team, so not only will avid readers get play by play reports from between the hedges, but they'll also read about the tried and true gold and blue as they play at O'Brien Field (just behind St. Peter the Apostle School).

In Savannah, the independent schools' football season starts with the Football Rama, which takes place at Benedictine Military School and allows middle school football teams to face each other in several ten minute scrimmages. I'm amused by the term football rama (actually, I'm amused by any term ending with the suffix --rama) because it gives the impression of an organized celebration of all things football, when in fact, at least through my eyes, it's more like chaos with helmets. At Football Rama, boys aged from ten to thirteen scramble on the football field, some of them athletically talented, some of them trying to figure which way to run. For teams play on the field at once. And because it's so early in the season, few of them have received their uniforms, so most of them are wearing their white practice jerseys with random numbers, so it's anybody's guess which one is my son. I had to take a photo of him during one of the rest periods so I'd know he was #90. And even then, with all those white jerseys running around, I occasionally found myself cheering for a player to run for the goal line only to discover I was rooting for the opposing team.

The St. Peter junior varsity team had the wherewithal to put on these yellow vesty things, which made it easier to identify them. But look at #10 near the top of the photo. What's up with that?

One good thing about the event was that I also learned Lawson's position:  safety.  

That's a defensive position, and I like the sound of it--nice and secure. Injury free. When the team lines up, he's near the back. That's good, according to Butch Lowenthal, grandfather to Lawson's teammate, Matt Lowenthal (of the Groundhog Day wake boarding fame). According to Mr. Lowenthal, the safety never has anyone behind him, so he always knows who's coming at him. That makes me feel a little bit better about Lawson being on a football field. One should always see the person trying knock him down. 

So in the spirit of learning more about the South's favorite sport, I've decided to be more safety conscious, not only by being more mindful of Lawson's football prowess, but also learning more about what a safety does, exactly. According to every student's first-stop source, Wikipedia, the safety is part of the defensive line, one of three players called defensive backs. The role of the defensive back is to protect the receivers and try to stop pass completions.

When I read that explanation, I breathed a sigh of relief because 1) I like the idea that Lawson's role is a protective one, and 2) I know what a receiver is and what a pass completion is! That's what players do on the offensive line when they try to score a touchdown! So Lawson's job is to stop them.

First, he stands like this:

And he waits until the ball snaps. Then, when the offense's receiver tries to run the ball, he runs after that guy (or in front of him to block), like this;

Except that in this photo, it looks like he's being chased by those big Blessed Sacrament guys (and really, where does BSS get those players? Look at the size of #12. He must be thirty). Fortunately, I never saw Lawson get knocked down. Nor did I see him tackle anyone. Instead, I think he used his critical thinking skills and ran the receiver out of bounds instead. That's my boy. Safety is his middle name (Not really. It's Roukos).

So if my son's going to play football, I like the safety position. I know the name is supposed to invoke protection of the goal, but still I think that other than the special teams, the safety has a pretty low risk of fracture and concussion. And that's more than I can say for Lawson's friends, who have to run the ball and get tackled. Look at this mess below:

I've labeled these players for easy reference. See Mills? See Ian? See Hunter? They're burly, and they're right in the middle of everything. Chances are they can mow down the receiver before he can ever get to Lawson (not only that, but Mills, Ian and Hunter also play offense--we've got a really small team--so they'll also get mowed down repeatedly every game). Now look at Lawson out there to the right. He's the gate keeper. He's the last stop before the goal line. The receiver has to run through all those shoulders before he even gets to Lawson. And that makes me feel a little more secure about the safety.

So sports fans, be on the lookout for more gridiron reports from Savannah. Georgia opens its season next weekend with a contest against Buffalo, and Saint Peter the Apostle should open its season the following Thursday (though we're not entirely sure yet because the schedule hasn't come out). It should be an exciting fall.