Carolina conservative, scourge of “message-board loons,” and card-carrying StateFansNation.com Fan Bob Lee Swagger writes a great column reflecting on Daniel Evans’ getting the starting nod at QB for NC State this coming Saturday.
Under the subheading “Good Guys Do Win!” ol’ BLS writes:
This Saturday in Carter-Finley will be a “retro-gameâ€?. [StateFansNation has touched on how “retro” this game will be.] The Wolfpack will be led at Quarterback by “a kid named Evansâ€? just like they were in the late 70s … Johnny’s son Daniel will be living out a dream that every father and son in America can envy… This isn’t the first time a son has followed in his dad’s cleats steps but it does represent something often overlooked in today’s society.…. Yes, this is a two-Kleenex column … but with a special Swagger twist that will have many of you yelling HOORAY!
Go give BLS the page views he deserves for this one. It’s worthwhile in the midst of a season (frustrating or not) to reflect on greater matters and remember where in life sports stop and life is. Remember, Jim Valvano used to say how his greatest task was preparing his kids for “when the cheering stops.” One of the great things about sports is that they offer you a glimpse of life writ small, if you are circumspect to see it that way. There are life lessons to be learned from the game. There is adversity, there is unfairness, there is winning and losing, there is fighting the good fight, there is giving up, there is joy for the sake of the game, there is talent without heart and heart without talent and everywhere in between, there are just desserts and the crazy bounce of the ball, and there is chasing the dream … and sometimes catching it.
Lord knows we Wolfpack fans have witnessed all of it, but the ones we cherish most are the dream-catchers. They’re the ones we all cherish. They stir the dream-chasers in all of us. Even Carolina fans — right, Bob Lee?
I’ll let him have the last word:
Imagine Dad Johnny’s thoughts as he watched Daniel and Andrew play in Pee Wee, Pop Warner and into Middle School and at Broughton. Dare he imagine that one day BOTH sons would have football scholarships at his alma mater … and he would be “in the boothâ€? when Daniel barked signals as “the starting quarterback for the Wolfpackâ€?. If that doesn’t give a guy goosebumps he has no soul …
… I hope the dream has a few more chapters including one where Daniel connects with Andrew on a fly pattern for a Wolfpack TD. I hope it’s a 50-yard plus pass and catch where everything is in slow motion as Johnny sees it develop in the booth and Beth and the girls see it from the stands. Daniel hits Andrew in full stride and the brothers embrace in the end zone as “The Caisson Songâ€? blares out across the Fairgrounds. …. yep, thats the way BobLee, Clair Bee and Grantland Rice would write this story.
If it should happen “just that way� I can guarantee you that BobLee, and Jim Branch, and Prince Albert, and Pastor Leon, and the Tucker boys … and everyone in Raleigh who knows “The Evans� will be smiling and saying YES! … score one for Dads and Sons and Moms and Daughters and families everywhere who “do it right�.
