Sportsmeat

When I was a senior in high school in beautiful Wyomissing, PA, I was quite a stud. Two way starting lineman for a powerhouse team that the previous year had gone 11-1 and won the district title by 37 points (ignore the fact that the team went 6-4 during my senior year). I don't know how to put this, but I was kind of a big deal.

That season, the other tackle on Wyo's offensive line was sophomore Ross Tucker. The newspaper used to call us "NFL-caliber bookends to the Spartans' offensive line." (Mind you, this is before the days of the internet, so there is no way to verify that the newspapers say that. I burnt all of the microfiche records of the Reading Eagle from 1994. There's no way to prove that they said that, but there's also no way to prove that they didn't.) Anycrap, the sad fact is that only one of us fulfilled his NFL potential. Ross has become a journeyman NFL lineman, playing for the Redskins, Cowboys, Patriots, and a season as a (pretty much) full time starter for the Bills. I ran across his name again this morning. It sounds like he'll get a shot at starting for the Browns, now that Alonzo Ephraim has joined the growing list of Ohioan athletes behaving badly.

The read on Ross is that he's not the strongest or most athletic guy, but he'll out-work and out-think almost any other lineman. He's a Princeton grad, and one that probably would have had a shot at being admitted even had he not been an athlete. He's perfect for a situation like this, as he'll be quick to pick up the offense and fill in.

So here's an official 'Meat good luck wish to Ross.