Emails & more emails / Ted's year in football

is there anything more tedious than going through e-mails and having to delete MOST OF THEM OUT???? It reminds me of eating grapefruit.   I like grapefruit, but it takes 5 minutes to cut the slices out and 40 seconds to eat the slices and 30 seconds to drink the juice.  The pleasure of eating the grapefruit is so much shorter than the tedium of cutting out the slices.  The pleasure or importance of reading a few good informative e-mails outweighs the countless number I'm required to delete.

& I delete everyday, every single day.  It's like a bush that has to be trimmed on a regular basis.  I have had the same e-mail for 15 yrs. so that's part of the problem.  I use my spam, but that doesn't always help.  I contribute a little $ in politics on election years, but absolutely refuse to give anything on offyears.  & just like the bears in the parks that like it when they get food from tourists and keep coming back, the organization keep asking and keep asking.  & I just continually delete and delete.

Oh, here's some good news.  Ted can bench press 200 lbs. He's made his high school weight room Wall of Fame. The most I was ever able to do is 155 lbs.  I hope he is as successful as an adult as he is in high school.  Hope he could get a scholarship from that.  He might start at a very good football program, so who knows?  One can always dream a little.  Sure would help us financially if he earned a scholarship.  The offers on the numerous emails from colleges get a standard response from me...."unless you are able to offer a football scholarship from your illustrious school, my son, Ted, will be going to South Suburban College"

My son, Ted, turned 18 on October 8.   The first 2 1/2 months of his senior year have been very eventful.  In February of this year, Ted had reconstructive knee surgery. Due to injuries suffered during the first half of his junior year, he had tears in BOTH his ACL and MCL ligaments.  It was really awful for both, Maribeth (his mother), Ted and me.  Before the surgery, the doctor had very sad news for him.  He said he not only noticed 2 tears in 2 vital ligaments in the knee area but had bone/cartilage damage in his knee.  The doctor said, "You are not going to be in football your senior year!"
Now consider this, please.  Ted had spent months getting up at 5:30 to run, condition lift weights in anticipation of his junior year in football.  He was confident after an excellent year playing offensive line on the Sophomore  Team.  He made the Wall of Fame in leg press at well over 350 lbs!  He is one of the biggest players on his team (height wise) at 6 foot, 3 inches.  He's gained weight by the extra muscle he has put on.  You can see it in his junior picture that the muscles in his neck have strengthened and expanded the width of his neck!  He planned to play Varsity at offensive tackle his junior year and then his senior year.  He would play at Oak Forest High School varsity team a well-respected high school football program that has made 20 consecutive years in the playoffs.   He suffers a season-ending injury in football training camp in August, 2015.  He's out for the season. So, then, after months of getting up at 5:30 in the morning, running, lifting weights and doing agility drills, he finds out that after being out of football his junior year, he would be OUT OF FOOTBALL HIS LAST YEAR, HIS SENIOR YEAR.      

So, on that fateful, cold February afternoon, the doctor says, "You  are not going to be in football your senior year!"  Ted cries and cries with his mother comforting him.  For about a month, he was so disconsolate that he substantially reduced what he ate and lost a significant amount of weight.  He didn't want to talk about football anymore!

But Ted didn't quit.  His uncle Bill, said, "Don't let the doctors and the physical therapists get you down with what you CAN'T do!!"  Ted heeded those words and lifted weights, and he ran.  Ted told me that the head football coach literally stopped by him every school day starting in March, when Ted ate, lunch asking him if there was any hope he could play.  Every school day for a couple of months!!   He faithfully followed the doctors orders and went to physical therapy 2 times a week and did so for about 3 months.  He had regular checkups with his physician.  Then, this past summer, to our shock, the doctor said, "You are almost healed.  You don't have to see me anymore unless you have any problem with your knee.  I am clearing you to play football your senior year.  We will be careful, so you shouldn't practice yet.  But by mid-August, you can join the football team!" 

There were obstacles.  Ted missed the first month of Bengal football training camp.  He lost a lot of strength, nearly 100 pounds of strength in the knee which had the operation.  The coaches took him off the Wall of Fame in leg press because he could no longer do over 350 pounds (about 159 kilograms).  He certainly stayed on the Wall of Fame for being able to bench press 200 pounds and more!  His coach was honest with him.  "I don't want you getting hurt again.  We have a starting line-up for the offensive line.  However, if you are better than either tackle I will let you play.  The offensive tackles were very good.  One was almost as tall as Ted, and  a few of the starters throught the season weighed over 200 pounds.  Many of the games that Oak Forest Bengals played were close. They didn't put Ted in during close games, because he was a reserve. They had a winning season, and they made the football playoffs 21 consecutive years.  
Ted was angry and disappointed that he didn't play as much as he wanted.  However, he played against Clemente HS the entire second half of the game as left tackle and they beat the school 55-8.  He played in a conference game as well.  He blocked hard to enable the runner to make several touchdowns.  It wasn't as much as he wanted.   Yet, he got to work with the teammates who loved and respected him.  He enjoyed the camaradarie of working with them, and together, they suffered through the grueling, hard-hitting practices.  In a way, Ted was lucky the setback wasn't worse.  One day in his freshman or sophomore year, his teammate broke his leg in practice.  As soon as it happened and for the 20 min. it took for the ambulance to arrive, he was screaming constantly from intense pain.
Ted didn't quit.  He made a quick, strong recovery.  He learned the value of working out whether you play or not play.  (He certainly learned that lesson better than me.  He may be taller than me but I still outweigh him!)
Here is his football picture when the official photographer came to the Bengals football team.  He learned what teamwork really means, as did I when I played football, basketball and track.  That's a lifetime lesson.  It's one lesson that's very valuable!