Kenny Chesney, who played high school football himself, WR Gibbs HS, class of 1986, Knoxville, Tennessee (pictured to the left of this paragraph) recorded a song entitled The Boys of Fall. We have linked the YouTube video of the song here, feel free to skip the adds.
We can’t hear it without crying. We can’t read the lyrics without crying. We cried several times writing this article. Below you will find some of the lyrics from what has to be our favorite song at KPGFootball.
When I feel that chill, smell that fresh cut grass
I’m back in my helmet, cleats, and shoulder pads
Standing in the huddle, listening to the call
Fans going crazy for the boys of fall
They didn’t let just anybody in that club
Took every ounce of heart and sweat and blood
To get to wear those game-day jerseys down the hall
The kings of the school, man, we’re the boys of fall
Well it’s turn to face the stars and stripes
It’s fighting back them butterflies
It’s call it in the air, alright
Yes sir, we want the ball
And it’s knocking heads and talking trash
It’s slinging mud and dirt and grass
It’s I got your number, I got your back
When your back’s against the wall
You mess with one man, you got us all
The boys of fall
In little towns like mine, that’s all they’ve got
Newspaper clippings fill the coffee shops
The old men will always think they know it all
Young girls will dream about the boys of fall…Kenny Chesney
Perhaps the most salient of the lyrics to us are the following…They didn’t let just anybody in that club/Took every ounce of heart and sweat and blood/ to get to wear those game-day jerseys down the hall/The kings of the school, man, we’re the boys of fall.
Chesney is exactly right. Just anybody isn’t in the club. Baker Mayfield said something similar last year in relating that Football just isn’t a game for everyone. It does take every ounce of heart and sweat and blood to get to wear those game-day jerseys down the hall.
We pine for this time of year. We await the arrival of this time of year anxiously. We live for it. We write about it all year through. It is the only sport we cover. You read us more out of season than in-season. There is a reason for all of this.
Football isn’t just a game. Its lessons of struggle and work and overcoming adversity and pulling together as one to accomplish something collectively beyond our individual ability. Its lessons about putting the team above yourself and striving and working for the man beside you, just all of it, makes the game of football more about living life than winning on Friday nights. These are lessons available equally to the teams who struggle and fall short just like the teams who win championships.
Well, as we sit before the computer composing this article, it is August 1. It’s time to buckle the chin strap, fully pad-up, and find out about ourselves, about how we are constituted. This is August, and this is where men are made and heroes are found.
Teams across Kentucky will be fully-geared and full-speed/full-contact. We have projected how we see the 6 classes shake-out, now its time to sling some mud, dirt, and grass. No amount of talk is worth the spit it takes to say it from this point through the season. As of today, we start separating the wheat from the chaff, the pretenders from the contenders, the men from the boys.
In little towns all over Kentucky, it’s all we’ve got. Welcome to the season. It’s time to face the stars and stripes and fight back those butterflies. Call it in the air!
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and Yessir, we want the ball!
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