We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

“The thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.” ― Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals

I didn’t even know that I didn’t know about….

How to live in a dorm
How to play football and go to college
How to behave around men
How to be responsible

I jumped out of my Dodge SuperBee, shoved the last bit of french fries in my mouth and started looking for a place to check in. I arrived at college to play football. I was full of excitement. But I had no clue how much I didn’t know.

Up to this point in my life, my biggest learning moments were on a construction site. The first was when "Tiny,” a six foot seven, three hundred forty pound construction worker discovered that I was a state champion wrestler and wanted to wrestle for pay checks.

The second moment of global enlightenment involved concrete, rebar, and fire. I was a laborer pushing what was a Georgia buggy, an oversized wheel barrel that carried up to 400 lbs. of concrete. We were building a stack for a concrete plant. A stack is that concrete tube sticking up in the air so that whatever is being burned does not pollute the immediate area.

To build the stack you use a slip form, a platform that lifts itself higher and higher, using the supports you just made. The ironworkers tie rebar inside the form, the laborers poor in concrete, and finishers hang below the platform and smooth it out, 24/7 until the job is completed. Ours took several weeks. But on the third week, I was backing down the ramp with my load of concrete and the bucket got away from me. It shoved my back into a stack of rebar waiting to be used. One pile of rebar hit me in the back of the neck. Another caught me below my butt. And the Georgia buggy’s handle shoved me between the two.

It was just like when you take a shoe and smack a spider against the wall, only I was the spider and the shoe was 400 lbs. of concrete.

But what I didn’t know was that those iron workers, who made fun of me, who belittled me for eating peanut butter sandwiches, who got the crain operator to dangle the port-a-potty over my head and shake out some of its contents, had no hesitation to save me.

As I was passing out I heard the sizzle and pop of gas torches being lit and that unique sound of iron being cut. In moments, the hundreds of bars that pinned me were severed, and I plopped to the deck. I didn’t know that I didn’t know men who pick on you save your life.

The opening quote, “The thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football” is central to the stories here.

We didn’t know that we didn’t know that playing football would change our lives, our character and often our destiny. For most of us, we did not know the power of one man to mold another. We didn’t know how brotherhood, loyalty and lifelong friendships were established.

PS:

Ironworkers can be big guys, but most can't wrestle for crap.

If you can't wait for this book to come out, you can read Jesus and Baseball.