Football Field

When a grenade came rolling at Rocky Bleier during a fierce enemy assault at the height of the Vietnam War, his football instincts took over. The small explosive "hit my commanding officer right in the back, but it didn't go off on contact; it had a timed fuse," said Bleier, who won four Super Bowl rings as a running back on the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s. "And here it comes toward me. "Talk about football reaction," Bleier continued. "It was like the old over-under drill where you roll along the ground and a guy jumps over you. ... So I jump over the grenade.

Near the end of Walter Payton's 1993 induction speech at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he said: "I am going to close by saying life is short. It is oh, so sweet."Payton, the NFL's all-time rushing leader, couldn't have known how prophetic his words would turn out to be.His life was sweet, but it was, oh, so short.He died yesterday at the age of 45 of cancer of the bile ducts, which carry digestive fluids from the liver to the small intestine.Payton looked gaunt and frail when he announced in February he had a rare liver disease called PCS (primary schlerosing cholangitis)

Mike Hood slaps the snooze button, and the inner voices start their debate.Go back to sleep, one voice tells him. You're a teen-ager on summer break. Why rise early to sweat the day away on a football field -- on a sun-broiled steppe of dust and grit, really -- when you can sleep late and then hit the pool?Sounds good. But another voice has the final say: "You just can't do that.""I made the commitment," says Mike, a 14-year-old sophomore on the junior varsity football team at Baltimore County's Hereford High School.

It's not easy for a 33-year-old linebacker to make a comeback after sitting out a season and undergoing neck fusion surgery.Chris Spielman, though, doesn't think he'll face any pressure on the football field after what he's been through the last year."

An old photograph captures Jim DeWald in an instant of youthful exuberance and utter futility. He's No. 50 for Poly, chasing the quarterback from City College named Kurt Schmoke. DeWald will never get near him. It's Thanksgiving Day 1966, and history says City's on its way to a 42-6 victory."I'm forever immortalized trying to attain the unattainable," says DeWald, a property administrator. "Trying to catch up to Kurt Schmoke."It couldn't be done then, and DeWald couldn't do it later, aside from a chance meeting on the street about a decade ago, when Schmoke was running for re-election as mayor of Baltimore.

A teen-ager walking near a Northeast Baltimore high school was shot during an ambush yesterday afternoon and then ran onto a football field, where he collapsed in the midst of a junior-varsity game, city police said.Stunned players and spectators said they heard a burst of gunfire from woods near the field at Lake Clifton-Eastern High School and watched the victim run and fall about 30 feet from the east-side end zone.Police said last night they took a suspect into custody and were questioning him.Police identified the victim as Jason Crowthers, 18, of the 3300 block of Lyndale Ave. a former Lake Clifton student.

Look out, Columbia and Penn.Towson University has a 6-foot-2, 238-pound kicking specialist named George Perdikakis who has slimmed down from 250 pounds.4 Just imagine how big the Towson linemen must be.For certain, Perdikakis is an unlikely football kicking star for the Tigers.A fifth-year senior, he was groomed to be a soccer player by his father, never played any kind of football until his senior year at Loyola High, only kicked one field goal in high school and grew up kicking only Nerf footballs in his Hamilton neighborhood backyard in Baltimore.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The yardstick has changed for Napoleon McCallum. He once measured his athletic performance on the football field, by the way he nimbly eluded tacklers or ruthlessly plowed over them.Everything is different now, as McCallum rediscovered on Aug. 5. He watched on television as the Raiders rolled past Dallas in their first exhibition game. The images danced through McCallum's head -- following his blockers, --ing downfield, steaming toward the end zone.Inspired, he went outside and shot some baskets.

Not so long ago, when we were rookie parents plotting our children's lives, my wife and I decided that we would never let our precious offspring play organized football.The game was too rough. The kids might get hurt, as I did when I played high school football. We decided the prudent course would be to "guide" our children away from football and toward other, "more uplifting" undertakings.That was the theory. Reality hit this fall when my wife and I took turns hurrying to some distant football field to yell encouragement to our 13-year-old, the right end.The kid loved playing football.

Bowie State is a small, NCAA Division II school with a tight athletic budget. The football team usually has only 12 players on full scholarships. Two years from now, one of those scholarships could be reserved for a young man in a wheelchair.Dion Johnson, a special teams player for Douglass High School in Prince George's County, was paralyzed from the shoulders down in a state playoff game against City College last November.Several Bowie State coaches were in the stands that day, scouting a handful of players from Douglass and City.

Wilde Lake coach Doug DuVall introduces the Wildecats' kicker Graham Spicer this way: "Here is our Renaissance man," he said, describing him as a student with wide interests who is an expert in several of them. "He is a neat kid," said DuVall. "He got 800 on his math SAT. He couldn't do any better than that." Spicer, a 6-foot, 185-pound senior, has a 3.57 grade point average and has come through in the clutch this season. His other interests include music and playing Ultimate Frisbee.

There were more indelible moments left by the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals than in the entire San Antonio-Cleveland series last year. Paul Pierce in the wheelchair accomplished that on its own. On that topic, I sure wish I could find a snippet of a highlight somewhere from the Magic-Bird faceoffs from the '80s. It's been nearly 30 seconds since ... oops, never mind. The Seattle Mariners have a huge payroll, high expectations, underachieving stars, the worst record in baseball going into the weekend, an enraged fan base and a manager who went off on a potty-mouthed public tirade.

When David Klotz was 5, he didn't care much about football. He was more interested in playing Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles. Klotz found just the right outlet, too: karate. It taught him the moves a young Power Ranger wannabe loved, but it also helped him develop the discipline, agility, power and physical control that would come in handy years later as a center on Wilde Lake's football team. "Overall, it's the stances, getting low, working out and flexibility," said Klotz, a senior.

Vernadetta Rawls' voice comes over the telephone line from Anchorage, Alaska, deep-throated and full of enthusiasm. She has been asked about her nephew, Zerbin Singleton, the Naval Academy's senior slotback, whom she helped raise and whose young life could be the material of one of those Family Channel inspirational movies. "He's always been an amazing kid," Rawls said. "He started walking at 6 or 7 months, and he could understand what you said to him, too. He came into the world stubborn and determined."

Havre de Grace senior Donny Sherman found himself in an odd situation last year -- caught between three sports that he enjoyed playing. Sherman, who played football on the junior varsity as a freshman and sophomore, hurt his shoulder late in his sophomore year. He didn't want to jeopardize his baseball chances when 11th grade began, so he turned to an old favorite: soccer. He enjoyed soccer, but Sherman missed football and had a tough time being a spectator when Havre de Grace won the football regionals last year.

Arnold Farmer has been a handful for opposing offensive linemen to contain this season. The junior defensive tackle anchors No. 13 Poly's defense and has helped the Engineers (8-2) qualify for the Class 2A North playoffs for the first time since 2004. He'll have to continue his great play if the team hopes to upset Eastern Tech (10-0) on Friday night at 7 at CCBC-Essex. Farmer has played varsity since he was a freshman - his first year playing football - and now is a captain. He can bench-press 185 pounds 30 times and projects to be one of Baltimore's best defensive linemen next year.

Tim Bolte is the centerpiece of No. 1 Loyola's defense. He plays tight end and linebacker, is a three-year varsity player, and is captain this year. The senior isn't just a fixture on the football field, though. He's also a defender on the lacrosse team and a member of the National Honor Society and the Italian Club. When he's not helping to lead the Dons (5-0) on the football field, he's maintaining a 3.9 grade point average in the classroom, which he hopes will propel him to an Ivy League school.

As their coaches shout instructions, the boys in shoulder pads and helmets go through their practice routines. Among them is Ricky Knight, 10, a slight boy with freckles and brown eyes. His coach, Frank Curley, said Ricky is doing great. "In two weeks, he has gone from not playing to being the starting cornerback," he said. "He's worked himself into a starting position. He's not hesitant to tackle anyone of any size." Which, given the circumstances, makes sense, for Ricky already has tackled a more difficult opponent.

It might not be surprising to learn that Ravens linebacker Bart Scott was on a football field this week working on 40-yard dashes, shuttle drills, strength training and acceleration techniques. What is surprising is who was working out with him. The five-year veteran held a football camp this week for kids that featured more than just tossing around the pigskin. Teaming with Velocity Sports Performance, which specializes in advanced training for athletes of all ages, Scott set out to give local youths an experience that went beyond the football field.

When a grenade came rolling at Rocky Bleier during a fierce enemy assault at the height of the Vietnam War, his football instincts took over. The small explosive "hit my commanding officer right in the back, but it didn't go off on contact; it had a timed fuse," said Bleier, who won four Super Bowl rings as a running back on the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s. "And here it comes toward me. "Talk about football reaction," Bleier continued. "It was like the old over-under drill where you roll along the ground and a guy jumps over you. ... So I jump over the grenade.