Football Field

LOS ANGELES Just as it is in the community for which it is named, reality at Hollywood High School is sometimes blurred by the fantasies of filmdom.This is a school that adopted its nickname, the Sheiks, from characters portrayed by Rudolph Valentino in silent-screen desert dramas of the 1920s.The legend goes that actress Lana Turner, a former student, was discovered by director Mervyn LeRoy at Schwab's Pharmacy. But Hollywood alumni say the fateful meeting actually occurred at an ice cream parlor across the street from the Hollywood campus at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue.

Thanks to the bye week, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis got a chance last week to return home to Lakeland, Fla., where he watched his son, a junior running back and linebacker for Lake Mary Prep, play a game Friday night. With his father in attendance , Ray Lewis III rushed for 236 yards and four touchdowns on 27 carries and had 13 total tackles in a 34-29 loss to Lakeland Victory Christian. It was Lake Mary Prep's first loss of the season. Lewis III first gained national attention a year ago when he racked up 504 yards of total offense as a runner, returner, receiver and quarterback.

As a former student of the Howard County public school system, I find it grossly offensive that fields would be taken away from the high schools that they are at. For the four years I attended high school, I can not think of a day when there wasn't a school sports team practicing on the football field. The agreement (on installing new turf fields at the high schools) states schools will have priority until 5:45 p.m. on weekdays and will have to reserve evenings for football games.

Mike Preston should give the Ravens' Brendon Ayanbadejo an "F" for sensitivity ("Brendon Ayanbadejo on same-sex marriage passing: 'I'm so stoked, it's like I woke up and it was Christmas,'" Nov. 7). It is insensitive that Mr. Ayanbadejo would compare the passing of same-sex marriage to the religious celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Compare it to your birthday. Compare it to the morning after a big Ravens victory. But comparing it to a holy day is a ridicule to many of the opponents of Question 6. To be clear, I did not vote for Question 6. I do understand the position of those who did. I am not challenging that debate here.

Bill Pellington, who was known as the toughest and meanest outside linebacker in Baltimore Colts history and was defensive captain of the 1958 NFL championship team, died yesterday of respiratory failure associated with Alzheimer's disease at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Timonium resident was 66."He was the backbone of the Baltimore defense . . . a great football player and a fine human being," former Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas said yesterday. "The last few years have been difficult and we would all like to remember him as he was on the field, where he was always at his best."

Whether it was who could make the best salad or who could dress the sharpest, Kendall, Kyle and Corey Fuller always wanted to be better than each other. Competition fueled the brothers from Baltimore when they were young, and it helped them in sports as they grew older. These intra-family battles may have led to childish fights and arguments, but it never separated the family. It only strengthened it. And when Kendall Fuller announced he would join his brothers in college by committing to Virginia Tech - becoming the fourth Fuller to play football for the Hokies - that family strength was reaffirmed.

At center and on the defensive line, Chad Short is playing a key role for the No. 7 North Harford Hawks, who are 9-0 and have clinched the UCBAC Chesapeake Division title. Short, 5 feet 9, 215 pounds, has been a varsity starter for two years. When he's not on the football field, Short prefers to be on stage. Ever since his mother told him in the sixth grade that she had been an actress in high school, he has acted in school plays. Although the fall musical conflicts with football, he has a small part in the school production of "White Christmas.

Since Larry Mitchell's days as a lineman at Patterson, he has dreamed of only one job - coaching the Clippers' football team. Over the past 17 years, as Mitchell coached Pop Warner youth football teams and assisted with a couple other Baltimore City high school football programs, he held onto that goal - even after a gunman nearly shattered it with one paralyzing bullet 11 years ago. That shooting left Mitchell, who had inadvertently walked into...

Several Ravens players like quarterback Joe Flacco, right guard Marshal Yanda and strong safety Bernard Pollard spoke glowingly Wednesday of re-acquainting themselves with San Diego Chargers outside linebacker Jarret Johnson, who spent his first nine seasons in Baltimore before signing with San Diego on March 17 as a free agent. But no player arguably misses Johnson more than outside linebacker Terrell Suggs, who, like Johnson, was drafted by the Ravens in 2003. Suggs, the rambunctious pass rusher, and Johnson, the cerebral run stopper, made an odd couple, but they were the closest of friends in the locker room.

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.