WHAT’S CAUSING ALL THIS? | Sanders’ decision his to make, and we’re all behind him

You ever been faced with making a spur-of-the-moment, tough decision?

A few years back, there was a charity basketball game here at Kilgore College with a Harlem Globetrotters-like team on one side, and a group of local “celebrities” on the other.

For some reason, I was asked to be on the roster of the local celebrities.

Yeah, I know, but come with me on the story.

At any rate, we go into the “celebrities’” locker room there at Masters Gym, we’re given our uniforms for the game that include these huge shorts, and I notice this older gentleman in the corner, looking over some index cards, like memorizing them. His lines, I deduce, and then he takes out a referee’s shirt.

I mean, I know we’re the fall guys for the night. We were told basically just go out, be as athletic as we can for about 30, 45 minutes, let the real basketball team do their thing, give the crowd a show, and we’ll wrap it up with a performance of the “Cha Cha Slide.”

Once I mentally wrapped my mind around the fact that I had to go out in front of people that I’d spent about 15 years writing for and make a complete, total fool out of myself for an hour, I got dressed and noticed the ref was dressed by then, and still looking over the cards.

A friend of mine, back then an assistant coach at Kilgore High School, came over. We talked, probably a little too loudly, about how embarrassing this would be, and that maybe we had gotten ourselves into a mess.

And then he noticed our ref.

“What’s he doing? Getting his part together?,” he whispered.

I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t want to hurt the guy’s feelings. He traveled to Kilgore with the team.

We were just about finished getting dressed – we were the final three in the locker room – and started to head out when the referee stopped us.

“Guys,” he said, “hold up a minute.”

He came over, asked what we did for a living. The assistant coach was a kid, much younger than me, and we answered the ref’s question. He rolled his eyes.

We could see he was struggling with telling us something.

“I can’t do this to you guys,” he said. “I don’t know who they’ll get, but I guess I can tell the two of you.”

He explained that at some point during the game, we’d likely have to go to the free throw line. And as we’ve got our arms up to shoot the shot…

…One of the superstar players would casually step over and yank our shorts down. Not everything, but like the basketball shorts.

You know – in front of our own hometown crowd.

Coach and I just looked at each other.

“Really?,” I asked the ref.

“Really,” he assured me. “They won’t pull them all down. There’s kids out there. But they WILL pull down your basketball shorts. And who knows? It might be one of you, might not. But you guys were in here, and I just couldn’t let it happen to you. Y’all have a good night.”

He walked out.

And coach and I didn’t miss a beat. WE STRAPPED THOSE SHORTS AS TIGHT TO OUR WAISTS AS WE COULD GET. I mean, I could barely breathe, they were so tight.

We left the locker room, satisfied we’d cut our own circulation off, but also satisfied that nothing short of a tow truck was getting those shorts down around our ankles.

The game started, and we made it through the first half without incident. Now, we trailed by about 35 points at the half, but as far as anything personally offensive, we were good.

And then, sure enough…

I was fouled.

The ref, with a bit of dread, maybe a look of doubt – fear? LOL – in his eyes, turned on his mic.

“Foul on Number 15 (or whomever the darn foul was on, I can’t remember),” he said, and sent me to the free throw line.

I looked over at my coach friend and I could see the sheer horror on his face. He was completely convinced my shorts were hitting the gym floor in front of 3,000 people.

So, the basketball stars had one girl player, and she was mic’d up. She was the one that the foul had been called on, and she was kind of jawing at me and the other locals the entire game, in good fun. The ref bounced me the ball to take my shots.

She came over to me, turned her mic off and whispered, “Miss this one on purpose,” so I did (I probably would’ve missed it anyway. She was two inches from my face!).

She turned the mic on, went and talked smack to my teammates, then came back and got in my face again. She turned the mic back off and said, “Ok, now hit this one,” and I missed it.

She laughed, and then told me to hit the next one. When I got the ball back, I put my arms up to take the shot, and she suddenly grabbed my shorts and jerked – hard.

They did not move.

Not an inch.

“Wow,” she said. “Those are really tight! It’s almost as if someone told you we would try to do that!”

And she turned to the ref. “Ref… did you tell our friend we’d try to do that?”

He grinned and turned away, as we started the “Cha Cha Slide.”

Never been so thankful for a ref – or a drawstring – in my whole life.

Both of those stories just prove that good things can sometimes come from unexpected sources, or from events you didn’t expect.

Last Saturday, Kilgore defensive back Jayden Sanders held his commitment ceremony at the Bulldogs’ indoor practice facility. Sure, there were some colleges from this region – Oklahoma State and Baylor come to mind – but also in the mix was the defending national champion, Michigan.

Yes, I know what you’re asking: Why am I writing this column a week late? Why didn’t this hit last Saturday, or Sunday?

Well, here’s why: this is a big one. A big, big one. I covered both Jayden’s parents AT Kilgore High School. Covered his mom, Whitney, who was a multi-sport athlete, a cheerleader and a state track competitor. And it’s well-known, of course, that his dad, Nick, was also a defensive back at KHS. You might have heard, unless you don’t know anything at all about Kilgore football, that he not only blocked the field goal in double overtime in the Class 4A state title game against Dallas Lincoln in 2004 — he also scooped it up and returned it for the freakin’ game-winning touchdown, AND went on to greatness at TCU with Kilgore teammate Wayne Daniels, where they played in the Rose Bowl, AND now coaches on the staff at Kilgore, WHERE he coaches all of his sons!

Whew.

At any rate, if there was ever Kilgore royalty, Jayden Sanders is it, y’all. He’s Bulldog legacy. #BulldogLegacy, all day long.

Jayden ultimately issued his verbal commitment to Michigan. A signing ceremony will come later, in December, probably, or maybe February, we’ll see.

I know there are probably a lot of fans that would love to see him play closer to home than Ann Arbor, Michigan. And who knows? He may change his mind, and he may very well not change it, and suit up for the Wolverines.

Ultimately, Jayden made his choice, at least for the time being, and after prayer and consulting with family and coaches, Michigan was it. And what I saw was a lot of happy people congratulating him, including me.

Will it be an avenue by which Jayden ends up playing in the Big Ten? Will he wind up changing his mind? God knows what he has planned for Jayden, and we’ll all know soon enough.

For now, it’s a blessing. And we’ll all wish him the best, no matter what.