of football

I feel like Handel’s &uot;Hallelujah Chorus&uot; is echoing off every inch of space in my cranium. For so many reasons, some that deal with the finished product of our new and improved Football 2003 preview, there is a plastic smile stamped across my grill that signals the start of fall.

You might recall in the first column I ever wrote here I detailed my uselessness during football season. I’m a lost cause. Wondering where the remote control is? Look no further than my Cheetos-stained hand.

There’s a scene in Quentin Tarantino’s &uot;Pulp Fiction&uot; toward the end, but really the beginning or maybe it’s the middle (watch the movie and you’ll feel me), where hired hitmen Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) are sitting in this diner talking about the filthy habits of swine, and Jules’ perversion to them when they give us this beaut:

Vincent: &uot;Š do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal?&uot;

Jules: &uot;I wouldn’t go so far as to call a dog filthy but they’re definitely dirty. But, a dog’s got personality. Personality goes a long way.&uot;

Classic. Anyway, sitting next to Jules is a briefcase, which is the object of the two hitmen’s intent in the film. All you the audience ever sees of the contents of the portfolio is a gold beam each time someone unveils it.

Obviously perceptions are objective, and feel free to get as philosophical as you want with what’s inside, but my point parallels what the football season holds for the Miss-Lou this year.

Seven teams made it to the playoffs among the area schools that play in the Mississippi High School Athletic Association, Mississippi Private School Association and the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.

Could there be more this year? From talking to a wide variety of coaches that head teams from both ends of the spectrum, most play the coy routine.

They tell you they’re out of shape, inexperienced and rebuilding. Who can blame them for not wanting to flop their hands before the first ante has been raised?

I’m eagerly anticipating the disclosing of Natchez High’s briefcase tonight in Port Gibson, where I’ll have more butterflies in my stomach than at those torturous eighth-grade dances where, if you weren’t huddled on one side of the gym plotting with your buds which girl you were going to ask to dance, you stood facing each other, arm length apart swaying like Ray Charles or Ronnie Milsap.

There’s been a attitude adjustment, with players talking collectively, rather than individually. But head coach James Denson is tired of all the lip service, and is restless for results.

&uot;In all honesty I am a true advocate of leading in different ways,&uot; said Denson, who enters his third year as the alpha male. &uot;Everybody talks the talk, but do they walk the walk. Where we are in the program, the example you set is more important in relation to doing a lot of talking.&uot;

Amen and Hallelujah to that, brother.

Chuck Corder

is a sports writer for The Natchez Democrat. You can reach him at (601) 445-3633 or by e-mail at

chuck.corder@natchezdemocrat.com.