Chapter 19: All-Star

Steven Plyer’s House, Lakeview, AL

1:25pm, Sunday, January 19, 2003

I don’t know why I wasn’t surprised at Kaleigh’s perceptive nature during our forty-five minute lunch conversation. When we both had finished up our hamburgers, salads, and chips, she asked me to come with her to refill our tea glasses, and get some desert.

As we got a variety of deserts and our drinks, she said, “You were a champ in there with my friends, not trying to take over the conversation and showing off your smarts to them. I think they really got to see why I fell hard for you.” She kissed me on the cheek and hip-bumped me, while saying, “Come on, let’s go get into some more trouble with Andy, Dan and that crowd, now.”

“It’s usually best to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, then to open it up and remove all doubt,” I replied back to her as we headed out to found Andy, Dan, their spouses, the Timdals, and her parents all sitting in the living room watching the NFL playoff game between the Indy Colts and Kansas City Chiefs. We came into the living room to see Peyton Manning finish off a 71 yard TD drive to give the Colts a 21-10 lead, which they held at half-time. Pastor Jim and Steven were upset after the Chief’s had a touchdown catch by Tony Gonzalez called back on a bad offensive pass interference penalty right before the half.

“Hey Mike, do you have any contact or influence on the football team or players at Alabama?” Jim Timdal asked me after the hubbub over that bad call settled down around the TV and the half time show started.

“Uh, not much, outside of having a few players in the classes I teach. As Kaleigh can tell you, we don’t have many football or basketball players in our kinesiology classes as we have a real strong science and psychology driven program. A lot of athletes start in our department but get out when they see how much work and how hard it really is.” Kaleigh just smiled and nodded her head in agreement when I related how Alabama’s athletes aren’t hidden in the ‘PE’ department. “I help out the athletic department at times; when coaches have recruits come in on visits, and they and their parents want to know about our programs, I usually meet with them. Matter of fact, next Friday and Saturday, the football team is having a big recruiting weekend, and I’m helping out on both days.”

These adults loved hearing anything about Alabama Football, as I found out all four couples had season tickets and would regularly go to away games in Steven Plyer’s $250,000 custom RV. Kaleigh sensed that they were starving for good (or in this case, bad) Alabama football stories, so she asked, “Mike, tell them about going to the 1997 Tennessee-Alabama game with the football team.”

I took a bite of Wanda Bush’s homemade chocolate silk pie as she asked me that, so I stuttered a bit, and said, “Umm-umm, Kaleigh,” I worked on swallowing the mouthful of pure heaven, “told me you made this Ms. Wanda, absolutely killer. I hope there’ll be another piece left over in a few minutes!” When I washed it down with a swig of sweet tea, I related my experience of traveling with the Alabama football team to their ‘3rd Saturday in October‘ game against the Tennessee Volunteers, with Peyton Manning at quarterback.

When I started at Alabama in the summer of ‘97, I taught a class, which had several football players in it. About five of the twelve guys weren’t doing well, and I knew enough to call the academic support adviser to let him know that some of the players were in danger or failing the class. He asked about extra credit assignments for them but I told him I didn’t believe in them. I asked him if they had tutors available to help the players. In the summer time, tutors for kinesiology classes, unfortunately, weren’t to be found.

I then told him if the players were serious about improving their knowledge and their grades, I would come over to Paul “Bear” Bryant Hall, their academic support building, a couple nights each week. I’d go over any troublesome material with both the ones failing and any other athletes, if they wanted or needed extra help. Only one of the twelve players failed the class, with another one earning a “D” grade.

The adviser, Jon Divers and his boss, Kelvin Gimbles, thanked me for helping the players on my own dime. I was told three of them would have been ineligible to play that fall if they failed my class. As the fall started, I kept in touch with Mr. Divers to keep him informed about any other athletes who needed additional help with my classes, but thought nothing more regarding my extra help from that summer class.

Then, on the Monday before the Tennessee game, former Head Coach Mike Dubose called me on my office phone and asked if I wanted to be one of the invited ‘professor coaches’ that the football team uses at each game. I talked with him for about 10 minutes and told him I would love to be one of their ‘invited’ coaches for the Tennessee game. Coach Dubose said that Jon Divers would be in touch with soon with the details of the trip, and that he was looking forward to talking more with me at the team dinner on Friday night.

As I was relating this to them, more people came into the living room area, and they muted the NFL game as I continued with my story. Several people asked questions during my trip to Legend Field in Birmingham, about Coach Dubose, who was forced out in disgrace a few years later, and being with the team the whole weekend.

Kaleigh, seeing that some folks had to stand during my story, moved from her chair and sat down on the floor between my legs. She leaned back against the padded cushion and rested her left arm across my lap. When Pastor Jim related his experiences as a student at Alabama with Mike Dubose, Kaleigh looked up at me and mouthed, “I love you. You’ve got them eating out of your hands like in one of your classes.”

I winked back at her and rubbed her shoulders and neck as I waited for that conversation about Dubose’s affairs and coaching abilities died down. Finally, Deni Timdal said, “Enough about that cheating idiot and his crappy coaching. Let Mike continue with his story.”

I related how the bus rides from Tuscaloosa to the hotel in Birmingham, and then from the hotel to Legion Field was incredible, as bus rides go. We had a ten car police escort up I-20 and then all throughout Birmingham to the stadium. On the I-20 trip from T-town to Birmingham, a car got in the ‘fast lane’ between the convoy of three buses, support vehicles and the State Troopers. Immediately, two of the trooper cars swooped in and pulled the guy over for infringing on a police convoy.