Lost behind the helmet
One anecdote that didn't make it in today's piece on new Smith football coach Rodney Brewington:
As the story mentions, one of Brewington's uncles, Ronald Medlin, is the head athletic trainer for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons. Brewington spent so much time around the team growing up that he says he got on a first-name basis with many of the players.
It wasn't always that way, though. Once, a teenaged Brewington was in the training room while his uncle was massaging a player's leg. Brewington's uncle asked him who his favorite player in the league was.
"Oh, Terance Mathis!" Brewington said, spouting off the Pro Bowl wide receiver's statistics like his own phone number. Brewington had memorized everything about Mathis, it seemed, except one important detail. Before he could finish his recitation, the player on the trainer's table sat up.
"Nice to meet you," he said. "I'm Terance Mathis."
"You would be amazed the things I have learned over 20 years," Brewington says now. "I've never seen a game from a fan's viewpoint. It's always been from an administrator's role."