Skills of the South

 Skills of the South

Joseph DiPietro

 

Typically, I prefer writing inspiring stories connecting sports moments to everyday life. I will get to a bigger point toward the end, but first I must brag about my fellow Southerners for a minute.

Call us what you want- rednecks, dumb, deplorable, whatever. In the words of Globo Gym’s White Goodman, we’re better than you, and we know it.

If you watched the NFL conference championships this weekend, you likely paid attention to the quarterbacks because some of the best to ever do it were on display. While some of the QB play impressed, specifically in the AFC matchup, it was actually the skill players that stole my attention.

Most of you know I am all about the trenches. I spend most of any football game watching the offensive lines and the defensive fronts duke it out, because that is where the game is won. Overall, the most impressive units on both fields were the front-7’s of the two conference champions. However, as I followed the games I noticed a trend that kept building throughout Sunday- SEC skill players dominating the stat book.

Here is a list of touchdowns by school this weekend:

*Louisiana State- 3

*Georgia- 2

*Ole Miss- 1

*Texas A&M- 1

Cincinnati- 2

Bowling Green- 1

Fresno State- 1

Harvard- 1

Indiana State- 1

South Florida- 1 

By my count, the SEC accounted for seven TDs (from seven players) while every other conference combined to score the same (from six players). The only other conference that produced multiple TDs was the American Athletic Conference, home of the U.S. Naval Academy Football Team (had to throw that in there).

I get it, where the players come from isn’t everything. You might notice Alabama is not represented on the list despite all its success. Part of Alabama’s absence is because their players get drafted so high they play for struggling teams. But it is incredible to see how much of an impact the players from the SEC have in the NFL, especially those who grew up in the Southeast.

Why is it so spectacular? Because big city “elites” look down on us while we grow up through sports learning the most important life lessons. I grew up my whole life told my Georgia public education is one of the worst in the nation. It worked just fine for me, but as important as academics are, it was the lessons on the field and in the neighborhood that meant the most.

Most communities in the South help raise their kids together, and mine was no different. I grew up with hundreds of brothers, and dozens of parents, all of which were incredible people. Not only did they drill school into all of us, but they showed us kids how to be hard workers, dedicated citizens, and take care of each other no matter what. You want to know why so many kids from the South grow up to score touchdowns in conference championships? Part of it is how we practice hours every day in 100-degree heat with nasty humidity. The main reason: There is not a region in the country and probably the world that emphasizes hard work, toughness, and discipline more than SEC country.