Texas QBs passing more than just footballs
Published: 7/25/2007 6:11 PM
Last Modified: 7/25/2007 6:11 PM
We’re considered a family newspaper, and almost always err on the side of good taste. A solid characteristic anyway, the way I was brought up.
But, looking into Texas wideout Limas Sweed’s eyes, listening to him giggle like my 6-year-old son – and this being the Internet and all – I decided good taste can take a day off.
Sweed was asked during the final question-and-answer session of Big 12 media days on Wednesday if precocious Longhorn passer Colt McCoy was anything like Texas legend Vince Young in the huddle. Sweed smiled that infectious smile, looked down and shook his head.
“No,” Sweed said.
Well, then, Mister I Know Something You Don’t, how ‘bout telling us how they’re different?
“Vince is more of a jokester,” Sweed said, still grinning.
Mm-hmm. In what way?
“Farting in the huddle,” Sweed said.
Everyone in the audience — about 10 of us – looked briefly at each other, having never heard the word in a formal interview session before. At least I hadn’t, in some 22 years of newspapering. Then, in an instant, and with all the giddiness of my 6-year-old son, we began to giggle.
“I don't know. Hey man, it happens,” Sweed assured us, explaining the flatulence of one of college football’s greatest players with a Forrest Gump dart of philosophy. “But that was just to loosen things up. I was young, and I guess he could see the tensions in my face. He just did it to loosen things up, telling jokes and things.”
And, no doubt, passing gas. Just to loosen things up.
By now, several of us are almost on the floor. But it gets better. Or worse, depending on whether you’re actually in the Texas huddle on gameday.
“Colt's different,” Sweed said. “He's young, and he's not going to fart.”
Excuse me? My 6-year-old son is young, and that never stopped him.
“He may fart next year, we'll see,” Sweed said, laughing and serious at the same time, as if it were now some kind of standard for Texas quarteracks. “I don't know man.”
If he senses his quarterback is nervous in the season opener on Sept. 1 against Arkansas State, will Sweed pass McCoy an extra helping of beans at the pregame meal before the Sept. 8 TCU game?
“I might have to do that, man,” Sweed said.
“As long as he leads his team and does a great job, that's all that matters.”
That, and, apparently, a healthy diet of fiber.
– John E. Hoover
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
