new patterns in the third quarter, rel something else on the scoreboard, and then "outgut" the Redskins in the last quarter.
He would always go back to the running game if you gave him half a chance.
"If you run the football up somebody's ass," Shoat says, "then it's them that h as to get their hands dirty try in' to pull it out."
Early in that second half against the Redskins, Hose Manning hit Shake for fifty-five yards on a fly, and that brought us up to thirty to twenty-one. T.J. recovered a fumble right after that and Hose kicked a field goal to make it thirty to twenty-four. But after that, we didn't do anything but run old Billy Clyde.
I carried the ball twenty-two times in the fourth quarter, and scored two sixes, and we finally won it, thirty - eight to thirty.
I was a heavy-breathing sumbitch on the sideline toward the end, but Shoat Cooper put his arm around my shoulder pads and said, "Stud hoss, I ought to buy you
a rubber dolly. That was pure dee football out there."
Shoat Cooper had been a great player in the NFL himself. The old-timers will tell you that there weren't many linebackers any better. Maybe Tommy Nobis was. Or Dick Butkus.
But Shoat in his day was some kind of pisser, they say. They say he craved action so much he would beat his head on the locker room wall until they let him loose for the kickoff.
Shoat came out of Arkansas, like his name suggests. He was from Possum Grape and played ball at the University of Arkansas, where the freshman team is called Shoats.
But they say that's not where he got his name, Shoat. Growing up, I hear, Shoat just looked like a baby pig, or a shoat, so somebody started calling him Shoat.
I guess he might smile when we win Sunday. But in the three years he's been our coach, he hasn't.
You would think that Shoat might have smiled once or twice during our regular season since we're undefeated and untied and already have a diamond ring cinched for winning the National Conference.
We won that, incidentally, by dough-popping the LA Rams thirty-three to thirty-one. I scored three sixes.
But all that old Shoat has said all along is, "A football team with one more game to win ain't no better off than a tired old farmer with one more pig to slop."
As the head coach of the New York Giants I guess the best thing you can say about Shoat is that he doesn't fuck us around. Maybe there's something to that. Maybe a team of pros can just get together and do the job, like we would have done last year if a lot of us hadn't been injured and gone seven-seven.
Shake says this is true, and Shake is semi-intellectual about the game.
Shake says, "Winning is a happy accident of getting a bunch of guys together who want to."
Shake has studied it a lot and he says that coaches are not so important in the pros. He says they're important in college because there are those who can outsmart the others and outrecruit the others.
"But in the pros," he says, "there are studs on every team, and anybody can beat anybody else on a certain Sunday. It's all a matter of which team don't have the rag on."
Shake says that in the pros the teams that win are the ones that stay mentally tough.
When my old buddy talks like this, I tell him he sounds about half like a Darrell Royal or somebody.
Shake says hustle ain't nothing but acting like a gorilla.
"That's the part that's fun," he says. "Hitting people and getting hit and rolling around on the carpet is easy. The hard part is making yourself do something right — at the right minute."
He says, "When you get twenty-two studs who find losing a football game the most distasteful thing in the world, then you got yourself a winner. Hell, everybody wants to win, or says they do. But not wanting to lose is what it's all about."
Shake talked like this at our meeting this morning.
"We're just not gonna accept a loss to those dog-asses," he said.
"There'll be a minute out there Sunday," he said, "when one of us will do something better than
He would always go back to the running game if you gave him half a chance.
"If you run the football up somebody's ass," Shoat says, "then it's them that h as to get their hands dirty try in' to pull it out."
Early in that second half against the Redskins, Hose Manning hit Shake for fifty-five yards on a fly, and that brought us up to thirty to twenty-one. T.J. recovered a fumble right after that and Hose kicked a field goal to make it thirty to twenty-four. But after that, we didn't do anything but run old Billy Clyde.
I carried the ball twenty-two times in the fourth quarter, and scored two sixes, and we finally won it, thirty - eight to thirty.
I was a heavy-breathing sumbitch on the sideline toward the end, but Shoat Cooper put his arm around my shoulder pads and said, "Stud hoss, I ought to buy you
a rubber dolly. That was pure dee football out there."
Shoat Cooper had been a great player in the NFL himself. The old-timers will tell you that there weren't many linebackers any better. Maybe Tommy Nobis was. Or Dick Butkus.
But Shoat in his day was some kind of pisser, they say. They say he craved action so much he would beat his head on the locker room wall until they let him loose for the kickoff.
Shoat came out of Arkansas, like his name suggests. He was from Possum Grape and played ball at the University of Arkansas, where the freshman team is called Shoats.
But they say that's not where he got his name, Shoat. Growing up, I hear, Shoat just looked like a baby pig, or a shoat, so somebody started calling him Shoat.
I guess he might smile when we win Sunday. But in the three years he's been our coach, he hasn't.
You would think that Shoat might have smiled once or twice during our regular season since we're undefeated and untied and already have a diamond ring cinched for winning the National Conference.
We won that, incidentally, by dough-popping the LA Rams thirty-three to thirty-one. I scored three sixes.
But all that old Shoat has said all along is, "A football team with one more game to win ain't no better off than a tired old farmer with one more pig to slop."
As the head coach of the New York Giants I guess the best thing you can say about Shoat is that he doesn't fuck us around. Maybe there's something to that. Maybe a team of pros can just get together and do the job, like we would have done last year if a lot of us hadn't been injured and gone seven-seven.
Shake says this is true, and Shake is semi-intellectual about the game.
Shake says, "Winning is a happy accident of getting a bunch of guys together who want to."
Shake has studied it a lot and he says that coaches are not so important in the pros. He says they're important in college because there are those who can outsmart the others and outrecruit the others.
"But in the pros," he says, "there are studs on every team, and anybody can beat anybody else on a certain Sunday. It's all a matter of which team don't have the rag on."
Shake says that in the pros the teams that win are the ones that stay mentally tough.
When my old buddy talks like this, I tell him he sounds about half like a Darrell Royal or somebody.
Shake says hustle ain't nothing but acting like a gorilla.
"That's the part that's fun," he says. "Hitting people and getting hit and rolling around on the carpet is easy. The hard part is making yourself do something right — at the right minute."
He says, "When you get twenty-two studs who find losing a football game the most distasteful thing in the world, then you got yourself a winner. Hell, everybody wants to win, or says they do. But not wanting to lose is what it's all about."
Shake talked like this at our meeting this morning.
"We're just not gonna accept a loss to those dog-asses," he said.
"There'll be a minute out there Sunday," he said, "when one of us will do something better than
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