Ron Martirano - Football: The Players, The Records, The Superbowls

GRANTLAND RICE

American appreciation for the game of life metaphors that football inspires led to one of its most-quoted verses, from preeminent sports writer Grantland Rice. Bill Joness life on and off the field is footballs answer to Caseys fabled at bat. The poem was originally recited with a final couplet at the end (and the words writes and mark transposed), but Rice knew a proper closing line when he saw it and edited the poem to its most celebrated conclusion.

Bill Jones had been the shining star upon his college team;

His tackling was ferocious and his bucking was a dream;

When husky William took the ball beneath this brawny arm

They kept a special man to ring the ambulance alarm.

Bill hit the line and ran the ends like some mad bull amuck;

The other team would shiver when they saw him start to buck;

And when the rival forwards tried to stand him on his head

The coaches called an armistice and put away their dead.

Bill had the weight. Bill had the speedthe nerve to never yield;

They called him Siege Gun Willie as he shrapneled down the field,

For there had been a standing bet (which no one tried to call)

That Bill could make his distance through a ten-foot granite wall.

When he wound up his college course each students heart was sore;

They wept to think that husky Bill would hit the line no more.

Not so with Williamin his dreams he saw the Field of Fame,

Where he would buck to glory in the swirl of Lifes big game.

So with his sheepskin tucked beneath his brawny arm, one day

Bill put on steam and dashed into the thickest of the fray;

With eyes ablaze he sprinted where the laurelled highway led;

When Bill woke up his scalp hung loose and knots adorned his head.

He tried to skirt the Ends of Life but lo, with vicious toss,

A bill collector tackled him and threw him for a loss;

And when he switched his course again and crashed into the line,

The massive guard named Failure did a tango on his spine.

Bill tried to punt out of the rut, but ere he turned the trick

Right Tackle Competition tumbled through and blocked the kick;

And when he tacked at Success in one long vicious bound,

The fullback Disappointment steered his features in the ground.

But one day, when across the Field of Fame the goal seemed dim,

The wise old coach Experience came up and spoke to him.

Old top, he said, the main point is before you win your bout

To keep on bucking Failure till youve warn that piker out.

Cut out this stuff around the ends; go in there low and hard;

Forget all this New Football as you move on yard by yard;

And more than all, when you are thrown or tumbled with a crack,

Dont lie there whining, hustle up, and keep on coming back.

Keep coming back with all youve got and take it with a grin

When Disappointment trips you up and Failure barks your shin;

Keep coming back, and say to Fate, the while her minions gloat;

Come on and take my shirt and hat, but you cant get my goat.

Keep coming back, and though the world may romp across your map,

Let every scrimmage find you still somewhere within the scrap;