“I need to see you for a minute,” he said.

We went outside and Dave quickly got to the point.

“You missed the quarterback meeting.”

“Geez, I just forgot,” I replied.

 

I had forgotten the meeting with Coach Solari, but I was surprised that I was even missed. Although I had worked my way up from the bottom to play safety on defense, the possibility of me ever playing quarterback on offense seemed so remote that I hadn’t been paying much attention to the fact that I was the second string quarterback. I could hand the ball off, and run the team satisfactorily, but my passing on a good day was barely adequate. While it was true that no one could throw the ball as well as Dave, the drop off was precipitous.

 

“You need to be ready if I ever get hurt, look what happened to Howe.” Jeff Howe, who was also an excellent quarterback, had been a two way starter at safety and wingback. While I was the second string quarterback, if Dave had been injured the Coach would have just moved Jeff to quarterback. But Jeff had been hurt, and he was out for the season, one of the reasons why I was getting an opportunity to play on defense.

 

Dave continued. “I know what you’re thinking, but you’re just one hit away from being in the game. You owe it to your teammates to be as ready as you can be.”

 

It was no small thing to be admonished by Dave Dickson. He was a three sport star who had led the team to a CIF Championship the previous year. I admired him more than anyone in school, I still do. Dave had it all, he was the best of us in so many ways, and he handled it well. He never denigrated anyone or showed even the slightest amount of conceit.

 

The previous week, Coach Solari, no doubt mindful of the fact that if Dave were hurt we would be stuck with me as the quarterback, had cautioned Dave at practice about being too aggressive when blocking on the sweep and pitch plays. As we stood together during a water break, Coach said to Dave,

 

“Just nudge them out of the way, you don’t have to knock anyone down,” he cautioned. I think I might have been the only other person to hear that conversation.

 

We had film study after practice the day I missed the quarterback meeting. This had cost me a thousand yards of bear crawls, but what was worse, I had disappointed Coach Solari.

 

We watched the film, and Coach pointed out Dave using what he called a “nudge block.” This was of course, exactly what he had been asked to do, but then and later; some of the guys gave Dave a hard time about the “nudge.” It was funny, but it denigrated Dave and I think that this bothered him a lot, you want to be a football player, and football players hit, they don't nudge, but he took it good naturedly and never once defended himself. I almost expected him to say something like,

 

“Do you want me hurt and Tomlin at quarterback?”

 

I don’t think Dave even thought those words. He continued to encourage me and work with me, and as a matter of fact, make sure I got to quarterback meetings by rounding me up after my fourth period class. My performance soared from barely adequate to reasonably competent. Let me make it clear though, in no way was I in Dave’s class, but I did improve.

 

Two weeks later, my moment came. Dave took a hard hit after completing a pass. The contact broke his shoulder pad strap, and while he wasn’t hurt, he came to the sidelines for an equipment repair. Coach sent me in with a play, and cautioned me to “Take care of the ball.”

 

I was so nervous my voice shook as I called the play in the huddle. There were perhaps 3000 people in the stands. I looked over the defense and called the blocking set; correctly it turned out, but as I reached down to receive the ball from the center it happened that I was standing behind a guard, Bill Reece, who was tremendously surprised to feel my hands on his ass. Just before time ran out on the play clock I managed to call time out to avoid a penalty. Dave was quickly back in the game, an opportunity lost.

 

Oh well.