On Football and Family: A Scandurro Story

BY TIM SCANDURRO

“Our football family is real…we care about family here.  We’re with Pat as he goes through this.  We’re going to stand behind him in whatever capacity he needs.”—Jon Sumrall after Saturday’s win over North Texas

“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”—Novelist William Thackeray

At his introductory press conference last December, Jon Sumrall talked about his vision for Tulane.  “The core values of our program,” he said, “the pillars on which we’ll build the culture of what we’re doing here, are attitude, toughness, discipline and love.”  Soon that acronym, “A-T-D-L,” started showing up everywhere around the football program.

Fans tend to focus on the first three values.  They can be seen with the naked eye on Saturdays, and their direct correlation with winning in this sport is readily grasped.  So those are the ones we talk about the most, and they were on display once again in Denton, TX yesterday.  Against an explosive offense and an outstanding quarterback, we once again relied on those three pad-popping, will-imposing core values to come out a winner.  But it’s the fourth core value that I want to write about today.

Most of you probably know defensive tackle Patrick Jenkins best for his two-point tackle of a USC running back in the Cotton Bowl end zone.  It was one of the most impactful plays in the long history of our program.  One of my prized treasures at home is a Cotton Bowl photo montage, in which pictures of my celebrating family hang beside one of an exultant Jenkins celebrating that game-changing and season-defining moment.

Big Pat got some far less welcome attention during the television broadcast Saturday, when Tulane fans learned that he had not made the trip to Texas for the most heartbreaking of reasons.  His mother had died unexpectedly, and far too young.  “Pat came and sat down over here with his dad for about an hour and a half in my office the other day and got a bunch of his teammates around him,” remembered Coach Sumrall.  “That conversation was very little about playing football.  It was more about ‘Hey, we’re here for you, we love you, whatever help you need.’  Our football family is real…we care about family here.”

Think about what Patrick Jenkins has been through this past week.  You might not be able to relate to a game-saving play in the Cotton Bowl, but you can relate to this.  Most of us know and appreciate deeply what our mothers have meant to us and our families.  Some reading these words have gone through the experience of losing a mother.  Some may have even lost a mother young as Pat did, but it’s a staggering emotional experience at any age.

Most men regardless of race, creed, culture or background, whether they play football or not, know that their mothers have always represented the very best of what unconditional love and sacrifice mean.   In the words of the old proverb, “God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” Mothers fiercely and continually defend us from the day we are born until the day they draw their last breath.  They comfort us when it feels like no one else can, or cares to.  They offer us shelter and safety from the cruelest storms life can throw at us.  They plan for us, pray for us, and dream for us.  They will sacrifice almost anything to see us become successful and happy and contented.  And then when grandchildren come along, they somehow do it all over again for them while still not missing a beat with us.  At their best they are constant, unwavering, indefatigable models of what love is and what love does.  There is a reason why dying soldiers seeking comfort and peace, all across the globe and all across time, have so often cried out for their mothers with their last breath. 

That’s why I was so pleased to see that the fourth and most important core value, the one that fuels all the best things about football and life, was also on display in Denton on Saturday.  Coach Sumrall entered the winning locker room, got his phone out and immediately Face-timed with Jenkins so he could celebrate the victory with his teammates and know they were thinking of him.  It was a powerful moment.  If you watch the locker room video closely—it’s posted on the Tulane Football Twitter account-- you’ll see Big Pat smiling, probably for the first time all week.  The post title reads “Won this one for Pat, so we had to have him in the locker room.” 

A football team can never replace a mother.  But at its best, a football team can become like a second family.  It lives and sweats together, it goes through highs and lows together, and it encourages every member to be the best version of himself he can be.  It celebrates with you and for you and puts you on its shoulders when you make the winning play in the Cotton Bowl.  And it grieves with you and for you and holds you in its arms when you lose something irreplaceable. 

Attitude, toughness, discipline, and love.  It’s a short week coming up but we will be bringing all four pillars to Charlotte on Halloween Night, along with the nation’s longest active conference game winning streak and the 2023 Louisiana Sports Writer’s Association’s Defensive Player of the Year, Patrick Jenkins.

Trick or treat, 49ers.  You might want to turn the porch lights out.

By Tim Scandurro