Athletic piece on Sam Ehlinger

[Foosters 18,287]

Damn.

https://theathletic.com/520876/2018/09/13/sam-ehlinger-texas-longhorns-football-quarterback-father-ross-ehlinger/

 

Quote

AUSTIN, Texas — When Sam Ehlinger runs through the tunnel and the smoke and into the chaos at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, he glances over his shoulder to his right and finds it.

He locates the spot in the 100,000-seat stadium where he watched Texas games growing up. East side, near the 30-yard line, about 30 rows up.

“When I was a little boy, that’s where I was,” Ehlinger told The Athletic. “And then I take in the whole stadium and think, ‘Wow, this is really cool’ for about 10 seconds. And then I dial in. Here we go.”

He runs to the north end zone and kneels. He bows his head in prayer. And then, before his focus turns to the battle ahead, Ehlinger says a few words to the man who’s missing.

“I’ll talk to him like, ‘Well, here we are,’ ” he said. “ ‘I know you’re up there and you’re watching. Just watch over my teammates and keep us safe and healthy. Whatever is meant to happen, I know it will happen. Help us learn from that and move forward.’ ”

Ross Ehlinger was ripped from his son’s life on March 3, 2013, when he suffered cardiac arrest during the 1.5-mile swim portion of the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon in California. Ross died while doing what he loved: competing. He was beloved in his community, a respected trial lawyer and youth sports coach. He loved his family. And he loved his Longhorns.

Sam was 14 when he passed. His father never got to watch him play at Austin Westlake High School, never got to see him run over defenders in burnt orange as the starting quarterback at Texas.

But before he departed, Ross did all he could to get young Sam prepared for this future. And today, Ehlinger is living out his father’s wildest dream.

 

(John Rivera / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

At times, he admits, this all feels destined. Tragedy made him uncommonly mature and uniquely prepared to guide a team through hard times.

The sophomore has already been through his share of painful losses at Texas. But there is strength in knowing you’ve already survived your worst loss and that nothing else can compare. What Ehlinger is facing now, not just against USC on Saturday but also in trying to lead Texas back on top, is challenging. But it is not pressure.

Pressure is becoming the man of your house as an eighth-grader and trying to help lead your family through heartbreak.

---

Jena Ehlinger raced home. The flight back is a barely remembered blur. The pain and the panic and all the arrangements had to wait. She needed to be the one to tell her children.

“I was just praying to God to give me the words,” she said. “I don’t know how to do this, what to say.”

The minute she walked in the front door of the family’s Westlake home that night, she didn’t have to say a word. Sam knew something was wrong. His mom and dad weren’t responding to his calls and texts. Jena wasn’t responding to anyone. All she could think about was getting to Sam, Jake and Morgen.

On that foggy Sunday morning, Ross had jumped off the ferry and into the choppy 51-degree waters of the San Francisco Bay. The fit 46-year-old was no stranger to this. He’d been entering triathlons since 2000 and had competed in this event in 2008. He’d run marathons and participated in more than a dozen half-triathlons and half-Ironmans.

Jena was waiting at the shore with friends and spectators when she received an urgent call from a San Francisco number. Ross had been found motionless in the water by three triathletes who called for help. He was unresponsive, and rescue workers’ efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

What occurred in the water that morning is difficult to pinpoint. A medical examiner’s report months later would list the cause of death as lethal cardiac arrhythmia, a sudden malfunction of the heart’s electric system. What Ross and his family didn’t know was he had an enlarged heart and a blockage in one artery.

Back home in Austin, Jena’s niece was babysitting the kids. Jena asked her to keep them away from the TV and keep Sam off his phone. Just try to keep them distracted while she traveled back. Sam remembers having a basketball tournament that weekend and spending the day hanging with friends. He was focusing on his math homework that night when the home phone rang. A family friend called to ask if everything was OK. They’d seen a local news report that an unidentified 46-year-old from Austin died during a triathlon.

“I hadn’t heard anything, so there’s no way that could be possible,” Sam recalled thinking. “That’s not my situation. No way. I would know by now.”

He wanted to shrug it off, but he couldn’t. He found more reports online. A 46-year-old from Austin? That couldn’t be a coincidence. He started panicking. He called his mom. No answer. He ran downstairs to her desk, frantically looking through an address book for phone numbers of friends who were at the triathlon.

Minutes later, Jena was crying as she walked in the door. Sam was standing in the kitchen, the home phone still in hand, and he instantly knew. He threw the phone as far and as hard as he could. It hit a stone wall 20 yards away in the living room and shattered.

“My body just collapsed,” he said. “I didn’t have any feeling in my legs or my body. I just collapsed. I didn’t know what to do.”

He let out a long, deep scream from deep in his gut: NO.

“I pray to God I never hear that noise again as long as I live,” Jena said.

His 12-year-old brother Jake and 9-year-old sister Morgen ran downstairs and found out. Sam remembers running to his parents’ bedroom and collapsing again. This can’t be real, he kept telling himself. He wanted most of all to speak with his dad one more time.

The hours, days and weeks after that remain a blur. But Jena says she made a promise to her grieving children on that impossibly painful and confusing night.

“I said to them: ‘We’re gonna be OK. We’re gonna be happy again,’ ” she vowed. “ ‘Life is gonna go on. We’re gonna make it. It’s gonna be a beautiful story.’ ”

---

The heartbroken 14-year-old boy realized something after the first hour of tears and anger and misery.

“All the sudden, it was, ‘I have to be the man of this family. I have to take over now,’ ” Ehlinger said. “I had to help them in anything I can. I switched out of being sorry for myself and sad for myself to, ‘I have to help my brother, my sister and my mom.’ From then on, it’s about them. That’s just how it’s been.”

It was a deep and sudden sense of responsibility, a gut feeling that as the oldest child you must be the strongest one. Your maturation gets fast-tracked in these moments of unexpected tragedy, not by choice but by necessity.

Ehlinger felt it was his duty to support his mother, who had just lost the love of her life and suddenly had so much to deal with, and to protect his siblings. And while he mourned like they did, he refused to dwell on feeling bad for himself. He chose to accept his situation and focus on helping his family.

“I realized that, from then on, I had to live a different life from what regular eighth-graders could,” he said. “That was just how it was.”

One night, Jena saw Sam tucking Morgen in and saying goodnight to her. She had to sneak away to hold back her tears. Jena had always been the rock of their family, the source of their strength and their ability to stay faithful and upbeat. But she remembers that at Ross’ funeral service Sam bravely spoke in front of everybody about his love for his father and the time they shared. She admires how he supported her that day.

“He had his arm around me, and I just remember thinking it was so sweet,” Jena said. “And looking back, he was keeping me strong. It was like he was holding me up.”

Sam says his father taught him everything about life and sports. Ross Ehlinger was adventurous and always smiling. Jena says he led a life of constant activity. Hours upon hours of throwing the football and baseball in the front yard with the kids, playing basketball, swimming laps, riding bikes. It didn’t matter if he had a bad knee — he just kept going. He was the director of Westlake’s Pop Warner football league and coached youth baseball. He was never Sam’s head coach but was always coaching him up.

What he passed down to his son was far greater than just how to throw a ball around. Sam says he learned from his dad to value ambition and humility. Consistency and hard work were always at the heart of what his father wanted him to understand. The lessons on toughness came early, too. Sam recalls playing in a Pop Warner game and banging up his knee. He’d never been injured in a game. Ross came over from the stands and calmed him down.

“He was like, ‘Oh, you can move it? It’s not bleeding? You’re fine. Go,’ ” Sam said. “I went back in the game and we won. You’re fine, suck it up, it’s not a big deal — that’s the mentality I have. If you’re not broken or bleeding, you’re fine.”

 

(Photos courtesy Jena Ehlinger)

Most of all, he believes his father’s legacy is one of positivity. After his passing, the motto “Live Like Ross” was printed on bracelets and embraced around their community. The family started a scholarship fund and a football camp to honor him and give back. To Sam, living like Ross means being compassionate and appreciative and refusing to embrace negativity. Looking back, he can see that’s why he responded the way he did to his father’s sudden death.

“It’s a traumatic feeling and emotion that takes over your body, but you can take it in different ways. You can turn to different things,” he said. “I really turned to where I have a life ahead of me, a positive life ahead of me, and I have a bunch of blessings that I’ve been given. Although this sucks and although this could be a lot worse, I needed to turn this into motivation. I needed to turn this into something where I benefit out of this instead of looking at the negatives, how bad this is, how terrible this is.”

Two days after Tom Herman arrived at Texas in November 2016, Sam walked into his office. He was just a few weeks away from enrolling and made the 8-mile drive to campus to meet his new head coach. He and Jena sat down with Herman and shared with him what they had been through as a family and how it shaped them.

“You could tell this was a 17-year-old grown man,” Herman said. “It was no surprise as to why when you hear his story.”

---

On the day Ross and Jena left for San Francisco, he printed out a passage that had always been important to him. He left three copies on the desk in his study. Jena says he’d wanted to run to an arts and crafts store to get them framed. They were for his children.

Ross had kept a copy of Theodore Roosevelt’s famed “The Man in the Arena” speech in his office since law school. Sam says it’s still posted on the bathroom wall at home to this day. The message:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Those words, from Roosevelt’s “Citizenship in a Republic” address made in 1910 during a visit to Paris, still hold up a century later. LeBron James has long called this one of his all-time favorite quotes. To him, it means if you’ve never been in his arena, you have no idea what it takes. Richard Nixon referenced it in his resignation address. Nelson Mandela used it to inspire the South African rugby team. Miley Cyrus has a line from it tattooed on her arm. Celebrities and athletes clinging to those words makes sense. Roosevelt speaks to their experience living in a fishbowl, to the plight of prominence.

Sam didn’t fully understand its significance until his freshman year at Texas. He admits life in this particular arena, as starting quarterback of the Longhorns, has been at once “honestly insane” and a blessing. He says you really can’t prepare for all the attention and all the scrutiny that comes with this job.

“I think the speech is still very relevant to some of the things that happened last year,” Ehlinger said. “It’s pretty funny how that was presented to me before times were even really that tough with critics and people. Because, obviously, the magnitude of what I was doing wasn’t as great as it is here. So it’s definitely still something I think about all the time.”

His freshman season was no storybook fantasy. Dust and sweat and blood? Yeah, there was a lot of that. Coming up short again and again? Ehlinger lived that out against USC, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, where his last-minute turnovers squandered winning efforts. He lived it in his Red River Rivalry debut, scoring the go-ahead touchdown on Oklahoma with eight minutes left before being thwarted by Baker Mayfield and the Sooners.

Not that the 2017 season was all bad. There were highs and wins along the way. But Ehlinger had so much to learn in Year 1, so much error and shortcoming to confront. He says he figured out how to tune out criticism from people outside the arena. He learned those stumbles are necessary for growth. He never lost his enthusiasm for his worthy cause.

 

(Ben Queen / USA TODAY Sports)

“He’s unflappable,” Herman said. “I think his only response when things aren’t going well is to point the finger at himself and say, ‘I gotta do this better.’ That’s a sign of maturity and leadership.”

During the hard times, Ehlinger will call Todd Dodge for advice. There are few people in his life whom he trusts and looks up to more than his head coach at Austin Westlake. Dodge says somebody has to be real with the kid, because playing quarterback means you get over-praised when you succeed and over-criticized when you err. And Dodge knows that’s especially true when you play at Texas.

“The quarterback position is one of the loneliest places that you can ever be in sports,” Dodge said, “but it’s also the most fulfilling.”

Dodge has seen this all before. He sums up Ehlinger’s sophomore season at Westlake like this: He was magical 75 percent of the time with his terrific throws and hard-fought runs. As for the other 25 percent? “He was like a wild stallion out there making wild mistakes,” Dodge said. “He was bucking all over the place and absolutely would not give up on a play.” But he learned. He cut down on the stubborn plays. And in his first 10 games the next season, Ehlinger threw 34 touchdown passes and zero interceptions.

“Last year, he’d be the first to admit he made absolute mistakes that can’t happen,” Dodge said. “But, you know, I would always ask him: ‘Would you rather have redshirted as a freshman? Or would you rather start six games and play in nine?’ ”

Ehlinger’s reply: “Coach, you know the answer to that.”

He keeps perspective, too, from knowing he’s faced far worse. Ehlinger leaned on his family and friends last season. And he leaned on lessons learned from his father, both in life and in death. It’s a mentality of knowing you can’t change the past, you can only grow stronger from it.

“When you lose someone so important in your life, someone who holds so much value in your heart, the pressure to take care of the people that love you is 10 times greater than anything you can feel in a sport or in a game,” he said calmly. “Because in a sport or a game, what I’ve learned is you can prepare for and help eliminate the pressure. You can’t really prepare when you’re 14 years old for having to go through that.”

---

After Ross passed away, his family found a letter he’d written on his computer.

In it, he touted Sam’s ability and potential as a football player and asked what he needed to do to develop that talent and get him ready for high school football. He was bragging on his son but also earnestly seeking help. Jena says he was sending it to Mack Brown.

Ross was a deeply proud Texas graduate. That’s where he met and fell for his wife as a sophomore. He was a member of the Silver Spurs, the student organization tasked with the handling and care of Bevo. His kids have been throwing up the Hook ’em Horns hand sign since they were infants. Jena says the man owned “a gazillion” burnt orange shirts and enjoyed trash talking his Aggie clients.

Fall weekends were dedicated to Longhorns football. At Texas games, Ross would bring headphones and listen to the radio play-by-play as he watched. And he loved to bring his kids along. This was just family tradition. Their last game together was a trip to the Alamo Bowl win against Oregon State in San Antonio, two months before his death.

“He’s the main reason for everything,” Sam Ehlinger said. “He’s the reason why I committed and what motivates me: to fulfill what he wanted me to do. At least, that’s what I think he’d want me to do. He loved Texas.”

Ehlinger marvels at how his father’s dream has truly come to life. He took on the starting job as a freshman. He’s playing with guys he loves. He’s playing for a head coach who gets him. Ehlinger sees the similarities in their thinking and their competitiveness. The losses have been hard, but Herman’s belief in Ehlinger is as strong as ever.

When Texas’ season opener at Maryland finished in familiar fashion, with an Ehlinger interception to end a tight loss, Herman stuck with him. He can see the progress being made. He appreciates how the sophomore leads. He likes that Ehlinger can have fun and joke around and be a “smartass” with him on the headset during games. And when it’s time to compete, he gives everything.

“When it’s time to work, he can flip a switch and go to work as hard as anybody I’ve ever seen,” Herman said.

 

There have been times when it all feels right for Ehlinger. Like the 14-play, 91-yard drive in the final minute of the fourth quarter at USC last year. First road game. Banged-up offensive line. Lots of mistakes. But everything came together on that drive. After scrambling to the sideline and firing his 17-yard touchdown strike to Armanti Foreman, Ehlinger jumped in teammates’ arms and then looked to the sky and threw up the horns.

“It was really, really awesome just to have that feeling of: ‘Wow, I could do this,’ ” he said.

That moment was surreal, but it was also fleeting. And he’ll keep chasing it Saturday against the Trojans and beyond. Because he knows there’s something uncommon going on here, something he’s struck by whenever he walks through Texas’ facility or runs through the smoke into DKR. As he puts it: How many kids get to lead the school they dreamed of going to their whole life? How many get a chance to turn around the program they love deep in their heart?

He grew up hearing from his father that the pride and winning tradition of the University of Texas will not be entrusted to the weak or the timid. And now it’s entrusted to him. So he can’t help but believe the hints were there all along that this has always been the grand plan.

“I feel that this story and everyone’s lives was written a long time ago. You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be,” Ehlinger said. “It’s something that, all the trials and tribulations, they’re going to pay off eventually — whether that’s for me in football or maybe it’s not. Maybe, as much as every sign is pointing to it, you never know. But it gives me a lot of excitement for life. It’s really cool to see how God and the things in your life shape the way that you’re supposed to live.”

He thinks he knows what his dad would say if he were here today. He would be insanely proud and thrilled to watch his son play for the Longhorns. He hopes his dad would be prouder of the man he’s become in helping lead their family. But he certainly knows Ross would urge Sam to work even harder, to never become content with what he’s accomplished so far.

Sam likes to talk to him before he goes to bed. He wants to share his gratitude. Thank you for watching over me. Thank you for everything you gave us. Thank you for everywhere we’re going.

“He took me along the path I needed to be on,” Ehlinger said.

 

[Tired of Lurking 637]

A true Longhorn, through and through. I really hope he's the guy. Hook 'em, Sam.

[Katfid54 9,005]

[6th Street 6,693]

Good kid - hope he figures it out

Edited September 13, 2018 by 6th Street

[crash_davis 23,470]

great for the kid.  just quit throwing stupid interceptions.  not too much to ask.

[kevwun 16,447]

He's got all of the components for a great story down except for one really, really important one.

Edited September 13, 2018 by kevwun

[RomaVicta 30,624]

I don't care much for feel good pieces, but I choose not to shit on them.

Sam is easy to pull for. Good luck to him.

[South Austin 53,261]

I don't recall Garrett Gilbert being unlikeable, but he didn't have a likeability factor along side his suckitude.  Sam's an incredibly likeable guy, but the poor kid just keeps making knuckleheaded decisions.  I sure as hell hope that starts changing. 

[runthebone 8,380]

I''ll always cheer for him as a player and in life.

[ousux 5,649]

Gotdam, reading that (and it was an epic teal deer) makes it hard for me to bag on him for boneheaded, game costing plays.

But I still will, just with more respect for the kid. I already knew the story but whoever wrote that knows how to make a room dusty..

[Thiefery 5,109]

We're going to win

[closetojumping 65,528]

I prefer to see this kind of stuff trotted out there after someone has proven something on the field. I'm guessing there's a local Westlake paper that could run with a story like this until then, for Sam's unthinking diehards. The fact that The Athletic printed this tells you that the UT PR team tee'd this up with them ahead of this season in anticipation of Ehlinger having a big year and timing the article with the big game. That's not speculative from my end. That is how this works.

This is another example of how the entire football org is focused on the veneer of things and not the substance. Good luck to Ehlinger figuring something out on the field when it matters, in any event.

[Sgt Hulk 14,470]

Tears on the story. I knew of it but always hearing it hurts 

[Walser 1,126]

To put the on-field performance in perspective:

Colt had a very promising redshirt freshmen year in 2006. But he also had a good OL, J Finley, J Charles and a stable coaching environment. Pretty good recipe for success. He regressed his sophomore year  with 18 INTs then balled out.

Sam last year was a true freshmen playing through a lingering injury from high school, a new set of coaches, and an atrocious OL, RB and TE corp.

I don't know if he puts it together, and he's done nothing yet to merit a comparison to Colt. Now it's up to you, Charlie, but you might consider cuttin' the kid a little slack.

[Gene Parmesan 4,082]

I also don't like it when people I berate on the internet for their inability to entertain me are humanized.

[orange dream 1,303]

Thanks for posting.  I knew the generalities of the story but not the details.  Crushing.

Like many others, I hope he figures the football stuff out, but he's light years ahead of most of his peers on the life stuff.  Hook 'em Sam and Ross!!

 

[TwiceHorn 32,103]

4 minutes ago, Gene Parmesan said:

I also don't like it when people I berate on the internet for their inability to entertain me are humanized.

Annoying isn't it?

[Blanton 170]

21 minutes ago, South Austin said:

I don't recall Garrett Gilbert being unlikeable, but he didn't have a likeability factor along side his suckitude.  Sam's an incredibly likeable guy, but the poor kid just keeps making knuckleheaded decisions.  I sure as hell hope that starts changing. 

He was very unlikeable if you followed his recruiting/high school football career. 

His family made sure Mack wouldn't recruit any other quarterbacks in addition to ensuring Garrett had the path to QB1 with the least amount of resistence. 

Dude emodied the LT model of disguising player potential with their system. 

[pacman 7,511]

Sam has shown the coaches how he can be successful. It's on them to put him in a place to succeed. Right now, he looks more like somebody who is mind fucked when the pressure is on than somebody who is well coached

[Art Vandelay 1,712]

Great (and dusty) read. Football aside, he is an impressive young man. Hope he gets it figured out on the field -- and I firmly believe he can. Regardless, he'll succeed in life.

[AUS-97HORN 12,057]

36 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I prefer to see this kind of stuff trotted out there after someone has proven something on the field. I'm guessing there's a local Westlake paper that could run with a story like this until then, for Sam's unthinking diehards. The fact that The Athletic printed this tells you that the UT PR team tee'd this up with them ahead of this season in anticipation of Ehlinger having a big year and timing the article with the big game. That's not speculative from my end. That is how this works.

This is another example of how the entire football org is focused on the veneer of things and not the substance. Good luck to Ehlinger figuring something out on the field when it matters, in any event.

 

The story was broadcast as well on the LHN about 20 mins before the Tulsa kickoff on Saturday night.  

 

I remembered reading  on Shaggy about his father's death in 2013 when it happened,  many of the Shag  lawyers knew his dad, and his father had completed something like 15 marathons before this event, so everyone was pretty shocked about it being a cardiac death.    Sadly- it is a lot like Sean Adams death last year this week.  Super in-shape guy, killed by a cardiac event at 46.

I really like Sam as a person and as a guy who has overcome losing his dad at 14,  I just want to cheer for him so bad. 

[Thiefery 5,109]

Yeah the Sean Adams death caught me by surprise, he seemed in pretty good shape and was still young.  

[LTtxfan 50,035]

44 minutes ago, Walser said:

To put the on-field performance in perspective:

Colt had a very promising redshirt freshmen year in 2006. But he also had a good OL, J Finley, J Charles and a stable coaching environment. Pretty good recipe for success. He regressed his sophomore year  with 18 INTs then balled out.

Sam last year was a true freshmen playing through a lingering injury from high school, a new set of coaches, and an atrocious OL, RB and TE corp.

I don't know if he puts it together, and he's done nothing yet to merit a comparison to Colt. Now it's up to you, Charlie, but you might consider cuttin' the kid a little slack.

You paraphrasing "The Hunt for Red October"??

Another great Surly worthy conversation from the Movie below...

Capt. Vasili Borodin: I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck... maybe even a "recreational vehicle." And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?

Captain Ramius: I suppose.

Capt. Vasili Borodin: No papers?

Captain Ramius: No papers, state to state.

Capt. Vasili Borodin: Well then, in winter I will live in... Arizona. Actually, I think I will need two wives.

Captain Ramius: Oh, at least.

[BabaYaga 15,631]

33 minutes ago, Blanton said:

He was very unlikeable if you followed his recruiting/high school football career. 

His family made sure Mack wouldn't recruit any other quarterbacks in addition to ensuring Garrett had the path to QB1 with the least amount of resistence. 

Dude emodied the LT model of disguising player potential with their system. 

Yep.  So at the FAU game in 2010.  Good friend of mine from grad school was/is great friends with Author Johnson, Mad Dog, and Old Dirty Bastard (Cleve Bryant).  So he "arranged" a stadium tour usually reserved for recruits for us.  So we go all over, hang back with the recruits being shown around.  And we made our way to the locker and GG comes out.  Yes this is not the best time to judge any player, but he was just a condescending little turd.  There's having a "game face", and just being an ass.  Felt sorry for him prior.  Not after that.  He may been having an off day, or his dog may have been hit by a car the night before the game.  I don't know.  But he was just a jerk to the girl and us.  

So basically, FU squints.  You big bleeding gash.

[Chad 1,728]

Gilbert was a soft patsy who was afraid of competition. As soon as the boos became common he wilted and became "injured" for the remainder of the season then he transferred not long after that. Mack didn't recruit any other quarterbacks who would be a threat to Gilbert's eventual "reign" under pressure from GG's father and ever since that the program has been completely fucked. You can trace it back to that period of time it was the essentially the beginning of the end.

 

Sam is a classy kid and likable, he just needs to put it together on the field.

[Hiphopopotamos 21,192]

20 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

 

The story was broadcast as well on the LHN about 20 mins before the Tulsa kickoff on Saturday night.  

 

I remembered reading  on Shaggy about his father's death in 2013 when it happened,  many of the Shag  lawyers knew his dad, and his father had completed something like 15 marathons before this event, so everyone was pretty shocked about it being a cardiac death.    Sadly- it is a lot like Sean Adams death last year this week.  Super in-shape guy, killed by a cardiac event at 46.

I really like Sam as a person and as a guy who has overcome losing his dad at 14,  I just want to cheer for him so bad. 

 

Here is the LHN video - hosted on ESPN

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=24662940

[Tex Pete 21,510]

1 hour ago, ousux said:

Gotdam, reading that (and it was an epic teal deer) makes it hard for me to bag on him for boneheaded, game costing plays.

Not me. Win fucking football games. That's the point of big time college football. I haven't paid tens of thousands of dollars to support feel good stories.

If Sam doesn't quit making program-destroying mistakes, I can love his story from afar as he continues his career at Trinity.

[AUS-97HORN 12,057]

just to be clear, I didnt lose my father at 14, I realize  the wording above implied that.  I was saying that losing your father at 14 ( like Sam) is really hard.

[TreatyOak 17,409]

[PilotsError 2,341]

You can't outrun a bad diet.  

[Eggo 4,026]

Cried like a baby.

[Jack Wilson 313]

Good read, but where are all the dumb-fuck hipsters bragging about not reading anything over 50 words, wearing their self-imposed ignorance and stupidity like badges of honor?

You know, the same ones who bashed me--uh, I mean PencilPusher--for his Two Bobs article. Where the hell are they?

[The Golden Hat 305]

No chance I'm reading a feel-good piece at this time.

[BabaYaga 15,631]

These stories are nice.  And no child so have to endure the loss of a parent (or visa versa).  But it happens.  It's not fair.  But it does happen.  My only hope is that this will mold character and conviction into this young man.  There are also dozens if not hundreds of other kids at schools around the state that have endured equally tragic events growing up.  We laud him because he represents us.  This is where I start to compartmentalize things.  I wish him all the best in life.  I also wish he could better read a defense, make throws out side the pocket, and stop turning the GD ball over....

[Pato del Muerto 53,581]

While he’s asking his dad to keep everybody safe, would it be so tough to ask about ball security as well?

[Viper 12,221]

52 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

 

The story was broadcast as well on the LHN about 20 mins before the Tulsa kickoff on Saturday night.  

 

I believe they also aired it during Rewind. 

[BigOrange1 6,611]

1 hour ago, Chad said:

Sam is a classy kid and likable, he just needs to put it together on the field.

this fanbase also needs to give him a chance.  he has definitely made some terrible, game-costing decisions, but he's also just over 48 hours away from making his 11th career start and there are already people who are done with him as the starting qb at texas.  

imo, he's had enough flashes (the drive @ usc, the ksu and ou games last year) that i think he could be the guy.  but there are gonna be ups and downs with a young qb and it's annoying how quickly some people want to throw a guy away and move on to the next one.  

[Hank Scorpio 17,924]

I think it's going to be hard for Sam to be a great UT QB and also honor the memory of his father. It's not in the story, but apparently his father's favorite thing in the world was when a QB threw a backbreaking interception in the 4th quarter and Sam just wants make his father proud. What other explanation could there be for the OSU game last year?

Edited September 13, 2018 by Hank Scorpio

[Zavala 1,384]

He is going to be a Legend at Texas, God willing.

[sidis 10,019]

38 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

I think it's going to be hard for Sam to be a great UT QB and also honor the memory of his father. It's not in the story, but apparently his father's favorite thing in the world was when a QB threw a backbreaking interception in the 4th quarter and Sam just wants make his father proud. What other explanation could there be for the OSU game last year? 

or tech?

or maryland?

or usc?

kid is definitely a great representative of the university and other than his occasional drunken rants at frat houses, is a really solid, classy kid.  all of us obviously wish and hope he could be the guy but as ctj stated above, this is called pr blitzing in a time of crisis.  kid hasn't played very smart or good football yet.

my best wishes to him and i hope he can start turning it around in two days.

[Skipper 6,412]

3 hours ago, closetojumping said:

I prefer to see this kind of stuff trotted out there after someone has proven something on the field. I'm guessing there's a local Westlake paper that could run with a story like this until then, for Sam's unthinking diehards. The fact that The Athletic printed this tells you that the UT PR team tee'd this up with them ahead of this season in anticipation of Ehlinger having a big year and timing the article with the big game. That's not speculative from my end. That is how this works.

This is another example of how the entire football org is focused on the veneer of things and not the substance. Good luck to Ehlinger figuring something out on the field when it matters, in any event.

Just my 2 cents but, who cares why and how it came about?  That's a story worth telling even if the kid was a walk on.  And yeah, I think it's a positive that from time to time we humanize these teenagers that are constantly berated by grown men on message boards.

[Tired of Lurking 637]

These men should be able to drink beer.

[closetojumping 65,528]

34 minutes ago, Skipper said:

Just my 2 cents but, who cares why and how it came about?  That's a story worth telling even if the kid was a walk on.  And yeah, I think it's a positive that from time to time we humanize these teenagers that are constantly berated by grown men on message boards.

Our perspectives aren't aligned around subject matter here. My comments about the timing and coordination are a criticism of Hermeh's focus - not of the story itself on Ehlinger. Hermeh's had his head up his ass since showing up when it comes to on-field performance vs polishing the shine of the program and this is another data point reflecting as much. Him giving the media a speech on the difficulties of beating Tulsa and then interrupting Ehlinger's session with the media to give him a warm handshake and declare what a wonderful job he did in the Tulsa game we almost just lost, again, is a data point that the guy doesn't get it. It's just ... not good for us as fans that this is what this guy is about.

As to the coverage for Ehlinger the person, I'm fine with it in that context. I don't think he's worth a shit as a Big 12 QB, and he'll continue to prove that, but I don't dislike the guy personally and I hope he has a great life. That considered, I have zero empathy for the premise that these "are kids who need to be humanized".

These players are getting humanized up and down that fucking campus and get whatever they want all over the city. More power to them, but they can grow the fuck up if they're worried about what meanies say about them on the Internet. The list of bad/hard shit that 17-23 year old men face in life, from war to manual labor to poverty to prison is way longer than playing football at Texas for free with plenty of money and pussy to go with it. The list of shit better than something like that for 17-23 year old men is probably smaller than the size of your palm.

[Skipper 6,412]

Fair enough I'm not going to get into a big debate.  I knew Simms well back in undergrad and the amount of shit he got from our 'wonderful fan base' still pisses me off so coming at it from that perspective.  Maybe a story like this might make it less likely some drunk loser tweets at Sam to kill himself when he throws a pick Saturday.  But probably not.

[Katfid54 9,005]

4 minutes ago, Skipper said:

Fair enough I'm not going to get into a big debate.  I knew Simms well back in undergrad and the amount of shit he got from our 'wonderful fan base' still pisses me off so coming at it from that perspective.  Maybe a story like this might make it less likely some drunk loser tweets at Sam to kill himself when he throws a pick Saturday.  But probably not.

Oh shit are you Kyle Shanahan?

[DougO 5,267]

AUSTIN, Texas — When Sam Ehlinger runs through the tunnel and the smoke and into the chaos at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, he glances over his shoulder to his right and finds it.

 

Seems like an odd place to wear ones athletic piece.

[closetojumping 65,528]

27 minutes ago, Skipper said:

Fair enough I'm not going to get into a big debate.  I knew Simms well back in undergrad and the amount of shit he got from our 'wonderful fan base' still pisses me off so coming at it from that perspective.  Maybe a story like this might make it less likely some drunk loser tweets at Sam to kill himself when he throws a pick Saturday.  But probably not.

I'm good friends with the girl who dated Simms during his time on campus, or a big chunk of it, and frankly, I was a Simms believer. We may know some of the same people. The way he was handled by our base, mostly other students or those aged close to student age, was deplorable. The dude is one of the best QBs to have ever played at Texas. That said, let's be honest here, Ehlinger isn't facing any of the biases that Simms had to own. 

[closetojumping 65,528]

5 minutes ago, BurntEyes said:

See my quote above. Pics of hotties or didn't happen.

Not only do I have pics, she's French, hot and fun as hell. But no, she's a friend and I wouldn't subject her to you hillbillies.

[PatSolitanojr 532]

10 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Not only do I have pics, she's French, hot and fun as hell. But no, she's a friend and I wouldn't subject her to you hillbillies.

How dare you call this redneck a hillbilly. 

[kevwun 16,447]

They prefer to be called hill people.  And I'd kill all of you to have Simms as our qb right now.

Edited September 13, 2018 by kevwun