Dom Root
Sep 8, 20183 min
Ive always been solid with my words
But i felt way more official
With the grass beneath my cleats
The crowd calling out the cheaters.
And with the refs blowing extra whistles,
Cause uncle jo and them wouldnt
Stop cussing from the stands
I used to love playing football
And before then use to jus watch it,
Grew up in LA, a loose rocket
Tried to stay out of trouble
And avoid all the gang shit
And hood politics...
They called me Jamaica funk
And every play i made
My family use to jump
And coach raby, he pull my to the side
And sing the words to that old
Chaka Khan Song
Jamaica Funk
thats what it is!
The football field is where i found my release
It was something introduced to me
While only a kid
4 years old
It was the sport that taught me
to achieve my goals
And how to carry my loads...
Sunday was for watching the pros
College and Pop Warner on Saturdays
And Friday Night Lights
Had me feeling like
I too could get drafted,
Ball out, you know
Get a crib like the ones
In the magazines
Football, it helped me to dream,
And in team sports
You need a team...
And tho society
Tried vigorously to seperate us
Ethnically, culturally,.and especially
In the streets:
The grid iron
Those two a days
showed us
what it meant to be family...
And from there we had to figure out how to shut out or atleast quiet down the growing pains of:
RACE Wars
Late Nights
Underage drinking
Gang Fights
Low family income
Food prices
Police...
Beating street lights...
I guess the list could go on...
From there we had to decide
What exactly we wanted of this life
And if we could identify the wrong
Enough to come up with some right
And some nights id be so sore
I wouldnt want to move
Limp to the table
Just to smash on the food....
My moms took good care of me,
Made sure i realized i could be anything,
She bought jerseys, hats, foam fingers and shit....
I use to love playing football, at night
Almost as much as
we like to call off work
In the mornings
It was something i craved
My scarlet and gold
Mixed in dirt,
The grass stains
Are now just memories
And proud moments....
Memories i miss, and now these moments
from the otherside of the fence,
I write this, amid the bleachers,
Reaching for reminders of what it felt like to lead the tunnel, break the wedge, or catch a nigga slipping on the crack back block
Tho from this sport derived dreams,
Shit was a little more difficult than it seemed
Not only did every other kid in LA
want what i wanted,
but young men all across the world shared the vision,
not only that, but it seemed it could only be accompanied with a shit ton of other things:
Concussion or a surgery
Hyper Masculinity
Lack of Authenticity
Code Name for Slavery
And
Bitches looking to get drafted
For fucking the next Troy man up...
Its not always about the dream itself
But the affects it has on everything else
And the things you sacrafice to situate your self better today, for a tomorrow not guranteed
..
The field brought my peace and underneath the lights,
Now, i just find my seat,
but back in the day
boyyyy
Football was where i found my release
And it was a dream that took a while
For me to release
Cause i was one passionate ass motherfucker
For a varsity unit that went 0-40...
Not a game won,
that mattered...
And at the end of each season we gathered
Tears, beers, and cheers for the good times, right...
I never would have realized how it prepared me, for my new life...
We lost every game!
...
Which means
I know these L's all to well
To let anything else
i put my mind to, fail...
I viewed my losses
As just lessons
And i learned a lot
In a little bit of time
In order to ensure
That no set of limitations
Prevented me from
Achieving whats next for life!
I use to love playong football
Thats right
But ive moved on to my next life...