Before Sunday's Super Bowl, there were formative big games back when the Seahawks and Patriots were running around on high school fields throughout the country.
Earl Thomas of the Seattle Seahawks had a lot to say at Super Bowl Media Day about the things he misses about high school football.
PHOENIX – Most memories get trumped by bigger moments, become fuzzy or fade away altogether.
Then there are those moments in life that stick.
The snapshot in the mind is still fresh. As if it happened that day. Details are vivid and can even drum up residual emotional responses, good or bad.
"Are you trying to get under my skin?" Seattle Seahawks wide receiver
Jermaine Kearse responded when asked about the biggest game he ever played in during his high school days with
Lakes (Lakewood, Wash.). "That
Skyline (Sammamish, Wash.) game (in the 2007 playoffs) still bothers me. We came into it undefeated. No. 1 vs. No. 2. They got the best of us."
Here is Kearse on the Super Bowl Media Day, fresh off grabbing an incredible touchdown catch in overtime to push the Seahawks to their second-straight Super Bowl. And yet one game from his senior year of high school still rankles him.
Clearly, Super Bowl XLIX will rank among the important games the players from the Seahawks and New England Patriots have ever taken the field for, but there was a time when the biggest game of their lives was on the prep gridiron.
For
Jimmy Garoppolo, New England's backup quarterback, it was a last-minute 46-38 win for
Rolling Meadows (Ill.) over
Prospect (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) in the 2009 Illinois regular season.
"It was a high-scoring conference game," said Garoppolo, who threw for 343 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions in the win. "It was pouring down rain. Just a great high school football game.
"High school ball is different. You grew up with those guys and you remember those moments forever."
Seattle hard-hitting safety
Earl Thomas had a soft spot for the old high school days. He didn't revel in a particular moment, but as a true Texan, he went on about the superior level of football played in the Lone Star State compared with other states when he was at
West Orange-Stark (Orange, Texas).
"I miss high school in some ways," Thomas said. "There was a period in my career where I was wondering why (the pro game) wasn't the same. There is so much politics and media that changes your perspective on everything. High school is so pure and I probably wanted to win a high school championship more than I wanted to win a Super Bowl. Maybe I can say that now because I won one, but man, the relationships you build with those guys you played with since Pop Warner is something.
"Football will never be the same as when you are playing it in high school."
Seahawks linebacker
K.J. Wright lost two games his senior year at
Olive Branch (Miss.) and both came at the hands of
South Panola (Batesville, Miss.) in 2006.
"They were ranked in the top five in the nation," Wright said. "We had them beat. That was the biggest crowd I had ever seen. I still remember that game. I was never able to beat those guys."
It just goes to show no matter how far away NFL players get away from their high school days and regardless of how successful they become, even on the league's biggest stage, there is a part of them that will never forget those early moments that shaped their progress in the game.
"They kind of hit us in our face," New England wide receiver
Julian Edelman said of a 48-29 victory for
Woodside (Calif.) over
Half Moon Bay (Calif.) on the way to a 13-0 season in 2004. "We were blowing teams out and they stood up to us. We had to dig deep and come out on top. We were able to run away with it. But it was definitely a hard-fought battle.
"Those are the type of things that you don't realize at the time, but help develop and form who you are going to become down the line."
Jason P. Skoda, a former Arizona Republic and current Prep Sports Director for 1013 Communications, is a 20-year sports writing veteran. Contact him at jskoda1024@aol.com or 480-272-2449.
