The Drive: ...was literally 7 hours from Roanoke into northeastern Pennsylvania’s coal country. It came with some expected things—like construction on I-81, and summer thunderstorms. And one—truly unexpected one—and Emu, crossing I-81. Clearly he’d gotten out of some kind of pen and was rambling towards another field north of Harrisonburg Virginia. Or I am in need of a serious psychological exam. One of the two.

  The Fairway:  Tamaqua is in the anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania. It’s filled with tough blue collar people and a fierce loyalty that always translates to great support for their athletic teams. Maybe that helped make me a good fit for commencement speaker. I was a decorated athlete there, and let’s face it. It’s been my lifelong business. Regardless, what I brought to the table was an unorthodox graduation speech, for certain. As I told them from the jump, a guy who says things like “my house, my remote control.” when I call highlights in sportscasts will not be bringing you a snoozer. Heaven help them all.

The Green: I gave them sports stories from my career which involved famous people and athletes( to keep them listening) and all held a moral or point they could take with them later in life. From Emmitt Smith’s tireless encouragement of his offensive line back in high school-which I equate to our family and friends, to Magic Johnson’s grace and dignity in the face of defeat, to why it might not be a wise thing to follow the masses behind a famous individual like MC Hammer, to Joe Paterno’s ability to stick to his guns in the face of the harshest criticism imaginable—I tried to weave my sports career into a life lesson.  Then I used my high school girlfriend’s group of brothers(one had a daughter graduating) as an example of how to look after your loved ones. Fair to say I’ve seen and heard enough on the scanners in my two decades doing this to know our wives, daughters, girlfriends, sisters…are taking the brunt of the ugly stuff out there. It’s time we all started acting a little more old school, and look out for one another, and protect our own. That was my point, anyway.

The Jar: It was a great honor to be asked to do this, and one I didn’t take lightly. They had a tougher than normal year there. They lost one senior to a car accident and another battled through cancer treatment to make the graduation. It was not the easiest year for the Blue Raiders, but they also had a stellar sports year as well. Congrats to the class of 2009. I’m including a link to an article on the graduation from the local paper. 
http://www.tnonline.com/node/449043