Tough Guys

Watching a Trojan player writhe on the ground in a full-on temper tantrum, Rhonda Miller -- mother of Casey -- says she's surprised there aren't more of these. "Yeah, I mean, they're little, they're supposed to act like this. Tired, it's early. He probably didn't have much breakfast.

"I don't know if [losing] matters at this point...the only way they know if it matters is if the adults, the parents make a big deal about it and the coaches and see, ours are oblivious to the fact that they lost."

The Millers have recently returned from an eight-year stint working for Halliburton in Indonesia, where Casey tried soccer and played rugby for a while. But it's always been football for her sons, American football.

"It is OUR sport," she says. "That no one else can do. And it was such a big deal for them to come home and play American football. And I honestly think that's why we're here more than anything, is because my boys are so patriotic. When we were overseas, they would just make you cry. They would introduce themselves to you and they would say, 'My name is Sam Miller and I'm an American.'

"I don't want a superstar," she continues. "I just want him to have fun and to be a little boy and to be an American little boy; for us, being out for eight years, this is a big deal. This is what they were doing while we were in Indonesia, and now he gets to do it and it's really cool."

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Why is it so cool? Why is it such a big deal? Particularly in Texas, where it's such a big deal they've written books about it, made a movie about it and now, a weekly TV show?

"Well, you know, I think a lot of it is just the nature of Texas," Bissinger reflects. "You know it's a macho state. It takes a lot of pride in its ability to be rough and tough and Texas has more small, isolated towns than any other state in the country with the exception of Alaska, which doesn't count. And you know, based on my research, since the early 1900s football was the glue that kept these places together. This really was the only show in town on a Friday night.

"Texans are about honor, they're about courage, they're about toughness, they're about independence and they're about durability and football plays into all of that, and Texas is also into violence and there's no more violent game in America than football."

Football director Murphy Graham says they're not training kids to go on and play in the NFL or get Division 1 scholarships.

"The purpose of the league is that we believe there are things you can learn playing tackle football," he says emphatically. "You can learn them in other sports, it's just not as simple. Things like teamwork, like persistence, like setting a goal, putting a team in front of your own immediate interests, respect, discipline, courage. You know when you first start playing football and there's some bigger, stronger kid you have to tackle in a drill, and you don't really realize the protection the equipment gives you. Man, it takes guts to step up there and do that. And you know, that does something to a young man. It gives you true self-esteem which comes from, you know, making yourself to do something that is difficult. Rather than somebody telling you that you're good.

"I get moms who tell me that their kids start making their beds, their grades are improving, they're saying 'yes ma'am' and 'no ma'am'. You know, I think it's a really important thing. My dad starting coaching in 1967, he coached for 18 years and he's got grown men that seek him out and want to talk to him. I mean, it's a really special thing. I feel like we're on a holy mission. I take it really serious."

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This year the Trojans have lucked out. There are no ranting parents and Coach Beavers is a homework-first kind of coach. If you don't have your homework finished, you can't practice.

Rhonda Miller says when it's done like this and you make it fun and you make them want to come back again next year, it's great.

"I heard about parents acting out of line but to see it to that level (at the Longhorn game) was shocking. I shook for hours after that game. Because I've never seen...I didn't think parents talked to their children that way -- and other children.