Hazardous Duty — By Tommy Purser

Fifty-one yers ago, during my first season of covering Jeff Davis High School football, 260-lb. nose guard Gerald Briggs bowled me over on the sidelines at the old football field on the Baxley Highway.
For the next five decades, I avoided a repeat of such a collision.
For years, I was nimble enough to quickly sidestep such encounters. As the years caught up with me, my nimble nature faded away so I adapted — I started moving out of the way earlier. When a play was headed toward the sidelines where I was standing, I began scrambling toward the fence sooner and sooner.
Sometimes that meant I had to bull my way between players standing on the sidelines.
That worked for years as I remained elusive enough to dodge contact.
All that ended a couple of weeks ago during the high school’s scrimmage game against Clinch County. I was standing on the sidelines, camera hanging by a strap over my neck, when Jacket running back Kyrice Hunt was leading the blocking toward the sidelines when he slipped off a defender and headed straight toward me at breakneck speed. I saw him coming. Years ago, I would have simply sidestepped to safety but not this time. I saw him coming and quickly realized there were only two things I could do: close my eyes tightly and brace for the impact.
Fortunately, Kyrice looked up a split second before impact but he, too, could not sidestep the collision. So he just grabbed me by my arms — which were tightly clinched by my sides — and held on to keep me from going splattering onto my back.
I didn’t fall but, looking at the video shot from the endzone camera a few days later, I had to laugh. I saw myself standing there and, quick as a flash, I disappeared into the crowd of subs standing on the sideline.
“Are you okay?” asked Kyrice and a couple of players standing around me on the sidelines.
“I’m fine,” I lied as I resisted the urge to rub my right arm which was stinging from the impact.
Today, more than a week later, the arm still hurts.
But that collision won’t stop me. This Friday night in Sandersville I’ll be back on the sidelines once again.
But I’ll be a bit more alert.