Joe was tall, strong, and athletic, and girls in the little Mississippi Delta town of Leland thought he was oh so-o-o-o handsome, but as much as he longed to, he never talked to them. He couldn’t. Around guys he did okay, but around girls, he felt shy, and when he felt shy, he stuttered.
During Joe’s high school senior year, along came a February Saturday afternoon that was perfect for football — a crisp, sunny, windless day more fitting for April, yet a day when one cloud before the sun would make it more fitting for December.
Joe and his teammates challenged their archrivals from nearby Greenville to a sandlot duel, and classmates from both towns gathered to witness the war.