Catching up with Kehl Vol. VII

This has been a rather crazy week!!  I tore some ligaments in my foot in last week’s game against the Steelers and so I haven’t had a ton of time for my weekly entry. The last couple days have been complete with X-Rays, MRIs, Doctor visits and much treatment in the team training room.  I included a picture of the play I was hurt on and as you can see I’m very fortunate and VERY grateful I wasn’t injured worse.  I should add - it is making great progress, and it looks as though I’ll be able to play this in this week’s big divisional rivalry game against ‘Americas Team’ - the Cowboys.  Anyway, I decided it would be both easier for me and a good time to reply to some of the questions and comments that have been asked in the comments section of Quinn’s blog:

Adam, on September 17th, 2008 at 9:56 am Said:
Quinn- this is awesome stuff. Thanks for getting Bryan to do this. And tell him we could have used a few more sacks out of him last year.

Adam, I couldn’t agree with you more!!! One of my greatest frustrations was in regards to pressure on the quarterback - and I would bug our coaches almost weekly that they should blitz me more.  But, it was to no avail…my lot was primarily to help in pass coverage, and so that’s what I dutifully did.  In an average game of 65 defensive snaps I usually rushed the quarterback on only about 10 of those (I would keep track) - how I would have loved to have been able to rush 35, 45, or 55 times!! (Obviously, not all 65 of those were passing plays - but in our conference, the majority were)

West, on September 24th, 2008 at 6:25 pm Said:
Oh so so sad! But now I gotta know what you sang, if they wouldn’t let you sing the fight song. What did you sing Kehl? What did you sing?! We gotta know.

This was given in response to my telling of how rookies are forced to stand and sing before meetings, repeatedly, while at training camp.  Anyway, I had to sing several times, and although the easy choice would be something along the lines of “Choose the Right” or “Popcorn popping on the Apricot Tree” I instead went with pop culture - here are the songs I can recall: Alicia Keys “If I aint got you”, The Temptations “Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch”, Boys II Men “I’ll make love to you” (probably the funniest of them all, due to the title of the song and the frightening fact that Jon Goff, the other rookie linebacker, and I sang it together…like a duet - oh, the pain!!)

bagotricks, on October 1st, 2008 at 10:10 am Said:
Kehl,

Thanks for taking the time to write a little for all of us who drink heavily from what you stand for.
I don’t want to sound preachy myself, but how do you make it to church? Are you able to have a calling with your nfl schedule?
I’m not around what you are, and I think for all of us keeping ourselves in the path of light and growth can be difficult at times. What do you do to keep your spirit strong?

Honestly, and perhaps to some very visibly, that is the hardest part about playing this level of football.  I already wrote about why I play the game, and why I chose to keep playing at this level - so check out those entries for more on that subject.  As for making it to church - doesn’t happen near as much as I’d like to.  I was able to go every week until the season started - but since there’s only been 3 times that I got to go.  However, coming up we do have some primetime games, so I am looking forward to those days as I should be able to slip away and attend in the morning.  I currently don’t have a calling, but I told the missionaries on Monday that if they don’t call me to go out teaching with them I will be ticked!!  My weekends are very busy, but my weeknights after work are pretty free.  In order to keep my spirit strong I try to stay away from the bad parts of the NFL and some of its players, and stay close to the good.  The team chaplain holds a bible study every Wednesday after practice and meetings that I attend, and we also have a devotional type meeting called “Chapel” every Saturday night in the hotel wherein either the chaplain or someone he invites gives a message (these can be both very odd and boring or very spiritual and very motivating).  Also, I told our community events coordinator to schedule me for every service opportunity they are involved with, and so that is always a nice chance to both give back and consequently be filled as most weeks we have a service event of some kind.  At any rate, in my time out here in the treacherous work-place I have found added support for my long-held belief that to ‘stay strong’ - “Search, Ponder, and Pray” works pretty well.  Don’t get me wrong - it is very hard, I feel very alone (only LDS player on the team), and, like I said, I question whether it’s worth it many days.  But, at the end of the day - all we can do is ‘fight the good fight’.