I have watched the proceedings of this year's world cup and read many of the blogs on Scorum about this event that I knew so little about, and I still don't know a lot about it. But I have determined that Soccer games and The World Cup are a lot like raccoon hunting in Alabama, let me explain.
When I was a young man I used to do a lot of raccoon hunting (just plain "coon hunting" for you locals) with my best hunting buddies. We had the finest coon dog in the State of Alabama, probably the best in the entire Country although we never got the chance to let Smoky prove himself in one of those fancy National coon hunts that we read about in magazines. The thing is that we all thought that Smoky was the best coon dog that ever lived, and though he has been gone for years now we all reverence that dog and tell of his great exploits to this day.
There was the time that an ole he-coon let Smoky chase him out onto a narrow ledge on a high bluff. When Smokey let us know that he was in trouble (coon dogs talk to their owners with different barking notes if you didn't already know) we immediately went to where he was and found him out on that narrow dead-end ledge. The only way for Smokey get back to safety was back the way that he had come. There was a small tree growing at the end of that ledge, the darndest thing you've ever seen. It came right out of that rocky wall then grew straight up, and that coon had climbed the tree and gotten away leaving Smokey in that terrible predicament. My friend Roy Dale, Smokey's master, said to everyone "Y'all be quiet and don't shine your lights in his eyes, I'm going to try and talk him down." Now mind you we were looking up at this poor feller from about fifty foot below, and I had to wonder how Dale was going to manage to get him to back up because there sure wasn't enough room on that ledge for him to turn around. Imagine the bravery of that dog to follow that mean varmint out there in the first place, how could he have known that the coon had an escape route.
Well, I shouldn't have wondered about Dale and that dog because as soon as everything quieted down he started talking to Smoky in a normal everyday voice. "Alright Smokey boy, I want you to start walking straight backward one foot at a time, make sure your foot is on solid ground before you put any weight on it." Now wait a minute, I thought, dogs can't understand more than a few commands and there is no way that Smokey understood what Dale just said. But directly I saw Smoky's back paw take a delicate step backward, then a front paw then the other back paw. It was just like that, one paw moving at a time all the way back off of that ledge. Now I don't know if the dog understood the command, or if he just read Dale's mind and knew what he wanted him to do. Whichever the case, Smokey made it to safety and the chase was back on!
Soccer is a lot like coon hunting to me because everyone seems to have their favorite coon dog. Or in this case, a favorite soccer player. I've heard people talk about this feller Messi just like we used to talk about ole Smokey, Messi might never have chased a coon out on a narrow ledge on a bluff in the middle of the night, but he has chased those soccer balls into some tight corners and he was able to work his way out and continue the hunt for that big prize that their going to give out at the end of this FIFA hunt. I bet you have your own coon dog soccer player that you would match up against any other coon dog soccer player in this FIFA World Cup Tournament don't you?
That night we continued the chase and finally caught up with that rascally raccoon about two hours later and over a mile away on the other side of the mountain. Have you ever climbed a steep slope covered with underbrush and teaming with timber rattlers in the middle of the night? When I think about it now it makes me wonder if I should tell people about this story at all, I'm sure you're probably wondering just how stupid I am about now lol.
The beauty and art of coon hunting, is listening to the chase. The dog's voice and the speed of his barks change from the low guttural "roooolf" at the start of the race and culminates in a fast choppy bark at the end. When the coon finally gets worn down and the dog is hot on his trail he will go up a tree to rest and get himself out of reach of the dog. When this happens a good coon dog will mark the tree the coon climbed and then check every tree in the area to see if he went from limb to limb and came down another tree to fool the dogs. So at the end, we could hear Smokey circling the trees to make sure that coon was still up in the same one he initially climbed. Once he was sure he had that coon treed then he set down at the base of that tree and started a higher pitched steady cadence of rolllllf, rollllf, rolllf, and he would keep that up until we got to the tree.
So I hope that you can see how coon hunting is a lot like a soccer game. The cadence starts out slow at first as the players on the field start to feel each other out and test for weaknesses, then as the chase goes on the players begin to pick up the pace, each trying to outsmart the other and go home with a win. Late in the game when one of the teams has the lead they will quicken the pace and bear down on their opponent to try and end the race with a victory. In the end, either the dog wins by treeing the coon or the coon wins and walks away with his skin. In soccer either the favored team wins by wearing down their opponent and running him up a tree, or the underdog raccoon team wins and lives to play another day.
For this story, the hunt ended in a tie! That was one smart coon and he gave us all a heck of a chase. His move on that ledge earned all of our respect including Smoky. But you have to give it to that dog, even after having a near death experience chasing that wise trickster, he stayed on the trail and ended the night with a win of his own.
Sometimes a match will end in a tie, it is in those moments that the players and fans alike should tip their hats to the other team and say, great game, it was a good chase and maybe we'll get to do it again someday. We shouted up that big old hardwood tree and told that coon that he led a good chase and we were going to let him go back to his kin and tell them about the great game that he was involved in on this humid Alabama night.
Isn't this just like the fans of a soccer match that ended in a tie? As for us, we made the long walk back to our truck not being completely satisfied, but not being disappointed either. That was a special night of hunting for us, and I'm sure that those were special soccer games that have already been played this year, each going down in history as a story that can be told over and over.
One day you will find yourself sitting around your man cave with friends talking about FIFA's past. When you do I hope that you will remember this story and how much World class soccer games, and Alabama coon hunting have in common.
For those of you that have never heard of Jerry Clower here is a master storyteller with one of his many coon hunting stories.
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