Go Bengals

I never cared much about football. Given how crazy both my parents are for the game it is amazing that I don’t care. Perhaps it has to do with going to a college where Football was not a big thing. I think my freshman year Dickinson did VERY poorly in scoring, despite a team full of really nice guys who went on to be doctors and judges and things so much more important then football players.

So now that the super bowl is upon us, literally on right now, I am cheering for the Bengals because the only professional player ever knew played for them. Growing up in Wilton, CT the Perry family of four boys were close family friends. Scott, the eldest was the best athlete. He played football at the Kent school, where all the boys went. Prep football is not the normal breeding ground for pros. Scott went on to Williams and was a walk on there. He was a great all around athlete who I think may still hold the NESCAC record for the long jump. He was drafted by the Bengals and played pro football for five or six years. I have a feeling he was just too smart to keep playing football.

I can remember watching him play on TV with his next brother down, Mike, who went to Dickinson with me. The third brother, Brian was the brother I knew the best, as we were friends in the same class in school and were all in the same group who hung together on vacations since we went to boarding school.

I am blanking on the youngest brother’s name, who was in the same class as my sister Janet. I remember him as being the sweetest one, but that was a big contest because all the Perry boys were all very nice. They had the nicest parents around. I remember their mother Pat as always having the most calming voice, which I found astounding for a mother of four boys.

So even though Scott Perry hasn’t played for the Bengals in five decades that fact that he ever did gives me reason to cheer for them tonight.