The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

‘Got her.’

 

Tryon Carrier would set two NCAA records when he was playing at the University of Houston, one for returning seven kickoffs for touchdowns in his career, another for catching at least two passes in 53 straight games. That’s a pretty good stretch, right?

And to think, it wasn’t supposed to happen. Carrier’s mother forbid him from playing football when he was in the third grade. For nine years, Carrier, his brother and their uncle kept his career a secret until one day she found out.

Tyron was never big, listed at 5-foot-8 in college and, as he said, “140 pounds soaking wet” when he was returning kicks or running routes across the middle or blocking linebackers maybe 100 pounds heavier.

But the lie was gigantic.

“It was just unbelievable,” Sharon said. “I was afraid for him. He had asthma — very bad asthma — and the doctor said he could have no direct contact to his chest, so I said, ‘No football.’ I didn’t want anything to happen to my baby, but after I said no, they kept doing it.”

Tyron is now West Virginia’s receivers coach, his first job as a full-time assistant. But for nine years, from his start in Pop Warner in the third grade to the dawn of his final year at Houston’s Worthing High, Tyron, McDonald and their uncle Tyron North signed permission slips, hid football equipment, covered up football games and practices and made up stories for scrapes, bruises and even casts brought about by football.

“It was the most amazing thing hiding all the games and the uniforms and stuff like that so she never knew what was going on,” North said. “But when she found out, she was pissed. She used some choice words when I was talking to her, but once she found out how we were all behind him and how long we’d had him in it, once she saw how good it was for him, she went along with it.”