A WALK IN THE PARK

By Roger Esty

Before the cops played the sheriffs in the annual Copper Bowl Football game and before they discontinued that game because too many lawmen were going out on permanent disabilities,the cops and sheriifs would combine their squads to play the Ghetto Messengers at Ocean View Park in Logan Heights.

Now Ocean View Park was in the heart of the Ghetto so our team(yes I was the only cracker on the team)was named appropriately. What we delivered was a message that if you came to play football in our house you were up against it. The neighborhood was nothin' to look at,but I can say in those days it a lot more safe than today. No Crips.No Bloods. No major drug dealing. No crack.No drive bys. It was the late 60's. All that sh-t was just around the corner.

We had a tough bunch. We were tough and weren't afraid to show it on the 'ol gridiron. The lawmen?Well to be honest they didn't seem so tough without their badges and guns.I never thought they were that tough with all that stuff anyway.

When you live in the hood(I didn't)it was like saying you're here in the sh-t and now we're going to show you how unhappy we are having to live here.

The cops and sheriffs would arrive and the Messengers would watch them warm up. I could see our guys licking their chops. It was a racist thing on both ends. Now it was the time to show who was the man. The playing field was leveled. The rules applied to both teams equally.

To tell the truth we never had much of a problem with them .I think they were a little scared having to meet the "Brothers" on equal terms. The badgemen seemed like they needed more deputies.

The thing about these games though is that they never finished one of them. I have to admit the Messengers were transmitting a feel of dislike for "San Diego's Finest". The Ghetto players would get more and more worked up as they saw the will drain from the other side.

The cops would start to say something like,"Hey boys aren't you hitting after the whistle?"Boom one of the Messangers would mail a right hand to Joe Friday's mouth.
"Now fellas' isn't that against the rules?"
Now a left hook. I mean those guys on our team would really get pissed to see the cops starting to get weak in the knees.

Eventually after being on the receiving end of various blows delivered by the Messengers,the Cops didn't want to play anymore. The Messengers would laugh and say that this was the only time they could hit a cop in the mouth and only get a 15 yard penalty.

Don't tell the Messengers,but I was glad that series ended. I mean I didn't live in the hood. If those cops saw me driving around in my neighborhood,I would have been a mark. But there is a little part of me that misses those games in the park. For me I had nothing to worry about.