TCU-Boise State -- so far, quite the sloppy, defensive time-kill till Thursday night's Big Game. Speaking of which, here's a warm-up from tomorrow's New York Times: a profile of University of Texas linebacker Sergio Kindle, who grew up in South Oak Cliff and shoulda gone to SOC but instead went to Woodrow Wilson. Why the transfer? It's a long story that begins with Kindle and brother Calvin Walker's mother abandoning the boys for drugs, leaving their father, highway inspector Johnny Walker, to raise the them. Thayer Evans picks up the story from there:
Kindle grew up in a 900-square-foot house in a crime-infested part of Dallas known as South Oak Cliff. Calvin Walker recalled routinely seeing drug raids and hearing gunshots.Update at 9:50 p.m.: Speaking of the Fiesta Bowl, Boise State's Jeron Johnson has a most interesting major, according to FOX. Jump for the screen grab.
"It's a rough neighborhood if you let it be," Kindle said. "There are things going on around you that shouldn't be happening or you wouldn't want to be happening around you." ...
When Kindle was in middle school, his house was robbed at least six times by football players at South Oak Cliff High School, Calvin Walker said. Because of those incidents, Kindle's father refused to send him to the school.