High five
Aug 10, 2007 Amobi Okoye is 20, Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Jon Abbate, Preseason 2007, Super Mario, The Schaub Experiment, Undrafted Free Agent watch list
Sure, it’s only preseason. Sure, we’ll only get to see The Schaub, Batman, Manchild, and Super Mario for a few plays. But it’s football. Texans football. So… like I said… GAME ON!
One player I am curious to see tonight is Jon Abbate. The story is well-documented–Abbate, a linebacker at Wake Forest, left school early to enter the draft, but tore a hamstring at the combine (and was considered too short to boot), so he went undrafted. Abbate signed as with Houston, still planning on making the team as a linebacker. However, when Jameel Cook’s knee injury was slow to heal, Abbate was asked to make the switch to fullback, a position he hadn’t played since high school.
With that kind of attitude, it’s easy to get behind Abbate. And Jon invites all Texans fans to get behind something even more special.
As he has done in every game for the past year, Abbate plans to begin the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Houston Texans-Chicago Bears preseason game by holding up five fingers. Wherever football takes him, it’s still about remembering his younger brother, Luke. It has been that way since Valentine’s Day 2006, when he died in an automobile accident on his way home from lacrosse practice. He was only 15.
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[Texans fans], too, are invited to join in, should they choose.‘I hope they do,’ Abbate said. ‘We’ll see what happens. This is definitely a community like Winston-Salem. It could carry over. I hope it does. If not, I understand. My family and I will do it until my career is over with.’
While I won’t be at tonight’s game, I want to echo Stephanie. Please hold up five fingers at the start of the fourth quarter. Hopefully, the people around you will do the same and something pretty cool will happen at Reliant Stadium tonight.
(You know… in addition to beating the Flying Grossmen.)
Oh, here’s the YouTube video detailing the whole Abbate story.
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August 11th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Too bad #45 wasn’t still available.
GO TEXANS!!!
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August 11th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Maybe we can list him as 3rd string QB so he can have #5.