Therman McGowan is going to meet with Santa Rosa High School officials at 1 p.m. to find out if he will be academically eligible to play for the Panthers this season. Apparently it has something to do with credit transfer. It would be a huge hit to the season if McGowan can't play. He's the premier running back in the Empire, rushing for 1,809 yards last season. More to come as I learn it.

The last concussion former Cardinal Newman star Jerry Robinson had in the NFL was his last year in the league, hit so hard he walked dazed into the Dallas Cowboys' huddle.

"What the hell are you doing here, Jerry?" Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman.

"I saw stars everywhere," Robinson said. "I saw the Dallas star and stars in my head."

It was then, Robinson said, that he knew it was time to retire after 13 years in the league.

Santa Rosa's Jerry Robinson, then with the Raiders, was hit so hard by the Redskins' Jim Lachey in 1989 that he didn't remember any of it. He had intercepted a pass, was already thinking of how he was going to celebrate in the end zone when Lachey hit him in the head. Both men missed the next three games and Robinson was told by doctors that even a mild tackle could cause serious injury, even paralysis. Robinson couldn't playing.

"Although I don't remember the exact year I was hit. I think it was 1989."

Robinson retired after the 1991 season

Three weeks before Jerry Robinson had hip replacement surgery March 19, he called his surgeon, Santa Rosa orthopedist Michael McDermott, and said he had a nightmare.

"Mark was jamming while I was on the operating table," Robinson said. "I told him he had an African mask on and he had a bone in his nose. He laughed and said maybe I should come to his office and see him. He knew I was scared of the surgery.

"As it turned out, it was one of the easiest things I went through. I'll be going back to him again. He knows I've got plenty of business for him."

That would be because of playing 13 years in the NFL the former Cardinal Newman star will need his other hip replaced as well as both of his damaged shoulders repaired.

When Larry Allen, the former SSU football player, played for the Cowboys he never had to park his car when he went to practice. Valets would park his car. And everyday they would wash and wax and vacuum it, too. Larry could leave money, checks, whatever, and never worry about it

"He said he never worried because the valet guysa knew they had the best job in the world," said Allen's friend and former SSU coach, Frank Scalercio. "Apparently Jerry Jones (Dallas owner) likes clean cars for his players."

One day Allen is going to his fourth high school in four years, Vintage in Napa, and the next thing he knows he is getting valeted on his way to practice in Dallas. I wonder, if he asked at lunch, will they feed him grapes like Cleopatra?

and I tried to think of other things to rhyme but I think I annoyed you enough already.

I'm going to blog about local sports around here which, at this time of the year, means a lot of high school football, high school soccer. But SRJC tees it up, too, and the great Levi lives here, and, it seems, every long distance runner in America. Not to mention everyone who loves Cardinal Newman and everyone who hates Cardinal Newman.

I did this once before, a couple years ago with the Warriors and the playoffs, but I fell away from it, in part because the Warriors only tease at being a serious team.

I can't predict what's going to happen next but I promise not to be a plodder. I'm a blogger and my knees are shot so I can't be a jogger and I can't sing so I can't be a warbler and...oh my...little green stuff is coming out of my ears so I'll stop now.