Never Back Down | The Terrance Hampton Story

[matt314hew]

Will Follow if you do this.

[Thugger Jackson]

Quote: Originally Posted by matt314hew

Will Follow if you do this.

Quote: Originally Posted by yougo1000

Following!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by footballfan4life

following.

yeah, hopefully this collab chise can go far.

[Thugger Jackson]

i just wrote a great post on his decision and then boom, os freezed, real discouraging act by OS, fix ur goddamn servers OS!!!!

[Thugger Jackson]

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.”

-Flora Whittemore


Chapter 1; Episode 1: The Decision

"You have breakfast at 8 with one of the producers and then we pickup Coach Zito, Jay and Mom around noon, you have dinner with some of the coaches and at 8 we will head to ESPNZone and then that will be our day" said my dad as he unloaded is luggage onto the hotel bed.

Coach Zito was my DB Coach. He coached my dad and Jay, my brother. He really was tough on me. He always said things like "Stop taking so many unnecessary steps" or his favorite "Stop acting like your god damn Deion Sanders, your nothing but a horny,fast kid from Philly. Focus.". He wanted me to be the greatest, he went to Penn State and was coached by the great, Joe Paterno. Zito was really old, somewhere in his 50's yet had more energy then me. He use to be a big time corner back but injuries and anger issues along with a drug addiction cost him his career. No matter how many picks, eleven to be exact, no matter how many awards I won, Hall Trophy winner, Coach Z never stopped criticizing, and that helped me become a better player.

The morning went by slow, the producers bored me, my dad had to kick me from under the table a few times to keep me awake. I was just happy to go pickup Jay from the airport, I don't know what I would do without him, he was my role model more than anything else.

Jay was my older brother, he was a year and a half older than me. He was attending Rutgers on a basketball scholarship. He use to play football but he decided to focus on basketball. Jay played corner back like me, he was really tall and pretty fast. He was the cool kid and it always felt weird always being known as "Jay's Brother". I was proud to be but I wanted to be the Hampton that everyone remembered, not Jay or my dad.

My dad, Martin Hampton. He played safety in college, he attended Pitt. He was an All-Conference All-American until a knee injury shorten his career. He tried out the NFL, but only lasted three years, recording only 16 tackles, all on special teams. He went to Overbrook like me and Jay and had an historic career, intercepting the most passes in school history, which stood for twenty three years until I broke it last year. He them became a defensive back coach for Xavier University before becoming the defensive coordinator for Overbrook. People said that the reason that he started the 5'6, 135 pound freshman was because it was hit son, I was determined to prove them wrong.

It was time for my decision. Everyone was waiting for me to tell them where I was going when in fact I didn't even know where I was going.


"I want to thank you all for coming out and supporting me. I enjoyed my recruiting experience. All the coaches did a phenomenal job of representing their school. After thoroughly thinking this through, I have decided to take my talents to .........."



To be continued...

[CTP]

looks like this will be a great story. following

[Thugger Jackson]

^^^^
Thanks.

[Thugger Jackson]

Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices
- Alfred A. Montapert

Chapter 1;Episode 2: Hi, My Name Is

"I want to thank you all for coming out and supporting me. I enjoyed my recruiting experience. All the coaches did a phenomenal job of representing their school. After thoroughly thinking this through, I have decided to take my talents to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and play for the Tides and Coach Saban" I said as I put on my Alabama hat.

The crowd went silent. Nick Saban had done it again. The guy should go into marketing or something, he made Tuscaloosa sound like heaven. Getting the chance to play with the best football team in the country was an opportunity I couldn't resist and I didn't. My mom gave me a huge grin while my dad look dazzled. Coach Zito was trying to figure things out as he constantly was scratching his head or biting his nails after I announced it. Jay was chilling as usual and eating. He acted like he didn't care but I knew he did. Why Alabama? Like I said, I want to be remembered as Terrance Hampton, not Jay's little brother, not Coach Zito's prodegy or Martin's son, I was going to remembered by my name only, second to none, first to all.

The trip back to West Philadelphia was more relaxing. My dad wanted me to go to Pitt like he did but he was still happy for me.

"Alabama, that's far" said my dad as we sat down in the gate.
'I know, you guys can come if you want too, heard Tuscaloosa is great..." I said , trying my best to sound as conceiving as Coach Saban.

"I'm good, good experience also, living by yourself. You are going to go learn responsibilities and all that and playing with the Tides will be pretty cool. You just need to focus on school and try to finish the year off on a good note, you still have four months of school left,don't forget that"

Staying focus was harder than it sounded. Everyone was asking how it felt and why did I pick Alabama, some even said that I was bought. I managed to graduate Overbrook, continue the trend, four generations of Hampton's have graduated from this school. Applying wasn't as easy as I taught it was. I still had to do the essays and all of that. I pretty much spent the last two months of school getting ready to head to 'Bama. I enrolled and got settle on Campus on August 9,2010. My parents couldn't come, my mom had to go to work and my dad had to hold a training camp for DB's like he does every summer.

"Sup man, so your my roommate?" said an Indian looking guy as I open my dorm room door.

"Yeah, Terrance Hampton, nice to meet you" I said as I went into the room

"I know who you are, everyone does, hi, my name is Clone Fanir"

[Thugger Jackson]

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.

--Bernice Johnson Reagan



Chapter 2;Episode 1: Challenges


"You gotta read before you commit son, you can't just rely on your god given abilities, yes, they are amazing, but you have to use your brain" yelled Coach Saban.

Coach shocked a lot of people when he didn't redshirt, instead he put me 4th on the depth card. I for once, was looking for some down time, some time without football. First week of practice was tough, having to tackle Mark Ingram was no piece of cake. I mostly played nickel back and special teams.

We crushed San Jose State that weeks, 58-3. I had 7 tackles, mostly on special teams and 1 forced fumble. I shutdown my man too. I got to play quite a lot especially since we were 51-3 by half time. We got a big game against Penn State coming up. Coach Zito gonna come over too and spend the week in Tuscaloosa. I had a great game, it's gonna be tough starting for coach Saban, but I'm up for it.