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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/s...s-river-towns-a-flow-of-nfl-talent.html?_r=1&
The presence of Baltimore safety Ed Reed and the receiver/return specialist Jacoby Jones will provide a 16th consecutive Super Bowl with players from the region. They have hailed from the river towns, cypress swamps, bayous, sugar cane fields and crawfish ponds near Interstate 10 as it follows the Mississippi up from New Orleans to Baton Rouge and then ribbons westward toward Lafayette in the Cajun country.
As the 2012 N.F.L. season opened, Louisiana had 61 players in the league — more per capita than any state (though slightly fewer than Washington, D.C.) for the fourth consecutive year, according to USA Football, the national governing body. In settings both urban and rural along the I-10 corridor, football fits seamlessly into an outdoor culture that takes its fun seriously, be it sports, cooking, imbibing, hunting or fishing.
“We’ve got kids who can play on the offensive line and put together a motor on a boat blindfolded,” said John Lambert, an assistant at Hahnville High who grew up in West Virginia and sometimes wonders to himself, “Did I just really yell, ‘Leave the alligator alone?’ ” Some of these programs, even the cheerleaders run 4.4,” said Frank Monica, the coach at St. Charles Catholic, which won the Louisiana Class AAA title in 2011.
Corey Webster, a Giants cornerback, played at St. James High. As the quarterback in a no-huddle offense, Webster baffled defenses by calling plays at the line of scrimmage in French, even if his best friend, a running back, usually needed a translation.
“He would stand next to me and say, ‘Give it to me in English; I ain’t got that French,’ ” Webster said, laughing, in a telephone interview.
The presence of Baltimore safety Ed Reed and the receiver/return specialist Jacoby Jones will provide a 16th consecutive Super Bowl with players from the region. They have hailed from the river towns, cypress swamps, bayous, sugar cane fields and crawfish ponds near Interstate 10 as it follows the Mississippi up from New Orleans to Baton Rouge and then ribbons westward toward Lafayette in the Cajun country.
As the 2012 N.F.L. season opened, Louisiana had 61 players in the league — more per capita than any state (though slightly fewer than Washington, D.C.) for the fourth consecutive year, according to USA Football, the national governing body. In settings both urban and rural along the I-10 corridor, football fits seamlessly into an outdoor culture that takes its fun seriously, be it sports, cooking, imbibing, hunting or fishing.
“We’ve got kids who can play on the offensive line and put together a motor on a boat blindfolded,” said John Lambert, an assistant at Hahnville High who grew up in West Virginia and sometimes wonders to himself, “Did I just really yell, ‘Leave the alligator alone?’ ” Some of these programs, even the cheerleaders run 4.4,” said Frank Monica, the coach at St. Charles Catholic, which won the Louisiana Class AAA title in 2011.
Corey Webster, a Giants cornerback, played at St. James High. As the quarterback in a no-huddle offense, Webster baffled defenses by calling plays at the line of scrimmage in French, even if his best friend, a running back, usually needed a translation.
“He would stand next to me and say, ‘Give it to me in English; I ain’t got that French,’ ” Webster said, laughing, in a telephone interview.
