Opinion: The Football Team Knows What You Think

By Sean Michael Perry, Forum Staff Writer

When you think of Franklin Falcons Football — if you even think of us — what do you think of?

“Oh, those guys suck,” is unfortunately the answer I get from a lot of students at Franklin. Teenagers infamously have no filter.

Not to worry, though. The Falcons are used to that. We’ve been hearing that since the team’s inception. With winning seasons that can be counted on one hand and sixty years of irrelevance in the New Orleans high school football world, we’ve forever been the underdogs.

But to quote our Lineman Coach, Coach Crawford: “That’s our fuel.” We know what the world thinks of us.

It’s impossible not to know when the three responses I hear when someone finds out I play football are:

“For THAT team?”

“Dude, you're going to get destroyed.”

“When are you guys finally going to win?”

However, I challenge you to look deeper into Franklin Football. We’re not all demoralizing records, double digit losses, and mistakes.

Behind this team everyone seems to love trolling is a resiliency that can only be praised. We know we are not the best team in the LHSAA. We know we are flawed. But that doesn’t stop us from giving our all at practice and working day in and day out to improve each and every week.

It feels like at least three players get injured every game. Whether they’re out for a single snap or three weeks, our morale is weakened. But we push forward as best as we can and continue working even when our team is faced with adversity. Being a Falcon means adversity is no stranger to you.

We had a tough season with losses that we can’t forget. The key is not to have a short memory and move on to the next game. Instead, it’s to remember each game and learn from your mistakes primarily and your success secondly.

This team may not have the world’s greatest players, but we certainly have players that give it their all. Sure, we suffer from injuries, execution issues on the playcalling, and morale issues, but this does not keep us from going on to the next game. It’s our job to learn and move on. As much as we want to change the narrative of Franklin Football, we understand that we have to earn it. People will only start to acknowledge us as a team with serious potential when we finally live up to the potential that we have.

And beyond the problems we have faced this season, we are miles ahead of where we were last year. With the addition of three new coaches (Coach Rob, our Lineman Coach; Coach Paddy, our Defensive Coordinator; Coach Maurice, who works with all of the skills positions), we are ahead and much more focused than we were last year.

Although success was hard to come by this year, we didn’t stand by without taking action. We earned everything we got, and we only planned on earning victory.

So I ask the doubters and the haters: are you ready to get with us, or get left behind?

When this team shows everyone who we really are, everyone will see just how special this team is. We are the Falcons! We are the Ones! Acknowledge us!

Signing off,

Sean Michael Perry