Football challenge rallies inmates

By Michael Dobie | Staff Correspondent

July 18, 2004

ANGOLA, La. - The receiver was a silver-and-black blur as he sped down the sideline, but the ball landed just out of reach.

"Come on, Willie, you got to straighten the route up," a fan shouted. "Straighten the route up, you'd still be running."

A few plays later, Willie flashed across the middle and reached for a pass when a red-clad cornerback flattened him like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon. The far sideline roiled in celebration as the cornerback flapped his arms and talked trash.

"We live for this! We live for this!" said Maurice Harbor, one of the inmate fans. "A jail without football would be uncivilized."

Chances are no prison has more football than Angola. It is one of the few prisons in America that still plays tackle football. Its six teams have a 10-game schedule culminating in the aptly named Crunch Bowl. The winner goes on to the Super Crunch Bowl against another Louisiana prison. This game was between the two best teams in Angola -- the silver-and-black Raiders from the Main Prison East Yard and the Camp C Buccaneers. Several hundred inmates, as well as warden Burl Cain, crowded both sidelines.

The Raiders are perennial champs. The Buccaneers were the last team to defeat the Raiders in the Crunch Bowl, and they took a 4-0 lead on two safeties.

"All week, it's a buildup," Angola recreation supervisor Gary Frank said. "This game here's been building all year."

Most of the inmates played high school ball. Some have played in Angola for 20 years and are long past 40. They work during the day, then practice three hours in the evening seven days a week. Coaches and officials are inmates, too.

The Raiders completed a fly pattern -- Willie straightened the route up -- for a 6-4 halftime lead. Instead of retreating to locker rooms, the teams gathered at midfield to socialize and smoke cigarettes. Many grew up in the same neighborhoods, went to the same high schools, played sports together on the outside. Some have competed against each other for years in Angola.

Camp C scored a touchdown early in the third quarter to go ahead, 10-6. The Raiders returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, but it was called back on a penalty. The argument that followed was fierce but futile. The call stood. The game continued, then stopped abruptly so officers could conduct morning count.

The players picked up where they left off, with solid play and outstanding hitting. The harder the hit, the louder the sidelines. The Raiders' side exploded when they threw a touchdown pass for a 12-10 lead with less than two minutes to play.

"You dawgs can't win, can't win, that's all, you can't win," one Raider said as he danced along the Camp C sideline.

Emotions intensified. Trash talking lasted from one snap to the next.

"Raiders on the flags, Raiders on the chains, that's ridiculous!" Camp C coach Reginald Watts yelled after a first down. "You gonna move those chains?"

They did, but time ran out. The Raiders won again. Across the field, they held helmets high and began chanting: "I refuse ... to let up ... this is our house."

Suddenly, the tension dissipated. The players exchanged hugs and handshakes and headed back to their units.

"It hurts to lose games like this, I hate to lose games like this, but we're going to meet them again," said Robert Grant, 35, a Camp C running back with a patch over his left eye. "They don't think they can be beat, but we let them get away this time."

For Jeffrey Lewis, 43, a Raiders linebacker, the comeback win was a reflection of life.

"People got to understand the principles of faith: Faith is not at the beginning of the storm, nor at the end of the storm. Faith is in the middle of the storm," Lewis said. "No matter what adversity we may encounter or what we may come against, we can overcome it."

Lewis, grinning with every word, has played all but one of the 20 years he has been here.

"Right now, it's a good feeling," he said.

He has 60 years left on his sentence.

Ten minutes after the game ended, the field was empty. The inmates were back in their dorm for count.