Here at With Leather, the Illinois state football playoffs are the most important thing in the world. The list goes Illinois state football playoffs, family, the economy, Kate Upton outtakes, world hunger. Rockford Boylan High was looking for a second round win against Oak Park Fenwick High en route to their third consecutive Class 7A state title, but down by seven with 10 seconds left in the game, it looked like all hope was lost. What happened next was the stuff of legends, and thankfully myself and Ashley Burns were on hand to provide commentary. At least I think that’s us. I don’t remember being in Illinois, but … well, whatever.

In a play that gives you an Al Bundy-level of high school football glory, Boylan’s Peter Cimino returned a punt 90 yards for a dramatic, come-from-behind touchdown with no time left on the clock. Boylan lined up for two and pulled off an amazing 22-21 victory. It’s every bit as great as it sounds.

All the while, the two guys calling the game went through an experience I can only describe as the MY GOD IT’S FULL OF STARS moment from 2001: A Space Odyssey in high school football form. You have never heard two more excited guys. They don’t know what to say so they just start saying sports stuff. DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES. DO YOU. DO YOU BELIEVE IN THOSE MIRACLES! YES, YES I DO BELIEVE IN THAT. BLEARGHHHH MIRACLES! It’s infectious.

My only complaint is that the 2-point conversion is a little anti-climactic. Can we teach the guy manning the JVC Slim Cam how to shoot an endzone dive in slow motion?

[via Prep Rally]

What you’re about to watch happened (allegedly) during a football game between two Kansas high schools — Dodge City and Garden City. Garden City center Mitch Morris went for a close snap instead of a shotgun snap and lobbed the ball high into the air, allowing Dodge City wide receiver and defensive back Immanuel Galloway to skirt the line, catch it on the way down and run it across an open field for an easy touchdown. It’s amazingly rare and hilarious, and should be seen.

The reason I say “allegedly” is because of a horrible lesson I learned last week when a clip of an unidentified high school player front flipping over his defender “went viral” and was actually an undercover AT&T commercial. The way new media works, I’m afraid to post ANYTHING. If Yao Ming goes golfing and his swing looks bad, there’s a 40% chance he’s doing it for Verizon. It’s terrible. So please watch and enjoy the clip, but keep in mind that a cell phone company or wireless carrier could’ve funded two phony “Kansas” high schools (how are we supposed to fact check that?), orchestrated an entire football game and relied on the best clips to get it spread around by jerks like me.

Also, stick to the stuff immediately after the 2:13 mark, because the rest of the video is full of the worst music. The worst licensed music.

Read the rest of this entry »

Following in the footsteps of the 8th grader who kicked a 63-yard field goal in practice and a high-schooler connecting from 67 yards out in a game is this clip of a Florida teen punting a football as well as you’ll ever see it punted. Somebody should sign all of them and put them into a weird teenage football-kicking Legion Of Doom. (via Bush League Chronicle)

- Follow us on Twitter @withleather
- Follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and Burnsy @MayorBurnsy
- Like us on Facebook.

Links

‘Zombie Dad’ Is Today’s Halloween Thing You Should Know About |UPROXX|

Tracy Morgan Blames Mitt Romney For Hurricane Sandy |UPROXX|

NBC’s Midseason Schedule Changes A Reminder Of Why NBC Is Terrible |Warming Glow|

Rumors of Daniel Day-Lewis’s method acting have been scarcely exaggerated |Film Drunk|

Introducing The Guest Ring Girls For UFC On Fuel 6: Franklin Vs. Le |With Leather|

Four Recently Discovered Planets That Are Ideal Horror Movie Settings |Gamma Squad|

Mannie Fresh Revisits The Hot Boys’ “Get It How U Live” 15 Years Later |Smoking Section|

Here Is An Awkward One-Minute Interview With Patrick Willis |Kissing Suzy Kolber|

Read the rest of this entry »

This clip, courtesy of Cameron Smith over at Prep Rally, features a high school running back getting flipped, landing on his feet and running it on for a touchdown. It’s an amazing play, but it also makes our Internet-dar go WOOP WOOP WOOP, so here’s a quick rundown of why it could be real, and why it probably isn’t.

It’s real! It’s not such a stretch. We’ve seen something similar happen on a professional level, so if you take the athleticism of one player and pit it against the helpless high school play of everybody else, it could happen all the time. One guy who’s kinda good at gymnastics can set the curve for everybody. Plus, I wouldn’t want to think that guy grunting REYEAHH TOUCHDOWN, DARS TOUCHDOWNNN at the end is lying to me.

It’s fake! Come on, really? The play looks all well and good, but look at everyone else on the field. They look like extras playing “football guys” in a Beyonce-themed play on ‘Glee’. People just aimlessly block and move out of view and fall down aimlessly so we don’t miss anything. To add to the mystery, nobody can identify the players or the teams on the field. It could be because they’re terrible football players, but … yeah, it’s not on the level.

Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

There are a lot of factors at play when I’m deciding what to write about — whether or not the story will bring in traffic, whether or not I can approach the story with a unique perspective — but no modifier gives a story a bigger push onto With Leather than “Brandon couldn’t do this if you gave him 10,000 tries”. Enter: the bounce pass to hail mary.

The football bounce pass is among the rarest of the trick plays, and it was pulled off with peak accuracy by Fort Lauderdale Westminster Academy on the first play from scrimmage in their victory over Coral Springs Charter. It was a special play designed for Senior Night, and the only way it would’ve been better is if they’d brought brooms on to the field and curled that shit into the end zone.

Here’s a rundown of the play, courtesy of Prep Rally:

Traditional Westminster running back Spencer Saliba lined up as the team’s quarterback, taking a snap in the shotgun. As soon as Saliba got the ball from center he turned and fired a one-bounce pass that traveled directly to the team’s usual quarterback, Ray Sharp, who had lined up as one of the team’s receivers in a four-wide set to the left.

Sharp took his time with the ball, buying additional time for his receivers to break downfield. Then he unloaded a deep ball that traveled directly to wide out Andrew James, who began the play as a tight end on the right side of the team’s formation, then broke across the field deep.

From there, it was over-excited touchdown city for Westminster, all while Coral Springs Charter tried to figure out what had just happened.

Not in 100,000 tries. I’m pretty sure that if I tried to bounce pass a football it’d just hit the ground and stay there. I can barely bounce pass a basketball.

Well done, Fort Lauderdale Westminster. Now let’s see you put the ball under your shirt and tip-toe by the defenders like nothing’s happening.

Step aside, 63-yard field goal kicking 8th-grader, there’s a new sheriff in town.

Without the aid of a practice environment, kicking tee, unmarked field or anything else that would’ve made you nitpick a 13-year old’s accomplishment comes this clip of Central Valley High School kicker Austin Rehkow sending Thursday’s game against Shadle Park High into overtime with a massive 67 yard field goal. Watch in amazement as he drains it from his own 43 yard line.

Beer Mug Sports helped fill us in on Austin’s kick’s two biggest statistical honors:

ESPN’s SportsCenter recognized the kick with the No. 2 spot on Thursday night’s Top 10 plays, only to be outdone by Prince Fielder catching a pop-up to seal the ALCS for the Tigers at No. 1.

According to The National Federation of High Schools Record Book, Rehkow’s kick is tied for the second-longest high school field goal of all-time. Dirk Borgognone of Reno, Nev., holds the record with a 68-yard field goal in 1985. Two other kickers connected on 67-yard field goals in the past. One from Georgia in 1999 and another from Texas in 1987.

His third biggest achievement is making that referee do the Rockaway.