The
spectators in life do pretty much the same thing that the spectators do
at a football game. They watch the game and then they cheer or they
criticize, making a whole lot of noise in the process. When the team
wins, they say, “We won!” And when the team loses, they say, “They
lost.”
The
stars in life do pretty much the same thing that the stars do in a
football game. They are usually the players who get to touch the ball
at some point in the game. They score the touchdowns. They make the
big plays. We all know them, because they are the most talked about
players on the team. The stars, many people think, determine if a team
wins the game or loses the game. When the team wins, they say, “I
won!” And when the team loses, they say, “We lost.”
The
linemen in life do pretty much the same thing that the linemen do in a
football game. They are the ones that do what the spectators and the
stars are not able to do. The lineman do everything else. The
spectators make the noise. But you can play a football game without the
spectators. The stars score the points. But you can play a game
without the stars too because the linemen will figure out a way to score
the points. You see, the linemen don’t care who scores the points.
All that the linemen want to do is win. And when the team wins, they
say, “We won!” And when they lose, they say, “We lost.” I am a
lineman. Brian McCall was a lineman too.
I
once had a coach who played football before he became a Jesuit priest.
He had a different take on the creation story. It went something like
this, “…and on the seventh day the Lord rested because He knew on the eighth
day He had to create people to do the hard work, and He called them
linemen." That coach would always go on to say, “No one knows about
that because the linemen didn’t care if anyone knew about them or not,
they just cared about getting the job done.”
Unwilling
to sit in the stands and watch the game of life, Brian had to get in
the game. To become a lineman you have to be strong. So Brian started
working to make himself strong. You do not get strength. Strength is
built. It is built day after day. It takes a lot of sweat, a lot of
effort, and a lot of pain. Day after day after day. Until one day,
Brian woke up and found that he was strong. Strong enough to take the
field. He needed a team, though, so he joined the team at Bon Air Baptist Church. Brian was a lineman.
Like
all rookies, Brian made some mistakes. Like all linemen, he learned
from his mistakes. He learned from the other linemen on his team too.
That is how linemen learn. He learned what worked and he learned what
didn’t. He learned from the people who came before him. And he put what
he learned into action when he spearheaded the charge to get the James River Campus of the Bon Air Baptist Church up and running.
When
linemen find something that works for them, they not only keep doing
it, they find ways to do it better. So Brian helped to found Bridging RVA.
A local nonprofit group that helps those who need help the most. He
didn’t do that for fame. Nor for fortune. He did that because it was
the right thing to do. He did that, not because he could, Brian did
that because he should. Brian did that because that is what linemen
do. They do the grunt work, the work no one else wants to do, the work
that is required to make things happen. They do the work that is
required to win. That is what linemen do.
Work
is not the only thing a lineman does. Lineman teach too. Old linemen
show the new linemen the ropes. They test them first to see if they
have what it takes to be a lineman. And if they pass the test, the
teaching begins. The old linemen lead by example and the young linemen
follow. Brian was an old lineman when he started a recovery house to
help those young linemen who needed to be shown how it was done. How to
use the tools that God had given them to do the right thing. No matter
how hard it may be, a lineman does his job. In the trenches. In the
mud. In the heat and in the cold. In the rain and in the snow. When the
other players leave the field for a rest, the linemen remain. They
grind on. Working together to win. Because that is what linemen do.
The
brotherhood that is formed among linemen is strong. It lasts forever.
It transcends the team to include all linemen, because only another
lineman can understand the struggle of the linemen. They appreciate
each other in world where their work goes unnoticed. There is no hall
of fame for linemen. There are two reasons for that. The first is that
no self-respecting lineman would allow himself to be held above his
brothers. The second reason is that there is no building large enough to
house all of the linemen worthy of being in a hall of fame. The only
hall of fame Brian sought is the hall of fame that he is in right now.
Because that is where linemen go.
Football,
like life, involves a great deal of pain. Linemen are not judged by
how pain affects them, they are judged by how it doesn’t. They are
expected to play through pain, like Brian did. They do not do what they
want to do, they do what needs to be done. They sacrifice their bodies
for the good of the team. In the name of victory. For linemen, it is
an honor to be on the field of play. A hard fought and well-earned
privilege. An honor. And only when a lineman is faced with no other
choice, due to injury or due to ALS, will he ever leave that field. And
when he leaves that field the only thing that he will take with him is
his honor, because he will have left everything else on the field.
Because
on the eighth day God created the people to do the hard work, and He
called them linemen. Brian McCall was a lineman. His honor he took
with him. Everything else, he gave to us.
That is all.
In lieu of flowers, Brian's wish was for donations to be made to one of two memorial funds set up in his name at Bridging RVA or Bon Air Baptist Church James River Campus. These funds will be used to further advance good in our community in memory of Brian.
