. . . helps the medicine go down. Or so it was for the Shreveport Pride this weekend, who faced a tough Tulsa Talon football squad. In the third quarter, Coach Peterson pulled backup QB [player]Roman Grigg[/player], putting in 2nd year, 3rd stringer [player]Bernie Weatherspoon[/player]. Down by 4 points, the young QB out of Vandy made some mistakes, but looked like he might be a threat to Grigg's backup duties, if not [player]Douglas Hartman[/player]'s starting role next year.

On his first play from scrimmage, Weatherspoon connected with a [player]Perry Stropka[/player] for a 21 yard touchdown pass. Weatherspoon stood with poise in the pocket in his next series delivering a 13 yard pass to [player]Mack Ramirez[/player] on third and 10, leading to a Blume field goal bringing the game within 1-point.

On his next series, he led the Pride 43 yards from their own 4 before a checkdown pass on 3rd and 7 brought out [player]Larry Gandy[/player] to punt for the Pride. The following series showed some of his inexperience as he held the ball too long and ended up getting sacked twice. Out of timeouts, the Pride's defense was unable to stop the clock and the Pride ended up losing 21-20 on the road.

However, Weatherspoon had an impressive stat line completing 7 out of 9 passes for 96 yards and a TD. More importantly, Coach Peterson will reflect, "he didn't throw any interceptions, which is integral in our ball control offense."

Next week, in a game that means nothing at Memphis, perhaps enough Pride fans will make it to Tennessee to see if their favorite youngster gets to play. And if they do, will they shout out the battle cry that followed him from high school into college . . .

SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

_________________

Deep South Division Champions
2006, 2009-10, 2019, 2023-24, 2027, 2031-32, 2034-35, 2040, 2044, 2046-47, 2051-53, 2055-56, 2058-62
Eastern Conference Champions
2009, 2031, 2055
CFL Champions
2031, 2055
Hall of Fame
Joshua Mask, Douglas Hartman, Carl Bradford, Leland Wellins, Wally Wooden (#80), Brantley Gilmore (#9), Mo Kirwan, Josh Stanton, Efrain Tate