Elvis' football team was called EP Enterprises. At five foot ten, I was one of the smaller guys on it. We played in public parks against other teams, sometimes comprised of people from the studios, often pick up teams. We even played at Los Angeles Valley College, which is still there, in Valley View (then Van Nuys), in the San Fernando Valley. Some members of The Entourage played football too.
I've heard it stated that other teams let Elvis and his team win a lot. Not at all! I remember playing some vicious games with Elvis and his team coming away from a game with their clothes ripped and muddy! Elvis carried extra clothes with him to change into and gave me a shirt of his to replace one of mine that was destroyed. Gary Lockwood, who had started out as a real football player was on the team. Sometimes other teams put some real football players on theirs! Maybe we weren't playing to kill but they were. Maybe we were playing for fun, but we wanted to win!
It is through playing football on Elvis' team that I met a singer I'd always admired but had never met up with before, despite the New York days when I met the Everly Brothers, or the road tour days with Buddy Knox; Rick Nelson!
No comments:
Post a Comment