Saints CB Keenan Lewis will have a reunion
NEW ORLEANS We can only imagine how much trash talking went on this week between Miami Dolphins wide receiver Mike Wallace and New Orleans cornerback Keenan Lewis.
"We've been talking about this day since the day we signed, since March 12," Wallace said of the Monday Night showdown between the Dolphins and Saints.
Wallace, Lewis, and Kansas City safety Kendrick Lewis grew up together in New Orleans. They talk five days a week. They're the best of friends.
"We're all brothers," Kendrick Lewis said. "We're not just friends."
And they love to talk trash.
When the undefeated Dolphins (3 0) visit the undefeated Saints (3 0) in their nationally televised battle, Wallace and Keenan Lewis, teammates and roommates with the Pittsburgh Steelers, will line up directly across from each other for the first time in the NFL.
Expect the Super cheap jerseys Bowl of Yapping.
"This is a guy who talked the whole summer," Keenan said of Wallace. "Trash talked about how he was going to do this and that."
This should be really good, both the matchup and the sideshow.
"Keenan is a big talker," Kendrick Lewis said. "I tell you this: Don't put your TV on mute when these guys play because they're going to be going at it. I promise you; I can bet you wholesale jerseys that. They're going to be talking trash."
Wallace and Keenan Lewis have known each since they were five years old. Kendrick Lewis came into the picture when he joined the other two at O. Perry Walker High School in New Orleans.
"When I first got to Walker, that was before I even knew any one of those guys, the first day I got there Keenan was talking trash to me," Kendrick said.
"I came in as a quarterback. He was talking trash, talking about, 'Who you with? Where you from? I'm gonna knock your head off! Watch, when we put on pads in camp I'm gonna knock you out!' To this day we still laugh about those moments we had."
Wallace, Keenan Lewis and Kendrick Lewis are high profile success stories from their high school, but their entire community is a success story.
O. Perry Walker is an inner city school whose fortunes were turned when Frank Wilson became coach in 2000. Wilson, currently running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Louisiana State University, recognized he was blessed with a load of talent but he needed to harness it and get it focused.
Discipline became a requirement, not a suggestion. Wilson required his players to wear a shirt and tie on game day. Eventually it became their every day attire. Players had to attend study hall.
"Then after we started having success it gave the boys a reason to believe, it gave them self pride and let them have some dignity about themselves," he said.
As the winning started they lost a state title in 2002 the team GPA rose from 1.5 to 2.5.
All the while they were churning out Division I prospects and becoming one of the top programs in talent rich Southern Louisiana. Wilson produced 22 Division I signees in three years as head coach, 11 in 2002.
Eventually the entire school became part of the movement, switching to uniforms, shirt and tie for the boys, skirts for the girls.
The turnaround gained national attention. The ABC news program "Nightline" featured O. Perry Walker in a story about rebuilding inner city schools.
"The irony of it is although we did so much of that from a football standpoint we had kids that went on to the military, went on to trade school," Wilson said, "and all of this, it changed the culture of the community, not just the school."
Initially, Wallace was on the periphery of this magical about face. Even though many of his closest friends played football, he didn't play. The idea didn't appeal to him. But his speed was legendary.
On the night before games many of the O. Perry Walker players would stay at Wilson's house, and one of the things they did was challenge each other to footraces in the street.
"So a young Mike Wallace would beat all of these kids in running," Wilson said, "including Buster Davis who was a first round pick cheap nfl jerseys by San Diego from LSU, and Milton Collins of Ole Miss."
The memories are precious. It makes Wallace lonely, in a way. This is his first season in a long time not having one of his brothers as a teammate. Wallace and Kendrick Lewis played together at Mississippi; Wallace and Keenan Lewis were together with the Steelers.