FAYETTEVILLE — This is Thamail Morgan’s story, but not the one you think you know.
The popular version of Morgan’s story involved Yellville-Summit, Kymball Duffy and taking a knee. That story made it all the way to a national television audience before January’s Super Bowl.
But that isn’t Morgan’s story.
Morgan was making a name for himself in Arkansas high school football circles after two standout years as a linebacker at Newport. He was a tackling machine who had been named the Democrat-Gazette’s Sophomore Defensive Player of the Year and then made the All-Arkansas team as a junior.
Division I colleges were hot on his trail, enamored with the 6-0, 210-pound playmaker who had a knack for sliding through offensive blocking schemes and pounding ball carriers.
The popularity that comes from being a high school football star, especially one as charismatic off the field as Morgan, can be problematic for any teenager. Morgan, so much above his peers in athletic regards, was no different off the field.
That’s where the trouble began.
Shortly after his junior season was over, Morgan tested positive for drugs during a random test. At Newport, that meant no sports for a year. If he stayed clean he could compete in spring sports, but no football was a soul-crushing sentence to Morgan.
“Me almost losing football, not getting to go to college, I was so down I felt like there wasn’t any way of coming back,” said Morgan, who will lead the East team tonight in the Arkansas High School Coaches Association All-Star football game at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. “I thought I was invincible. No one can touch me. No one can hold me. I’m Thamail Morgan.
“When the stuff hit the fan, it was a lesson that got my attention. You’re not invincible. You’re not Superman. You’re human.”
Morgan wasn’t without options. He and his family scouted local schools and decided on Cave City, a smaller, rural school coached by former Newport player Jon Bradley. Bradley had played high school football with Morgan’s father. He was interested in Morgan - what coach wouldn’t be interested in such a talent? - but he was wary of taking in a kid who had been banned from one school’s football team because of a failed drug test.
Bradley checked with some people he knew at Newport and received glowing reports on Morgan. He was a great kid, Bradley was told. He wasn’t a troublemaker, they said, just someone who did something stupid.
So, Bradley gave Morgan the second chance he desperately wanted.
Morgan made an immediate impact at Cave City, and not just on the football field. The outgoing kid with the bright smile won over the school instantly and was elected as a senior class officer in his first couple of weeks at the school.
On the field, Morgan was just as advertised, wracking up tackles at a high rate. Bradley knew Morgan had been credited with 406 tackles in two years at Newport, but he assumed the statistics were subtly padded. No one makes that many tackles.
Morgan made 167 tackles for Cave City, leading the Cavemen to a conference title and into the first round of the playoffs. Then, when rumors began to circulate that Morgan was using marijuana again, he told Bradley he would take a drug test in addition to the regular random tests he already took.
Morgan passed every one of them, Bradley said.
“He has never been a discipline problem,” Bradley said. “He realized he messed up. What impressed me was that he never tried to blame anybody else.
“I knew the kid was clean. I was never worried about that.”
Morgan’s unintended fame came early in the season, but it wasn’t because of his tackles or his admirable use of his second chance.
The national attention began during Cave City’s third game, when the Cavemen hosted Yellville-Summitt on Sept. 18.
The Panthers had been devastated a week earlier when two-way lineman Kymball Duffy was killed in a car accident shortly before a scheduled game Sept. 11. The community was stillin shock, and Yellville-Summit’s players were spiritless as Cave City ran up a quick 21-0 lead.
Bradley had told his team that Yellville-Summit might be in no condition to be competitive, and he cautioned his players to be respectful.
Late in the game, with Cave City owning a huge lead, Morgan picked up a bouncing kickoff and forget himself momentarily. He took off with the ball, breaking a few tackles along the way, and obviously was headed for a touchdown.
Bradley and his assistants were hollering at Morgan to take a knee or step out of bounds - anything other than add to Yellville-Summit’s heartbreak.
Then, inside the 5, Morgan caught himself. He stopped, turned and ran back to around the 8, where he slid to the ground.
Within days, the video and the story behind Morgan’s gesture were all over the Internet. Television shows called wanting to speak to Morgan, but Bradley and Morgan declined all requests because they didn’t want the story to be about Morgan.
“It was more shocking than anything,” Morgan said. “One day it happened, and the next day you’re all on television. It’s not about me. ... I didn’t want the story focused on me. I wanted it to be on the Duffys, because they lost somebody. I’m still here trying to pursue my dream.”
When CBS said it wanted to air a piece before the Super Bowl that would include the Duffys, Bradley and Morgan agreed. In the piece, Morgan visits the Duffys and receives a big hug from Kymball’s mother, Kary.
“It felt like I had known her my whole life when I first embraced that hug,” said Morgan, who spent the night with the Duffys. “I love that family. Something like that, I didn’t know how they were going to accept it. When she came to me and treated me like her son, I’m counting my blessings.
“I thank God for that opportunity, because not too many people get a second chance like that.”
Morgan has learned a lot about second chances over the past year.
“The only thing that healed my broken heart from leaving Newport was when Cave City said I could suit up and play again,” Morgan said. “I just wanted to play again.”
Morgan glance
NAME Thamail Morgan HIGH SCHOOL Cave City POSITION Outside linebacker HEIGHT 6-1 WEIGHT 200 ALL-STAR TEAM East NOTEWORTHY Morgan signed with Ouachita Baptist but is waiting for results from his latest ACT before deciding whether to go to OBU or to a junior college. ... Made nearly 600 tackles in three years at Newport and Cave City. ... Was the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Sophomore Defensive Player of the Year in 2008 and an All-Arkansas linebacker in 2009.
Sports, Pages 19 on 06/25/2010