I Am Third

Today’s poem was written in response to a prompt given for a poem a day challenge back in 2024. The day’s prompt was “third place.” Almost reflexively, when I hear the expression “third place” or even the word, “third,” I cannot help but think of a book I read during my late elementary school years. The book, I Am Third, was written by Gayle Sayers, the Chicago Bears football running back, and it was the basis for the 1971 made for TV Movie, Brian’s Song which tells the story of Gayle Sayers’ friendship with his Bears teammate, Brian Piccolo. I believe I got my copy of the book in 1974, and it was around that time that I saw the movie for the first time. In 1974, I was playing for the Bears just like Gayle Sayers and Brian Piccolo, except we called ourselves the bad news bears, and we weren’t in Chicago. I was playing halfback for a football team in the NCAA. (No, not that NCAA). Though I was playing football in the state of Ohio, it wasn’t Ohio State, and the NCAA was only the NCAA of the Northern Columbus Athletic Association. Both the book and the movie shaped my imagination in significant ways. There was the reality of the nation’s ongoing need to address the strained racial relations it faced in midst the time’s lingering segregation. There were themes of deep, meaningful male relationships — full of exhortation, challenge, and practical jokes, together with the kind of friendship marked by steadfast faithfulness. And of course there was the blessing of the kind of friendship forged in the fire of adversity. The book and movie both portray a kind of love that continues through illness, death, and lingering grief. Brian Piccolo stuck to Gayle Sayers’ side as he recovered from knee surgery, but soon after, he succumbed to and died of cancer in June of 1970. Gayle Sayers’s book is a tribute to their friendship. Gayle himself, passed away on September 23, 2020. It came to my attention recently, that a dear friend of mine passed away on September 23 several years after Gayle Sayers died. My friend was himself, a great fan of the Chicago Bears. In honor of friendship and in memory of both their passings I re-offer this poem which is titled after Sayer’s book… I Am Third George Halas wanted his Bears to bloom So, he put Gayle and Brian in the same room Together — so simple, yet not done before That a black man and white share the same door. They walked through that door, walked together in life Late through the sixties where societal strife Tried to tear their bonds of friendship apart, Exposed a deep rift in our country’s heart. Their bond in suff’ring makes grown men cry: One blows his knee, then the other one dies. The story found me in ’74, And hearing the knock, I opened the door. “Every true story,” they say, “ends in death,” And in that true story, I now draw my breath— Breathe in the love for friends who lay down Their life for a friend, to win Love’s other crown— Love in deed like Brian, as Gayle in Word Where God is first, others second, and I, third. © Randall Edwards 2024 Get full access to Backward Mutters at backwardmutters.substack.com/subscribe