Casey Taylor, Del Oro (CA) varsity football coach, might be the best person to tell you as to what lengths can jersey honorifics go. After all, his life was threatened by the very subject.

Taylor was primarily confused when he received a call telling him “watch your back” but his confusion quickly turned to horror when he received another call telling him that serious harm would come his way if he didn’t resign from his position. His horror then changed to incredulity when he realized that his life was threatened by a miscommunication of a debated jersey number. Taylor’s life, both personal and professional, went through turmoil over a simple matter of one of his player wearing a jersey of particular number; more importantly, a retired number.

The man behind the threats, Dennis McLin (66), alleged that the jersey number in question, number 20, had been retired years ago in honor of former Del Oro star player Butch Enkoji who shinned in the high school’s squad of 1961. Presently there is insufficient evidence to back his claim. However, whether the jersey was really retired or not will be a moot point since Del Oro will now be retiring the number permanently, nonetheless, in honor of the star Butch Enkoji as well as Bryce Pratt who sported the number and set school and area playoff records while donning it.

The decision hardly helped in easing the tension for Taylor’s family as McLin refused to identify himself through the whole terrorizing and stalking tirade and even threatened to confront Coach Taylor at a game. Naturally, given the threats, Coach Taylor was escorted by a team of bodyguards to the games including the sectional playoffs where he had five security personnel surrounding him at all times.

However, apart from security, Taylor’s major concern was his job and responsibility as a coach. Naturally, if something or especially someone is threatening your life, you can hardly concentrate on life, let alone the duties at hand. Surely, the law and lawmakers should work towards securing the coaches who put forth our future footballers. If we don’t have great coaches filling up the list of football stars, it will be really difficult for college and major league football to find its players.

As for Mr. McLin, he has been sentenced to six years of prison, five years of probation and (rightly) anger management course.

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