“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
~Yogi Berra
Sports, she’s a tough business.
Becoming a pro in the sports biz is tough, walking away from it is even tougher.
Imagine this, you are a regular arse working stiff, a plumber, a car salesman, an insurance guy, you are in the brotherhood of the unnoticed, brown bag invisible.
But you have this secret amazing ability, you can catch fish, you can catch big fish, you can catch fish anytime, anywhere, you are a star fishing catching machine.
And suddenly you are standing on stage, the Internet brings you standing on stage to everyone in the free, and those still paying for it, world. You have a fancy material shirt on with your name emblazed on the back, you become a selfie desire, people stand in line so you write “tight lines” and your name on tee-shirts, hats, and a cutout of your face on a stick.
You my friend, are in The Spotlight. Fame beckons, stardom whispers.
You are SOMEBODY, you going to give that up to go back to selling “eco-friendly” automobiles to people in tie-dye shirts who smell of tofu and 9 cats?
Anyone who has walked away knows how they feel when every introduction begins with, “Ex-…”
A few days ago, out of nowhere, came this text to me:
DB I just wanted to say thanks for all you do!!! The financial struggle finally beat me. I just personally wanted to let you know that I will no longer be part of the Elites… Keep up your AWESOME work!!! Thanks for your friendship from the bottom of my heart!!!! Matt Reed.
Flat out ruined my day.
“I knew when I was standing in the booth at BASSfest, knew I was done.” – Matt Reed
Matt is a great friend of mine, has been since day one of me in this game, several times during my phone call with him this morning one of us, or both of us would have to stop for a moment and compose ourselves, “I’ve been doing it for 14 years, started in 2003, back then we had a rookie class of something like 42 guys, only Hackney and Scroggins are left out of that class.”
Trust me when I say this, yeah it’s tough to walk away from fame, but that ain’t the toughest part, “yesterday db I got a text from one of my running buddies who was out on the water there practicing, all it said was, Miss You.”
And with that Matt went silent for several moments.
“That’s the toughest part of all this, missing the family you become out there.”
In the end, Matt couldn’t finish out the season for financial reasons, “I always said all these years, ‘it’s what we do,’ well now db it ain’t what I do anymore…” Matt couldn’t take the sentence to the end.
Last week though Matt got to sit in the stands three times and watch his grandchildren play softball, didn’t cost anything to do that, but trust me, in the final analysis, priceless.
“I have no plans to try and re-qualify, heart is not into it right now, I’m doing real well guiding on Lake Fork and Lake Falcon, the bite is amazing now, so it’s been good.”
Then, “Life goes on man, life goes on.”
And so it does. Only life and death is life and death, but to be honest my life, and a whole bunch of other people’s lives out here are better because of Matt being in our lives.
The game is better because he was in it.
When you read this please understand the bond we all out here have with one another, please understand why it is so hard for those who play games at the highest level, why it is so hard to walk away.
Yeah, there is the fame, but more so, there is the family of the game.
There is, the family of the game.
Family, of the game…
Miss ya brother,
db