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| Coach Legg (inset) uses the team's mascots to motivate Matt Forte and the other RBs. |
Associated Web Press
The morning dew is still on the grass at the Black Dogs practice facility in East Nashville as running back coach Stumpy Legg puts his charges through a light workout in advance of their game with the Cambridge Animals. For Legg, it's a longtime ritual.
"I've been coachin' all my life," the former head coach of the 12th Avenue Bakers said. "It hurt, it hurt real bad, when [Bakers owner] G.Q. Denney [QCurl Sharif] fired me while I was hospitalized in a coma. But what hurt most was being out of coachin'.
"The day Coach [Jim] McMahon found me working as a parking attendant at Grey Goose Stadium and offered me a job coaching East Nashville's running backs was the happiest day of my life. After eight years away from the game, I'm back doing the thing I love most."
Under Legg's tutelage, the Black Dogs have the NFFA's most productive stable of backs. Matt Forte leads the way with the third highest number of points among running backs, followed by Fred Jackson (No. 6), Darren Sproles (No. 8), DeMarco Murray (No. 9) and Bilal Powell (No. 14).
"Stumpy has inspired his guys," McMahon said. "The three starters [Forte, Sproles and Murray] are contributing over 25 percent of our scoring."
While Legg is thankful to the Black Dogs head coach for his second chance, he doesn't hold it against Sharif for firing him after the 2003 season.
"We all knew G.Q. — he hadn't become QCurl Sharif yet — we all knew he was unpredictable," he said. "I was having an affair with Faith Popcorn at the time and you wouldn't believe some of the stories she told about the crazy [expletive] he used to do. Of course, he was always on something, so he was usually addled. He made a lot of crazy draft picks, then blamed me when we lost.
"Looking back on it all, it was a blessing Q fired me," Legg concluded. "Now I'm with the Black Dogs and competing for a ring."
