Gridiron.

Cannoneers · week 16 · 1979

The old man can still play

Ines Okonkwo, numbers desk

Trent Beetlestone QB
Cannoneers

Trent Beetlestone is 34 and averaging 18.0 a week. He reads Normal, which makes the mileage harder to explain, not easier.

Across three seasons: 6,464 yards from scrimmage, eighty-nine touchdowns, forty-five games. He got to 2,335 once. Not this time.

He is thirty-four, out of Memphis, Tennessee. He has never been described as easy to coach. Nobody planned any of it. He was a first-round pick out of Fort Ridley, and everybody saw it coming.

Cannoneers are 6-9 through sixteen weeks. Hoot Jessup is in year two of it. There is one year left on the deal.

One more thing: he reads on the team plane, actual books, which his teammates find hilarious.

This feature ran in the paper in week 16 of 1979. The rest of the season is there too.

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