Offensive Linemen

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Comment by Mike Pope on May 19, 2010 at 8:06pm

EXCITING NEWS! THEY HAVE JUST PUBLISHED A BOOK ABOUT ME AND MY CAREER AS A FOOTBALL COACH AND MENTOR. IT IS ENTITLED "DO THEY PLAY FOOTBALL IN HEAVEN? HERE IS SOME INFO BELOW ON THE BOOK AND IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN MORE OR WANT TO BUY ONE GO TO THE BOOK WEBSITE www.dotheyplayfootballinheaven.com
“Do They Play Football in Heaven?” written by Wilt Browning is one of the truly inspirational sports books in an era in which athletes and coaches frequently make headlines for reasons other than wins and losses.

Mike’s philosophy of God, family, and football is shared in this biography which shows how God works in our everyday lives.

Mike Pope is a mountain of a man who has coached most sports played at the high school level through more than 35 seasons, though football has always been his first love athletically. And now without his own legs, with the use of prostheses, Mike is entering his second season as a college coach, albeit a volunteer one. One will find him working with offensive linemen at Wingate University located very near his Monroe, N.C., hometown.

In all those years, Mike has won and he has lost, he has been hired and he has been fired. And he has suffered through a series of medical crises so grim that at one point a family member recommended making funeral arrangements. Still, Mike coaches on.

A few years ago, Mike was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a condition that called for a life-saving quadruple bypass heart operation. Then in March 2005, more heart problems developed and surgeons implanted a pacemaker to attend to the rhythm of Mike’s heart. But instead of giving him the worry-free days for which it was intended, the procedure almost cost Mike his life. While recovering from the trauma of the surgery, he developed an infection, and the source of the infection turned out to be the dread MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus).

MRSA cost Mike both legs below the knees. But the infection did not take away the heart of a coach or his spirit.

This will be Mike Pope’s story. It will include the laughter and the tears that come with life for a coach. Mostly, the book will deal with the triumphs his life represents. There have been many, and not nearly all of them were announced in scoreboard lights. More than 14,000 boys and one girl have attended the “Hawg Tuff” camps for offensive linemen that Mike has been holding every year in many states in the South, Southwest and Midwest. Countless numbers of high school athletes have called him “Coach” at a half dozen school where Mike has walked the sidelines. The readers of “Do They Play Football in Heaven?” will hear from many of the athletes like Troy Brown of the New England Patriots, whose lives the Popes have touched, and from coaches with whom and against whom he has worked.

This book is a great read for people of all ages, as the Pope family shares their story of what God can do in your life and how you can affect so many people around you.

Comment by Tristan Hill on April 12, 2010 at 8:02am

concrete heros is probably the group you wanna be in then man, check it out

Comment by Curtis Hansen on March 18, 2010 at 10:43pm

i would like to see if there is a way i could compare lifts to fellow lineman.

Comment by Tristan Hill on March 1, 2010 at 3:32pm

Id like coaching tips etc. Ive only played Gridiron for half a season last year, and im sure there is heaps for me to learn. Also as I said in my forum post, im keen to learn about pre season weights workouts to get me in shape for the season that for me kicks off in July