Rouses_FINAL_September-October-2017

the Football issue

O’ Yeah

BOBBY: I gotta address one thing, first off: People say you have an accent. You’re from Larose. I’m from Cut Off. I don’t think you have an accent. COACH O: I’m proud of this Cajun accent. BOBBY: They think it’s thick now, Bé Bé — they shoulda heard you back in the day!

COACH O: Both of our accents are nothing compared to what they were. You listen to someone from South Lafourche, it’s like they’re from another country. BOBBY: I can’t speak Cajun French, but you can. COACH O: My parents taught me. I remember, when I went to college, I was going to take French. I thought, oh, I know French already. But Cajun French is not true French. It’s a spoken language as opposed to something that’s written down. Guys invent words. If this word sounds a little like a true French word, we think we’re good. BOBBY: When you go down the bayou you can hold conversations. You can talk to my dad in Cajun French. COACH O: One thing about Cajuns, everyone has a nickname ... Bobby J. Your son is T-Bob. I’m Bé Bé. BOBBY: I’m not sure people know we are cousins. COACH O: My dad and your grandma were first cousins — down the bayou, you have a lot of cousins. BOBBY: You think about where they grew up. Back then, you got maybe four or five choices for who you gonna marry. If it’s not your first or second cousin, well then, alright. BOBBY: We played on the same South Lafourche High School football team. We brought home a state title for the Tarpons in 1977. Bé Bé, what do you remember most about when we were in high school, the year we won the championship? COACH O: The team. The character of the team and how we all came together.We had some tough players.We had great coaches. We had great assistant coaches. We had Coach Bourgeois and Gribbuoy — and Roland Boudreau, the offensive line coach. BOBBY: He was actually married to my dad’s sister. COACH O: Playing for South Lafourche was an honor. Didn’t you think so? It was a big deal to play for Coach Ralph Pere. BOBBY: If you played for the Tarpons, you were expected to win District. Then it was, what can you do in the playoffs? Can you get past the Catholic league? COACH O: Senior year was your first turn at quarterback. One thing about you — and I mention this to all of my quarterbacks — you did everything with a smile, but you could chew a guy’s ass out if he wasn’t blocking right. Everyone respected you. BOBBY: State championship, it’s 4th and 17 ... COACH O: You threw it to Daryll Reynolds. Daryll tipped it, it hit a defender from Bonnabel, and Scott Bouzigard, he’s on his knees in the end zone and he catches the ball. HE CATCHES THE BALL . BOBBY: We’re tied 20-20.

Former Saints Quarterback Bobby Hebert talks to LSU Head Coach Ed Orgeron B obby Hebert, the future Cajun Cannon, first played football with his friend Ed Orgeron in high school more than 40 years ago. Together, the pair brought home a state title for the South Lafourche High Tarpons in 1977. Later, they were teammates again, at Northwestern State in Natchitoches , LA, where they also roomed together. Hebert, of course, went on to play quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. After a long career in collegiate and professional football, including a stint as the Saints’ defensive line coach, Orgeron was named Head Coach at LSU in 2016. Decades after the two veteran athletes first met, they got together to shoot the breeze about Cajun accents, Grandma’s white beans with bell peppers, and a life’s worth of lessons from the football field.

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MY ROUSES EVERYDAY SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2017