An hour deep into the Oregon Ducks' December awards banquet, just after cornerback Walter Thurmond and defensive end Will Tukuafu walk off with the most-inspirational trophies, Coach Chip Kelly returns to the podium at the Eugene Hilton and says, "We're going off the script on this one."
In most elite football programs, that's the cue for Daddy Gamebucks, the school's most prominent booster, to rise at the AD's table and raise one meaty paw to a crowd that will never know just how much he does for the program.
But Kelly has someone else in mind. He looks into the crowd. "Come on, Sethie, come on up here."
He is almost 29 now, this oldest child of Bob and Sybil Ford, and his love of sports -- especially his love of the Ducks -- is familial in its intensity. For the longest time, he tried to express that passion on the playing field, if only to keep up with his younger siblings: Paige, who won two state titles in the high hurdles at Eugene's Sheldon High School, and Joel, who remembers, ever so humbly, being known as the school's "JV All-Star."
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