This is an opinion article piece. Marty Mahoney is a junior at Mendham who writes for Sports News. All opinions expressed in the following editorial are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Patriot.

During this time from the end of March Madness to the NFL draft, there is a sort of dead period in sports. The NBA and MLB regular seasons are occurring, but the NBA regular season doesn’t even really matter and the MLB regular season at this time is just starting, so the teams are going to be a lot different from now up until the playoffs. With my self-proclaimed dead period in sports occurring, it gives me time to talk about one of the most underrated football tv/movie characters, my favorite, Tim Riggins. Tim Riggins doesn’t get the respect of people like other characters, for example, The Waterboy, Sunshine, Julius Campbell, and more. In my opinion, Riggins not only has the most depth of any character on this list but can also hold his own as an athlete with these guys. In this article, I will be talking about the reasons why Riggins is not only the most underappreciated football character but maybe the best. Those reasons are his accolades as a player, his personality/heart/character development, and last but not least his flow.

Football Accolades:

Riggins was the starting fullback and by the end of his career, running back for the Dillon Panthers. Riggins was an absolute animal on the field. He played with a reckless abandonment that I may have never seen from a football player fake or real. He was not only unafraid of contact, but he embraced the contact. The number of times Riggins trucked an opposing player is countless. Riggins was not just a guy with brute strength, the guy had some wheels on him. Riggins’ abilities helped lead the Dillon Panthers to a state championship as a sophomore, as well as another state championship appearance as a senior where they unfortunately lost. Even though he only won one state title, there’s a little more to the story. In his first state title, the Riggins and Smash Williams 1 2 run combo pretty much won them the game. The game was capped off with a hook and ladder touchdown where Riggins caught a slant across the middle, took a hit, like the beast he is, and pitched it off to Smash for the touchdown. The next year they lost in the semi-finals of the state tournament, but we all know they would have won if Smash Williams didn’t get hurt and if the Writer’s Strike didn’t occur, but that wasn’t Riggins’s fault. The third year let’s just not talk about it since it’s too painful for me to even think about. The fact that Riggins didn’t go out as a State Champ in his last game hurts me to this day. Riggins’s career successes should also be looked at even higher when you look at his quarterback. I love Matt Saracen. The guy had so much heart, but he was the worst quarterback in the history of the game until there were five minutes left in the game.

Riggins The Person:

Tim Riggins is just one of the guys, he’s just a chill dude who likes to have fun and joke around. But Riggins ain’t all jokes. No Riggins is also a great human being. Except for that time he was seeing his recently paralyzed friend Jason Street’s girlfriend, Lyla Garretty, behind his back, but HEY WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES. At the beginning of the TV show, Riggins was kind of a jerk. He was constantly getting drunk and cheating on his homework and tests with the help of the rally girls. That didn’t really change as the show went on but he changed as a person, so it doesn’t matter. By the end of the show Riggins was a changed man, not really in school but in other aspects of his life. Who could forget the time he helped make sure Julie Taylor got home safe, or how kind he was to the girl that lived in the house where Riggins parked his trailer and lived for a couple of months. He also saved his friend Jason Street from getting a surgery that would most definitely ruin his life. But the most courageous moment Riggins ever had was when he went to jail for his brother. Riggins’ brother was running a chop shop; Riggins helped but wasn’t as big a part of it as his brother was. Of course, they got caught and action needed to be taken. Riggins’ brother was expecting a baby when this occurred and Riggins recognized his brother needed to be there for his kid. Riggins then being the honorable man that he is, took all the blame for the chop shot and went to prison so his brother could have a successful family.

The FLOW:

 Riggins has, in my opinion, the best flow in TV history; the consistency of his flow throughout all five seasons of the show is impeccable. Just take a second to look at the luscious flow (I don’t blame you if you just sit and look at this photo for five minutes).

In conclusion, TEXAS FOREVER!