Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 1, 1994 TAG: 9411020034
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
When he discovered an opportunity to get back on the playing field again, he grabbed it the way a tight end cradles a pass and heads upfield. He wasn't going to let little things like his age (36) or the fact that he had been sacked by a serious illness several years before get in his way.
Segal is a member of the semiprofessional Lynchburg Jaguars in the Mason-Dixon league.
A Radford resident, Segal has played as a linebacker on defense, but most of his playing time comes from appearances on special teams, such as the kickoff team.
He is the lone New River Valley representative on the team. Most of the players are from the Lynchburg area or are former small-college players hoping to extend their playing careers.
Most are quite a bit younger than Segal, a New York City native who last played competitive football 15 years ago, when he hooked up with a semipro outfit in New Jersey.
"I don't think I'm the oldest player on the team," Segal said. "But I'm close."
At 6 feet, 210 pounds, Segal is in good shape.
He was a pretty good high school player, and he had a couple of tryouts as a placekicker for the Baltimore Colts and Dallas Cowboys in 1979.
During his college days at Farleigh Dickinson in the late 1970s, he began playing rugby, a game he says is much more physically demanding than football. Like football, rugby is a contact sport, but rugby players don't wear pads.
"I got nailed during one of our first [football] games and the coach asked me, 'Are you all right,'" said Segal. "I said, 'Are you kidding? With all this stuff on, you could run over me with a tank and I wouldn't feel it. I play rugby.'"
There have been a few gridiron licks he did feel, however.
"A couple of stout fullbacks have enjoyed running over me," he said.
Ah, football.
"When you hear that noise, that 'crack,'" Segal explained, "there's nothing like it. ... I'd forgotten how nice it is to have a helmet and shoulder pads."
The term "semiprofessional" doesn't mean that players get paid for playing. It means that the club covers some of their expenses such as travel and equipment. "Semiprofessional" doesn't mean the sport is semitough, either. The travel can be grueling for a working man like Segal, who is a national sales manager for a firm that sells tropical plants.
It probably seems that Segal's life is one never-ending road trip. He travels throughout the country on job-related duties, he goes to Lynchburg twice a week for practices, and he plays a game on Saturday.
Last week, Segal was in Charlotte on Monday, practiced in Lynchburg on Tuesday, flew to Indianapolis Wednesday, and drove to Lynchburg again on Thursday. On the fifth day, Friday, he rested, then journeyed to Charlotte for a game on Saturday.
And that was a light week.
Some weeks, Segal gets off a plane in Roanoke from a business trip and immediately hops into his car, where he keeps his helmet and shoulder pads, and drives to practice.
"My car is my locker room," said Segal, who gets home to Radford around 11:30 on practice nights.
Admirably, he and his wife, Mandy, have been able to maintain their marriage despite seeing each other only a few times a week.
"We never get tired of seeing each other, that's for sure," said Mandy Segal.
The Segals learned never to take anything for granted six years ago, when Blaine was undergoing radiation treatments for mycosis lymph cancer, a rare illness that causes skin tumors. It is a cancer that more commonly affects the elderly.
Segal went through 16 treatments in 1987 and 1988. The cure was often more painful than the disease. By the 12th treatment, his body was so weakened by the radiation even the water pressure from his shower nozzle hurt.
The treatments worked. By summer 1988 he was given a clean bill of health. That fall, he was playing rugby again.
"I knew when I got over it, I wanted to be active again," he said.
That, he is. Because of work, he'll miss this weekend's game at Tidewater, but he'll be back on the field next Saturday when the Jaguars play at Richmond
"It's the way I want to spend my Saturday," he said.
by CNB