Runnin' with the Devil....

Shout at the Devil

This statue of Lee Roy Selmon sits in a small park near the expressway that bears his name.

Selmon wears the number 63, now retired, he wore when he was on the way to becoming a Tampa Bay Bucs and NFL legend (3 sixes?  As in 6-6-6?)  But over that he wears the casual business clothes that he wore on his way to becoming even more beloved in the Bay Area as an entrepreneur and a businessman, philanthropist, and USF athletic director.

I don't know much about Selmon, but he is said to have been an extremely "gentle" person, and many have argued that he was the best defensive end/tackle in NFL history.  He died after a massive stroke at the age of 56.

A few years back Tampa's USF (University of South Florida) decided to create a football program. I mean, damn, UF's Gators and FSU's Seminoles are football powerhouses, so why not try and create that magic in Tampa?  We have something in the water apparently.

I guess being known for football would be a better claim to fame for Tampa than its reputation for having a copious number of truly seedy dive bars and strip clubs!

I prefer to think it's the Death Metal, or even the Goth subculture.  Or even the Bro Bowl....

Lee Roy Selmon helped make the dream of being a college football town possible. USF's mascot:  the Bulls.  Hence the horns being flashed by Selmon.  Or is it "I love you" in sign language?

But dig it!  Selmon is using the side sinister, the left, as in the left-hand path.  Hail Satin!  Oh you devilishly smooth [black] fabric.  

I down another absinthe, light another taper, and sharpen my quill....Bauhaus plays in the background and the shadow of a spider wavers on the wall, the taper sputtering as a good, little flame gets going....

The Lee Roy Selmon Expressway used to be called the Crosstown Expressway.... Crosstown....Cross Town.  Tampa was a Cross Town, but that's gone now; the vanquished messiah replaced by a warrior of sport and business, realms of physical prowess and acquisition, material pursuits, victory.... 

Selmon's "devil horns" are a Satanic mudra blasting those values loud and proud.  

The word  "Tampa" is often said to be a Timucua word meaning "burning sticks."  This probable folk etymology is due to Tampa's once booming cigar industry.  Hav-A-Tampa was still a big brand of stogie when I was a lad, and are still sold today, though they should probably be called Hav-A-Ponce, cuz they're made in Puerto Rico....

It ain't burning sticks, but burning souls!  Hook-em horns!  And reel-em in, straight to Hades!  Mwah-ha-ha-haaa!  The elevator music on the neverending journey to Abaddon, recorded at Morristown.... located in, get this, the neighborhood of Sulphur Springs....

Obviously, I'm being facetious.  I just can't resist documenting any time I see a photo of someone flashing the "devil horns."  But this ain't no photo, it's a full-time, 8-foot sculpture of a Tampa legend.  I'm sure the ire of the fundamentalists can be found online easily enough.

The website of sculptor Joel Randall.