Foothill High School was off the hook on Thursday night. Not only was it host to an open house for the high school (Welcome Back Mustangs!), but your Sacramento Mountain Lions had commandeered the football stadium for their second mock football game of training camp.

              We arrived at dusk and found the front parking lot full and street parking at a premium. (Footballs siren song had pulled three friends into the adventure with me).

              We entered the front of the campus, and I asked one of the back-to-schoolers where we could find the football field.

              "Oh, it's way back there," she replied, pointing off into the distance.

              We passed through the wings of classrooms until we reached the fields in back, where we found dozens of football players suited up and practicing.

              "They look a lot bigger on TV," said one of my companions.

              Probably because the players we were looking at couldn't have been more than 7 years old.

              In order to get to the Mountain Lions practice, we passed through what looked to be a half-dozen or so youth football team practices.  I'm not sure if this was planned, but if it wasn't, it was a very fortuitous coincidence.

              The Mountain Lions bus was delayed, so the practice that had been scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. didn't begin until around 8:15. 

              This gave the peewees time to wrap up their practices.  By the time the pros took the field, the stands and track were teeming with kids from about 7 to 14 whose practices had just ended.

              Every move the players made was followed by the adoring gazes of the young ballers.  Daunte Culpepper had a rotating crowd of kids directly behind him at all times, with whom he engaged regularly.  Between series, he would exchange fist bumps with the kids or even pose for pictures.  When he was focused on the game at hand, he would still try and acknowledge the cries of "Culpepper" and "number eight" with a head nod or raised hand.

              The game itself was a close, hard-fought affair.  Even though the players weren't in pads, play was physical and fairly intense throughout.  Play was stopped when the ball carrier was wrapped up or the coaches deemed the play dead. 

              After the Culpepper-led white squad stalled on its first drive, former Harvard quarterback Liam O'Hagan brought the crowd to its feet when he completed a perfect 50-yard strike to Chido Nwokocha.  The black squad's drive stalled in the red zone, but they kicked a field goal to take the lead.

              Culpepper's crew responded with 10 unanswered points of their own, including a beautiful touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone to local favorite Otis Amey.

              In the fourth quarter, the intensity really picked up.  The black team drove the field with a chance to tie the game.  Some the the defensive players in white voiced their displeasure with where the coaches spotted the ball on a couple of key third-down plays, but the complaints fell on deaf ears.  Team Black players kept moving the chains until they tied it up with less than two minutes remaining. (Approximately – Coach Green kept time, so it wasn't clear exactly how much remained, only that it wasn't a lot).

              Culpepper took the reins and led the white team down the field in a successful two-minute drill, completing passes to four different receivers as he led his squad to a game-winning field goal as time expired.

              As he left the field, the 6-foot 4-inch field general was swamped again by kids.  As he signed autograph after autograph, a big smile on his face, I complimented him on the successful two-minute drill and asked him if he's developed a real chemistry with his receiving corps.

              "We're getting there, we're getting there.  Just wait till the first game," he answered with a confidant nod.

              Then he got back to signing autographs, giving out fist bumps, and making kids' nights. 

              The mock game seemed go well enough. The players did some things well, other things not so well.  I'm sure when they review the tape, they'll find plenty to work on. 

              There's one way in which it was an unmitigated success, however: There are about a hundred kids who will never forget Thursday night, and are probably Mountain Lion fans for life.  No need to break down the tape on that.