Clearwater's Tom Bostic and East Lake's Bob Hudson are having too much fun.
Just forget the fact their teams are in the playoffs with losing records. And don't bother them with stats, because yes, they know Dunedin and Largo and Osceola - better teams, they admit - are home this week, seasons over.
And yes, they know they don't have a star player or even a particularly effective offense. ... or defense for that matter. And sure, their district was weak.
As far as a description of an average football team goes, theirs will do quite nicely.
But here's the deal: They don't make the rules, they don't decide their districts and they are alive and kicking in the playoffs.
So there.
"I'm not going to apologize," Bostic said. "I'm just glad to be here."
Glad, lucky, blessed. Whatever. At 5-6 the Tornadoes and Eagles are in the second round of the playoffs, a place not often seen by teams with winning records.
For the Tornadoes this will be just the third of their 10 playoff teams over the years to make it this far. For East Lake, it is in the second round for the first time since 1995.
Record, schmecord.
"All that matters is we won the games that counted," Clearwater running back Jarrid Daniels said.
Don't mistake the Tornadoes and Eagles for, say, the 2001 St. Petersburg team that made the playoffs with a 3-8 record. The Green Devils benefitted from the now discarded "at-large" berth, getting in without winning meaningful - make that any - district games.
The Green Devils went on to lose 42-14 in the playoffs, and those that cried out at the ridiculousness of a team with that record making the playoffs had a point.
Try that same argument now at Clearwater or East Lake, and you get ...
... are those crickets?
"We're disappointed with our record, but we knew it didn't mean anything once we got into the playoffs," East Lake quarterback Lewis Caralla said.
Like Pinellas Park's 6-4 record didn't matter in Class 5A, District 9. The Patriots won two more games, scored more points and gave up fewer than anyone else in the district.
But when the Tornadoes absolutely had to win or miss the playoffs, they beat East Lake.
In a game East Lake couldn't afford to lose against Pinellas Park, it pulled through as well.
Guess who didn't win the game they should have (hint: Pinellas).
Guess who lost to East Lake ... and Clearwater (hint: Park).
"You pull out the games you have to," first-year East Lake coach Bob Hudson said. "For some reason we always seemed to play harder and better when our backs were against the wall."
For that they deserve at least some respect, right?
If not, then how about for this: For five years Northeast and Seminole have been synonymous with football excellence in the county. Both went 6-4. No one said it was a joke they were in the playoffs.
East Lake and Clearwater showed in Round 1 that maybe the difference between 4-6 and 6-4 isn't as great as some might have you believe. The Eagles overcame an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Northeast, and Clearwater avenged a defeat by nipping Seminole.
The victories last week may have legitimized the Eagles and Tornadoes as deserving postseason teams, or at least two teams who aren't as bad as their record suggests.
"I don't know if it changes it all in our kids eyes or in some local peoples eyes, but maybe it does," Hudson said. "That showed that maybe we deserved to be there. But you'll always have your doubters."
This isn't to suggest Clearwater and East Lake are anything but Average Joe teams. But they are capable of above-average performances. Not all 4-6 teams are. Statewide, 27 teams with losing records got into the playoffs. More than half, 14 to be exact, gave up 40 points or more and lost in embarrassing fashion.
Only six of the 27 won. Of the five in Class 5A with losing records, three lost by 41-0, 30-0 and 7-0 scores.
Two of them, East Lake and Clearwater, won.
Teams with losing records may not have a place in the postseason, though don't bother trying to make that argument to East Lake and Clearwater. Don't call them undeserving or lucky.
