BATON ROUGE – LSU wide receiver Russell Gage had a decision to make – his family or his football family.
As he tried to decide whether or not to go Absent Without Leave, the clock was ticking. More importantly, the water was rising at his parents’ home on Monday after a weekend of steady rain and flash floods in Baker – about 15 minutes from Baton Rouge.
“Originally, I wanted to leave, but I just said I’m going to stick it out because the waters weren’t that high,” Gage said.
This was 6 a.m. Monday a week ago, and his mother, Alisa Gage, had just called for a rescue boat. She also showed her son, a junior out of Redemptorist High in Baton Rouge, the low water level via FaceTime.
“So I thought everything was fine,” he said and practiced with the team at 8:45 a.m.
The phone rang at about 11 a.m., and Mrs. Gage had a FaceTime update.
“The water was higher,” Gage said Wednesday after practice. “That’s when the stress and the worry kicked in, and I made a decision based off what I saw. Besides my dad and sister, there was really no one else there who could help.”
His grandmother was with the family as well.
Gage thought he could make it out to the house he grew up in and return in time for the 4:15 p.m. practice Monday. So he left without telling head coach Les Miles or any other staff members, and he brought roommate Devin Voorhies – a junior linebacker from Woodville, Mississippi – with him. They didn’t make it back in time and missed the afternoon practice.
“Once I got there, the water was around three feet and rising,” Gage said. “Devin and I were able to go get a rescue boat and get my family to safety. My roommate coming was a ton of help. I don’t think we could’ve done a lot of the stuff we did without him.”
Gage had to park five or so miles from his house because of the water.
“There were a lot of places you couldn’t see the top of cars or you could barely see the top of them,” he said. “The boat brought us about half the way to my car, and we walked the rest of the way. I was able to drive my family to the hotel and drove back to LSU.”
The Gages relocated to the Radisson Hotel on Acadian Thruway in Baton Rouge.
“It was a decision I made on my own to go ahead and help my family,” Gage said. “I made the decision out of stress and worry. It wasn’t the wisest decision, being that Coach Miles is responsible for us. I probably should’ve had a little bit better communication between me and the coaches. But everyone at home is OK, and everyone’s safe. That’s all that matters to me.”
But he and Voorhies did have to meet with Coach Miles, who did not discipline either player but said he wished they would have communicated better.
“Well, obviously, you never want to do anything like that, especially without communication,” he said. “Coach Miles is responsible for us. That was a bonehead decision on me to really go down there because anything could’ve happened. The waters were pretty high. There was a current. So, that was a bonehead decision on me. But at the end of the day, Coach Miles was just happy that everyone was safe.”
Gage rested easier that night.
“Yeah, it was a relief to know my family’s safe,” he said. “The waters got pretty bad over there in Baker. So yeah, it was a relief. I can relax somewhat and focus on football now, but it was kind of devastating. It’s a lot of damage done. But it’s still a relief. My family is the only thing that really matters. Everything else is replaceable, so it’s a relief.”
His mother returned to their home to assess the damage on Thursday.
“The water’s all gone, but the damage is done,” Gage said. “We’re going to have to redo the walls and everything. But, oh yeah, it can be done. All that stuff’s replaceable. As long as my family’s safe, we’re fine.”
FOURNETTE SIT OUT?: With the recent minor ankle injury to LSU star tailback Leonard Fournette, it is popular again for some in the media to say the junior should sit out the season to protect himself for the 2017 NFL Draft, where he is expected to be a top five pick and make close to $20 million. Some in the national media have opined he should have sat out last year as well. What some in the media may not know, or remember, is that after the 2015 season, Fournette’s family financed a pair of $10 million life insurance policies at a cost of about $160,000 that will cover Fournette should an injury disable him or should his draft status fall because of some other circumstance.
NOTES: LSU was able to get away from football on Thursday to visit one of the busiest flood relief shelters in Baton Rouge – the spacious Celtic Studios off Airline Highway that has been a major part of the “Hollywood South” film industry in Louisiana. … The Tigers had no scheduled practices on Thursday. … LSU practiced at 11:15 a.m. Friday and will hold a closed scrimmage at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Tiger Stadium. … LSU is off Sunday. … The season starts two weeks from Saturday on September 3 when the No. 6 Tigers play Wisconsin at 2:30 p.m. on ABC on Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
