Lake View's Waters glad to be part of Super Bowl

It’s no mystery as to which team Jewell McLaurin is hoping will win today’s Super Bowl.

The former Lake View football coach is rooting for New Orleans to top Indianapolis because one of his former players, Anthony Waters, is a linebacker for the Saints.

“I liked the Saints before, but I really like them now,” McLaurin said. “It’s a lot more exciting to watch a game when you know someone playing in the game.”

McLaurin said he is proud of Waters, who really came on during his final two years of high school and eventually earned a scholarship to play at Clemson.

Playing linebacker, running back, receiver and even punter, Waters did it all for McLaurin’s teams.

During Waters’ senior season, he rushed for 1,382 yards and 23 touchdowns, had 22 catches for 450 yards and recorded 145 tackles.

“He really built himself up the last two years and did whatever he could to make himself better,” McLaurin said. “He has really done good and kept working hard.”

How much McLaurin and the rest of his friends and family in Lake View see Waters play today is uncertain. He was inactive for New Orleans’ first two playoff games.

Still, getting a chance to be on the sideline for the Super Bowl is something Waters didn’t think he would be doing just a couple months ago.

Waters, who spent the last two seasons with the Chargers, signed with the Saints in the offseason but was released in August. Since then, he spent time on the Bills and Raiders practice squads before the Saints signed him again Dec. 9.

Waters played in three games and had two tackles, both coming against Tampa Bay on Dec. 27.

“Who’d have thought this?” Waters told the San Diego Tribune this week. “I couldn’t be in a better place.”

Things never seemed to work for Waters during his two years with the Chargers, who drafted him in the third round of the 2007 draft.

Waters was inactive for every game during his rookie season as he continued to recover from a torn ACL suffered his senior season at Clemson.

“It was pretty hard not to be able to contribute. That competitive nature is there and you want to be out there,” Waters said in an interview with the Morning News last season. “I was hard on myself and didn’t feel like part of the team sometime. But I knew I gave it all I had out there.”

Waters was on the field last season but played in only seven games and had just three tackles.

“I just never was where I wanted to be (with the Chargers). I’m in a position to compete for playing time now,” Waters said this week.

In addition to getting ready for the sport’s biggest game, Waters has had to deal with the loss of Gaines Adams, one of his best friends and former teammate at Clemson.

Adams died Jan. 18 when he went into cardiac arrest at his family’s home in Greenwood.

“That is one of his best friends and that was tough for him,” McLaurin said.

Waters was a pallbearer at Adams’ funeral in Greenwood. He had spoken with Adams the week of his death.

“It just hurt,” Waters said at the funeral. “I felt like he had so much to live for. They say you can’t question these things, but I really can’t understand it.”