The trash talk started several months ago.
“You’re going to wish you never met me,” was among the lines allegedly said.
A surprising line to choose between two brothers. But that was the level of (seemingly mostly friendly-intended) trash talk between Jacob and Ricco Samaniego in advance of their Sept. 2 on-field football matchup between Española Valley and McCurdy.
“It has not been stopped being talked about at all in the house,” said their mother Rose Romero-Samaniego. “They’re always talking about it.”
Jacob is a junior at McCurdy Charter School, while Ricco is a sophomore at Española Valley High School. Both, it seems, are very competitive. Rose said they had been in different schools since middle school, and their father Richard joked, “The only reason they’re in different high schools is because they didn’t want to go to the same high school together.”
Richard also went to Española Valley but now coaches elementary school basketball at McCurdy. Both of the brothers also played youth football together under McCurdy assistant coach Mel Martinez.
Rose said before the game that she would stand behind the goalpost, directly halfway between the McCurdy and Española sides of the stands.
“I’m going to watch the game that way,” she said. “I am not choosing sides, because they’re both my babies.”
She also said she tried to make a shirt that had Española on one side and McCurdy on the other, but it had not arrived in time for the game.
Neither are snap-to-snap starters for their teams, but Jacob took over as McCurdy’s center. And as Española subbed in its bench players later in the game, Ricco became the nose tackle, lining up directly across from his brother and starting off plays with a big hit.
But given the final margin of the game — a 55-0 win for Española — Ricco said he would lay the smack talk to just a little, content to let the score do the talking.
“After the end of the game, we’re still family and we still love each other,” Ricco said. “After losing the game, I know how it feels. So I’m going to be a little nicer.”