TCU Football: Meet The Players - Palmer Nix
The service industry is thankless work. So thankless, in fact, I refuse to call it work. I insist on the euphemism "jobbing." After all, asking hundreds of customers a day whether they would like corn or flour with their tacos hardly, it seems to me, rises to the dignity of labor--it's a way to pass the time, for money, of course, and it allows me to work on my novels and these pieces, which I write up and send off into the ether, hoping for an occasionally generous reader.
But one finds silver linings where he can, and certainly one of the great pleasures of jobbing, few though they be, is serving on a regular basis various members of the most successful football team in TCU history. And there is no one I've enjoyed getting to know better than linebacker Palmer Nix, the youngest member of TCU football royalty.
To say Palmer is a gentleman is to damn him with faint praise. He's a true mensch--invariably polite, always accommodating, and, as I found upon interviewing him, inspirational in his dogged optimism. At first glance, I'm surprised he plays football. He's not a particularly large fellow and his consummate niceness seems at odds with America's most aggressive sport. Nevertheless, play he does, and damn well, as did his father, Preston, before him, and his two uncles, WC and Scotty. I was honored that he was so kind to sit down with me for a one-on-one interview.
What got you interested in football?
Football, as a whole, my dad. I’d say my dad has been my coach since I was five years old.
And your dad is?
Preston. Preston Nix. And he is the youngest of three brothers who all went on to play football at TCU. So that started my love of the game. And the older I got it always became a dream to play football at TCU and become a Horned Frog.
And you did it.
And I did it. It took a fifth year and a grad transfer but I made it happen. I did four years of undergrad at Georgetown, University. And then we had a COVID year. I wanted to explore my options. And once you enter the portal you can request a landing spot, and the one school I wanted was TCU. And I was actually coming to watch one of my best friends from high school—he was playing in the Armed Forces bowl. He’s the kicker at West Point. And he kicked the game-winning field goal, and we ran down into the field, and I just finished my last year at Georgetown and I thought I’m not done. Seeing the Carter, from the point of view from the field, I just knew. And that night, I went home, applied to the grad school before I heard anything and I heard from TCU about three weeks later, and they reached out and said they had a spot on the team and it just seemed like a complete godsend.
So you are one of the very few people who can say his dream came true?
Yes.
Was it worth it?
Absolutely. The most rewarding thing, speaking of my uncles who played here, Scotty Nix and WC Nix and Preston Nix, my dad, but back in 2014, I was a freshman in high school, Scotty and I bumped into each other at the game. I didn’t even think to text him. I was a freshman in high school. And he told me, this was late October, I can’t wait to see you play on that field one day. And one month later he passed. And so it was always on my heart to fulfill those last words I ever had with him.
And you did.
Yeah. And that was the most fulfilling part of the whole journey.
And you played what position?
Linebacker.
Linebacker. What’s that?
Um.
Kidding. What’s your favorite play you ever made?
It would be a Georgetown game. We were playing Harvard. And they had this running back. The Cowboys signed him. I was playing outside linebacker. And he had spun out of a tackle and spun into me, and I completely leveled him. Picked him up and buried him. It was good. It’s on Instagram.
What’s Instagram?
Um . . .
I’m kidding.
(Laughter)
What’s your favorite football memory with TCU?
There are two. The overarching one would be the collective bond that everyone on the team shared, on an equal level, after the Michigan game, and the true joy and satisfaction everyone felt because it felt we weren’t just proving one opponent wrong, but we were proving the whole country wrong. And then the other one was UT because it was proving the country wrong, proving College GameDay wrong. It was definitely a defensive game. For the viewer it was probably boring, but being on the sideline, every series counts, and it was incredible to watch. The whole season was proving everyone wrong, but those two stuck out the most.
I wouldn’t usually bring my writing into a discussion like this, because it feels so self-serving, but I think it is appropriate for this conversation. Did you read my article, “Let It Hurt,” after the Georgia game?
Yeah.
I made a point about how for one week America had an America’s team again, and it wasn’t the Cowboys.
Yeah. Everyone was rooting for us.
Everyone except for Kansas, I think. So I’m assuming I know what your least favorite memory is.
Yeah. That one. I mean it was an incredible experience. The four days out there in LA with the team. The bonding, the camaraderie that happens when you’re in the player lounge and having meetings and attending different events. Everyone grows closer—win, lose, or draw—throughout those moments, just like we did in Arizona before the Michigan game. Yeah, the result of that was definitely less than ideal. It was heartbreaking to see because it was an incredible journey and the whole season, collectively, was proving everyone wrong, and we got to the peak of adversity and we just didn’t bring our A-game. Do they have more five-star recruits, fill in the blank? Sure. But we never let that stand in our way before. About midway through the second quarter, we let our foot off the gas. It just got out of hand, early on. But if we were to play them 100 times, that would never be the score again, and I’m confident of that.
So a moral question: your dream comes true, you get to play for TCU, you’re a member of the most successful team TCU has ever produced, and you have to deal with two enormous disappointments, both at the Big 12 Championship and National Championship. Relative to the great heights that you achieved, how do you walk away with your head up and not feel demoralized?
There’s a lot to be taken from the sport of football—win, lose, or draw. There are lessons to be learned, there are relationships built. Obviously, if you write it out on paper, the perfect season: we beat Kansas State, we beat Georgia. Those were heartbreaking losses. To be in the locker room and feel what that felt, it wasn’t easy. But I know that our team never once turned their back on each other, we counted on each other through thick and thin. It truly felt like a brotherhood and that these guys were going to go to war regardless of the circumstances. We win together, we lose together.
When did you realize how good y’all were?
There are two answers to that. A personal answer and the media answer. Personally, I thought it was after the first quarter of the OU game. That’s when I felt it. We were up 24-0 in the first quarter against a team that has beaten us ten out of the last eleven years. Now for the country, I’d say everyone got on the bandwagon after the UT game.
What’s your favorite thing about TCU?
My favorite thing about TCU, I don’t want to sound cliché, I know I have a lot of family there, but I’d say it’s the culture. Everything seems so family-oriented, with God-centered, loving people. It just seems like a big group of people that love sports, that love being competitive, that are going to give you a hug when you’re having the worst day ever, and the first people to congratulate you when you have the best day ever. They’re going to be there to root you on whether it’s the rifle team, whether it’s tennis, soccer, baseball, anything, and everything. Swimming and diving. That’s what I love. It’s not just one thing.
Now the important questions. What’s your favorite whisky?
I’d have to say Jack Daniels. But I’m not that well-versed. I’m only twenty-three.
I wasn’t well-versed at twenty-three either. Stones or the Beatles?
Beatles.
Favorite movie?
It depends on the genre, but if we’re going feel-good comedy, Kicking And Screaming. But I also like The Matrix.
Favorite book?
Aside from the Bible, The Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success. I’m big on personal development and trying to be a better version of yourself when I wake up tomorrow than I was today.
You get to burn one school to the ground. Baylor or UT. Which goes?
Oh wow. There are reasons for both. Personally, I’m going to go Baylor. You can argue for both, as a TCU fan. I was at the 61-58 game. So that resides in my heart, where TCU, the year with Boykin, we’re up 21 going into the 4th and we lose 61-58. That one stuck with me. Also, I feel like between the two smaller Texas Christian private schools, they’re the bigger competitor. Whereas Texas, they’re about to go to the SEC, they have the national brand name, and we still beat them eight out of the last eleven seasons, in that range. Football-wise, we’ve beaten both a fair amount in the last decade. But because one feels like a competitor, I would say Baylor.
Thanks, Palmer.
Thank you.
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