By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FORT THOMAS - It's almost time for the big game in this football-crazy town.

The teams have been practicing for weeks. The game plans are set. There's even been some mild trash talking among players.

Firefighters and police officers spend their careers protecting the public. Sunday night they'll meet on the gridiron to bang on one another.

IF YOU GO

What: Charity football game between firefighters and police officers from throughout Campbell County. When: Sunday 6:30 p.m. Where: Highlands High School, 2400 Memorial Parkway, Fort Thomas. Cost: $5 for adults, $3 for students, kids under 7 free.

Cops, corrections officers and firemen from throughout Campbell County will suit up in full equipment - helmets and pads - for a 6:30 p.m. charity football game that will benefit a sick colleague and dozens of needy kids.

"We're doing this as a fund-raiser," said Lt. Rich Whitford, 36, of the Fort Thomas Police Department, a wide receiver in the game. "We wanted to raise money for charity and we wanted to do something different. So we thought it would be interesting to bang heads against each other."

The teams - firefighters on one side, police and corrections officers on the other - have been practicing for two months.

They have coaches, plays, uniforms. There is a revenge factor, since police won last year's game 6-0 in a contest cut short by a driving rainstorm. And both sides are ready to hit.

"There's some pride on the line," said Jason Farris, 23, a firefighter with the Bellevue-Dayton Fire Department and corrections officer at the Campbell County Jail. He's on the firefighters' side. "The police were talking some smack after last year's game, but it's all in good fun."

Farris played last year but has since been diagnosed with cancer and has been unable to work. The money raised will help him pay his medical and other bills.

Proceeds will also be used for Shop with a Cop, a program where police take needy kids Christmas shopping each December, and to buy presents for children who spend the holidays in the hospital.

"There's definitely some revenge on our minds," said firefighter Adam Hall, 25, also of Bellevue-Dayton. "But because the game was rained out, we don't look at it as a full game. This year is the real game."

Many of the players last suited up in high school. Others - like Euton and Fort Thomas Police officer Doug Bryant - played in college.

"They're bragging that they're younger than us," Whitford said. "We look at it as experienced."

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com