(Kudos to Mason for giving me the idea for this piece).

Every football fan knows about the offensive line. Have a good one and they go without comment. Nobody mentions it when the QB never gets sacked. Have a lousy one, though, and it's the subject of discussion in bars and talk shows throughout the week. Basically, it is rare to see an offensive lineman get any sort of credit for a job well done. They don't win MVP's, they don't get Nike commercials, and only the very very best see a salary even close to what the 30th best running back sees. Heck, it wasn't until the late 80's that you even saw them featured on their own football cards.

Our truckers similarly don't get the respect they deserve. Yet they keep our country running. If we got up tomorrow and the trucks stopped rolling, it would be less than a week before you'd feel the pinch. After the gas dried up and your favorite restaurant ran out of food, you would be watching shoppers strip the shelves bare in the department stores because there would be no way to supply replacement inventory. Even WalMart couldn't hold out very long.

Truckers are the backbone of this country and they are becoming scarcer and scarcer. The cost of fuel and maintenance has flat out driven many independents out of the business, and strict DOT regs have limited the earnings potential for others. As Mason has been so good about showing us, it's a risky business that you run without knowing where or when the next load is, and where a single tangle with a tarp can lay you up for a week or more.

So next time you see a truck our on the highway, give 'em a break. They're doing a thankless job and one we all depend on. Thanks truckers.