Matt Wixon

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Richardson Pearce quarterback Paul Miller and his cousins, Jesuit quarterback Brent Miller and Highland Park quarterback Charlie Burford, like to hang out together. It's easy to guess what they talk about.

"But we don't always talk about football," Paul Miller said.

Probably more now than ever, however. Pearce, Jesuit and Highland Park each qualified for the playoffs, giving them a lot to talk about over the weekend.

It gives 75-year-old Walton Miller a lot to talk about, too. Paul and Brent Miller are his grandsons, and he said Burford – his nephew through marriage – is like one of his 12 grandchildren. The quarterbacks often visit and watch football games at his home in Dallas because he can't get around so well now that he's battling leukemia.

ERIC KAYNE/DMN

Football is a popular topic when (from left) Charlie Burford, Paul Miller, Walton Miller and Brent Miller get together. Paul and Brent are Walton's grandsons, and Burford is his nephew.

Miller has also had three heart surgeries this decade. But he can still tell detailed stories of his days at Highland Park, where he graduated from in 1950. He'll even sing the fight song for his junior high, and tell you how he was only 5-11 and 120 pounds when he played left end (now called tight end) for the ninth-grade football team.

"He tells us about how he was so small that he had to run away from everyone," Paul Miller said.

Miller didn't play varsity football, but he was a co-captain of the HP basketball team as a senior. He also won a pair of state tennis titles – doubles as a junior and singles as a senior – and later played tennis for SMU.

Paul Miller, a senior who is one of the area's most prolific passers with 2,649 yards and 19 touchdowns this season, has heard all about that. So have Brent Miller, a junior who starts for Jesuit, and Burford, a junior backup at Highland Park.

The three quarterbacks also hear a lot of pep talks. "He really encourages us a lot to get things done," Paul Miller said.

They can do that by refusing to lose, Walton Miller said. He also tells the quarterbacks about his favorite sports strategy.

"When you throw an interception or mess up a play or fumble," he said, "you get up smiling."

Why?

"It scares the heck out of your opponent."

It might also scare the heck out of your teammates. But hopefully some of those smiles will come after plays the quarterbacks want to remember.

E-mail mwixon@dallasnews.com

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