After I finished my bowl of blueberry mini-wheats I smiled. I felt good. Nothing was bothering me physically and we were 2-0 on the season going into a game against a team that was 0-2. I wanted to play well and win... 2 things that were quite doable. Between kickball and football I haven’t been on a team that has lost a game in 2 weeks and I was getting used to the prosperity.
We arrived at the field, got loose and as game time approached I took a look over at the other sideline. The team we were playing was in rusty orange shirts. We had played them last year and did well against them but they added a few guys and didn’t look like a team that hadn’t won yet. In fact they looked pretty good. They had a bunch of small quick guys which personally I hate chasing all over the field. But they had no size and we had a few tall guys, myself included, plus we have that veteran savvy that can win some close games for you. I was looking forward to the matchup as we got underway.
We started off on defense and if you go by what happens on the first play of a game, things looked good for us. The guy throwing for them threw a ball across the middle to a female and she dropped it. I clapped softly. Any good result for us is well, a good result. On the next play they hit a female for about 20 yards down the sideline opposite of the one I was guarding. That wasn’t good. The next play netted them about 15 more yards in the same general area. The guy playing safety back there wasn’t moving toward the play very well. Within a few plays they scored and for the first time this season we were losing in a game.
We now had the ball and we know we can score in bunches so it wasn’t that tense a situation but it didn’t take very long for it to get tense, just in a different way. Our quarterback threw to one of our girls in the flat and whammo! Some guy decided he was going to try to intercept the pass except his chosen route was a little unusual as well as impossible. He decided he’d try to get the ball by going through our female’s body. Now let me tell you something about our football league. There are no ghosts in it. There aren’t any superheroes that I know of nor are there any illusionists or magicians. So all this guy did was jump into the air and slam into our female from behind, mostly whacking her in the back of her head with his arm.
When this occurred there were a few quick mumbles and heys in that guy’s direction. The referee on that side of the field cautioned him. I mumbled something the guy’s way and of course he reacted to it. He tried to justify his actions to me since I was the most vocal on our team about it. He said “I was trying to get the ball” to which I replied, “what, through her head?” On a play like that the guy was late arriving. The girl had position and the ball was thrown right to her midsection so all he could have done was apply the 2-handed tag right after she caught it, if she did.
So now there was some tension on the field and I hate when people play physical like that. 3 things happen: First, the referees now suddenly have to make hard judgments and influence the game which they don’t want to do but have to do to keep the 2 teams from escalating to an all out brawl or something. Second, when one team plays physical the other team will either respond in kind or be really pissed off the whole game. Either way, this takes the element of fun out for most people. Lastly, when it starts to get chippy and physical out there, some people will back off and not try as hard. Females may get afraid to catch balls in fear of some over zealous douchebag bumping them and some of the guys will play passive because they don’t want to chance getting hurt. You can’t blame anyone for reacting in such a way although it burns me because when a bully wins that always pisses me off to no end. I start to think when the bully wins; it encourages their forceful, brutish mentality.
A few minutes later in the game I was over the middle on a route and the quarterback threw my way. Just before the high throw struck my outstretched hands a felt a good shot in the side from one my opponents. I couldn’t catch the ball, nor could I keep my balance when I returned to the earth and the force sent me into a stumble and eventual roll once I realized I was going to tumble down. When I jumped back up to my feet I took a look and saw who it was who did it… yep, same guy. I gave him the death glare for a few seconds before I went back to my team huddle. One of the girls on our team said I looked like I wanted to kill him. Maybe I did but I wasn’t. While I was angry it helped that the referee threw a flag on the play and called him for pass interference. What he did was throw a hip check at me in the air just before the ball arrived into my hands. I suppose he was going for the ball again, just was trying to do it through MY body this time.
This might be a good time to cover the rule on contact during games. This from page 6 of our 8-page rule package under Offense, Rule 20: “This is a non-contact league. Other than being tagged, there should be no other contact made”. Also I cite Defense, Page 7, Rule 1: “This is a non-contact league. Hitting, blocking, bump and run and tackling are not allowed.” Now with this in mind you might understand why we were getting testy with our opponent today. There is a significant difference between stepping in front of someone to make a play on the ball and going through someone’s body (bumping, pushing, hitting) to make a play on the ball. They obviously didn’t get it and their reckless play spoiled the afternoon for us.
The worst part was that the physicality overshadowed the fact they played a very good game against us. They moved the ball almost at will against our normally solid defense. We fought the whole way and by I mean we kept the score close, not actually fought. We were generally within 1 touchdown most of the game. When we fell behind by 2 touchdowns we’d often score one right back to close the gap. One of those times is when I got hurt. I ran a 10 yard out pattern and when the throw came the defender tried to jump in front of it to intercept it but the throw was a good one and he jumped in front of me but by then the ball was already in my hands. I turned and ran down the sideline looking at the end zone only 20 yards away. As I was making my dash for the touchdown I saw only one guy who had a chance to catch me.
He was coming at an angle and was running very fast. As I got down to about the 5 yard line I thought about going airborne to dive for the goal line but right before I did this guy slammed into my legs. I don’t know why he slammed into my legs but when he hit my left leg it was pushed very forcefully into my right leg and I went down pretty fast. I think I made it about 3 or 4 yards from the goal line so we were really close and we had a few plays left to score. I sprang up to my feet but when I did I could feel something wasn’t right. I took a step and my right ankle was screaming at me. I jogged off the field and signaled for a substitute to come in. I probably shouldn’t have jogged off the field but that was instinct that goes back to high school football. If a play finished and I was hurt after that play I’d always jump up to my feet and run back to the huddle or the sideline and never let the other side know they hurt me. That ficticious display was something I did often to hide “weakness”. Yeah I know it’s a silly macho thing but that’s what I learned growing up and that’s what my instincts told me to do. When I arrived at our sideline I was in a good amount of pain. It was the back of my ankle. As I tried to walk it off, pacing back and forth I looked up long enough to see one of our females catch a short touchdown pass and we once again closed the deficit to one touchdown. That was the good news. The bad news was that I could not sprint.
I tried to walk it off, flex my ankle but I could not push off in a way that would allow me to run hard and fast. So I had to stay off the field while I watched the other team take the ball and march down for another score to restore their lead to 2 touchdowns. Another one of our guys was hurting and was out of the game too. We were down 2 guys and fading. The captain/quarterback came over to me and asked me if I wanted to throw. I agreed because it would get me back on the field. We were now down the 2 scores plus time was ticking away in the game and things were getting desperate.
I did manage to get us down the field for a score to close the gap within one but the other team had the ball with less than 4 minutes left. We had to get it back. Now this is the point where if this were a movie I’d tell you how we stopped them and with less than 30 seconds left I threw a game winning touchdown. Unfortunately life isn’t always like the movies. As it turned out they held the ball for the duration of the game and then scored on the last play to beat us 30-something to 20-something.
I limped to the car upset that we lost but far more upset that this team played the way they did and won. I am a believer in karma and balance and I was bummed that they got away with what they did and was rewarded with the win. In a perfect world they would have blown it and lost because that’s what they deserved. Perhaps their comeuppance will come at another time. I hope I’m there to see it. That definitely gets me more than losing the game. Plus I now have a mildly injured ankle courtesy of their reckless play and I have a very important kickball game Monday evening. I have to be ready to rock n roll. I will be. But for now consider me sore and sore.
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