Pyrhic Losses?

As friendly men are to do from time to time: we brag, we boast, we playfully insult each other. One group of friends has the ultimate gauntlet to throw down for a challenge: the six pack challenge! Like knights of old we has chosen our field of battle to test the honor amongst men, the Glorious Football Fields of Fishers.

The Rules of The Six Pack Challenge:

• Bring the six pack of beer, preferably already cool.
• On defense you usually guard the person with whom you're challenged. The only reason it isn't always guard the person is that we recognize that sometimes people need to rotate positions for certain plays.
• Score a touchdown on your challenge is 1 point.
• Score a two point conversion on your challenge is 1 point.
• Intercept your challenge's pass is 1 point. Therefore, intercepting the ball that was not thrown by your challenge is 0 points, but still a cool thing to do. This is football.
• Whoever has the most points at the end is the winner and gets the other person's beer.

I had to thrown down the gauntlet last week to defend my honor. The challenge was accepted. My opponent played organized football for 7 years; I never had. My opponent was a sneaky slow man 70lbs lighter than me. He wasn't that fast, but if he got 2 steps past me they would be a difficult 2 steps to make up. My opponent had less momentum allowing him to easily turn. I had nothing but momentum to ensure I was going in a straight line and install fear in those wishing to lay their two hands on me.

Most did not see this as a close contest; yet the impossible can occur sometimes. I maintained my workouts like I normally do and included 1.5 to 2 mile runs afterwards. I may not have had speed, but endurance would be my friend on Sunday.

The sunny August day was a good day for football. The teams were set, the ball hiked, receivers ran out, defenders picked up their man, the battle waltz began. My challenge scored his touchdown on the first drive. It was a perfect pass and I couldn't have done anything about it. The immediate 2-point conversion add insult to the injury. Now the lumbering big man caught the ball and I drove up to the first down marker. People were surprised I even caught the ball. They were more surprized when I caught it a second time. 5 yards here, a first down there, I helped nickel and dime our way towards the endzone before the offense stalled out.

Back on defense I kept hip to hip at full speed; the ball thrown and I managed to get 2 fingers on it to make sure it wasn't caught. 50 yard bombs, S-curves, 5 yard slants, picks, 10 yard crosses, man in motion and the battle went on. The soreness of muscles, the scratches on my leg, the blood on my knee it mattered not as we had to play. Dropped passes, bent fingers, trying to run with the ball before fully catching it, the mistakes piled up yet the good parts occurred as well. I caught the ball for 5 yards in a cross. I slanted up to catch the ball for 6 yards. The massive legs kept on churning to keep up with my man and to keep running him into the ground. I had the best game I ever played and played better than everyone else by keeping drives alive, yet I never scored.

Our team lost the game as one of us finally collapsed in exhaustion. I lost my six pack challenge, yet won the M.V.P. for the game. I brought my best game when it mattered most. I did not win, yet I was not beaten.