Sweet Victory Is Mine

February was the last time we played football. The weather was far nicer today than then. As anyone who knows me will state, I am NOT an athlete. I attempt to be an active person (salsa dancing, Mini-Marathon, working out at the gym), but I have not one single athletic bone in my body. I never played any sports when growing up. In fact I had to teach myself the basics of football while being in the high school marching band. So playing the game is both wonderful and frustrating. It is fun to do something I like, yet frustrating to know that I lack the basic skills so many of my compatriots have.

The nice thing about sports though is if you practice enough you will improve a bit. I'm much better now than I was 2 years ago when we started our two-hand touch games. I can catch the ball at least sometimes. I can run routes better. I can pick up on how close the defender is guarding me. I can watch the quarterback's eyes and see the direction he wants to throw too. I have much more endurance now. Playing a game doesn't tire me out like it used to. I'm faster now and can keep up with some of our players. Speedy Gonzales I'm not, but weighing 25lbs less does assist in having an extra step now.

My main goal every game is to have fun and contribute. I got to have both today. I got to exploit my size today. If I can get in front of someone I'm hard to get around. That worked perfectly as I blocked out my defender and caught a 2 point conversion.

That small victory paled to the Clash of The Titans! There was a clash and we were titans! Whumpa is a big man who is also very fast. His top end may be only 45 mph, but he gets there very quickly. At full speed you just don't want to get near him because of a very legitimate fear of being run over by a Mack truck. I'm medium sized compared to Whumpa, but now I can keep up with him. We were down 2 TDs and we looked at Padre to ask his divine boss for an interception to stop the bleeding. Their QB threw the perfect pass to Whumpa, but our legs tripped over each other. The clap of thunder marked our collision. Whumpa managed to hit the ball up and somehow it landed in my hands. We kept going forward as Whumpa hit the ground and the trees shook from the quaking earth. I was only 5 yards from the opposing quarterback who suddenly had to get two hands on me. I tried to run diagonally to see if I could slip past the QB. I couldn't slip past him, but at least I got 4 or 5 extra yards for our team.

Everyone looked at Whumpa and the divit in the ground. They looked at me and wondered how I had the ball. I was holding the ball in the air with both hands as I left loose a Chewbacca growl in celebration. It was only one play, but damn I felt good. Several plays later we scored a touchdown and was back in the game.

The nice thing is we won the game! Nachos and beer for Brian please.