Football? Me?

Yes, it's true, I engaged in the sporting of men this afternoon in the true spirit of Thanksgiving. I played football. Come to think of it, the last time I played football I was in grade 7, maybe 8. I went to visit my friend Shadrach who lived in Burnaby at the time. He was going to play football at the park with some friends, and I went along of course. I hadn't the slightest clue what I was doing then, nor this, the second time I've played football in 12 years.

I had a mind of eagerness and watchfulness this time though, trying to get the gist of just what was going on; why this guy was doing this, why that guy was doing that, which way we were running, etc. Quite hilarious actually. When propositioned for the afternoon game, I told my invitee that I wasn't a football player, but decided to go anyway, remembering a line from 'As Good As It Gets' (Simon to Melvin), "the best thing you got going for you is your willingness to humiliate yourself...". Yes, I decided to play football this afternoon because of a line from 'As Good As It Gets'. (As this is an initial post, you're getting a good picture of just what sort of blog this is going to be, or rather, just what type of person I am).

So, with the willingness to humiliate myself in the name of killing time in the sunshine and trying to be accepted as "one of the guys" I played football. I'm laughing, it's just too funny. I showed up, pretended I knew what I was doing; I asked what the heck was going on several times, mostly to one who was a teenager, and one who was a senior; you know, so I wouldn't look bad asking a stupid question to one of my peers. And we played, and I tripped a couple times (like when there wasn't another guy within 8 feet of me... lol... TWICE!) I did what they told me to do, and... AND... the very last play, I touch-tackled the QB just before he threw the ball to a receiver in the end zone, who caught it and finished off the game. BUT alas, in order not to make a scene, and since nobody saw (except the QB who asked, "you got me didn't you?"), I let it go, and we finished the game... thank God. If I had spoken up, we'd have played longer.

Cheers to football. RIP.