Gladiators of the Gridiron

‘Do JV games go for the same length as yours normally do?’ Megan asked.

‘Yeah. Gonna be a boring one. Good thing you brought this.’ Ty tapped her book. Meg nodded and lowered her gaze to the pages again.

It didn’t take too long for the rest of the Lancers’ junior squad to arrive, and during that time the Dons’ JV team filed into the field as well.

Ty watched them all crowd around their respective benches. Contempt filled his eyes as he took in all the players older than him who were relegated to a division below his own.

How could they still be in JV after their freshman year? While here he was, at least one year—most likely more—their junior, and he was better than they would ever be.

He held no pity for their unfortunate situation, only disgust that they’d allow themselves to fall into such disgrace.

Rabbit shuddered, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. He looked towards the crowd, eyes falling on Ty almost instantly. He shuddered again.

Ty coldly glared down at Rabbit. “They should all just quit. It’s disrespectful to the rest of us otherwise.”

‘Come on. Off to the locker room, boys.’ Bella clapped her hands together, ushering the JV players towards the shoddy locker room designated for the away team.

Ty sighed as he watched them all wander off. This couldn’t be over fast enough.

‘I want you giving your all out there today, boys.’ Bella’s voice filled the locker room as she addressed the team. She put on the same commanding tone her father did whenever he made his speeches to the players.

‘This is the game we get our first win as a unit this season. I know we can do it. If you just do it like how we’ve practised, that win is as good as ours, all you gotta do is give it 110 percent. Alright, bring it in.’

Coach “Short” held a fist out and the players gathered around, pressing their fists against hers.

‘Win on three,’ Coach Short said. ‘One, two, three, WIN!’

‘Win!’ the players echoed.

The Dons ran back out onto the field to barely any cheers from the small crowd, and when the Lancers emerged, the support was hardly louder.

Ty looked around at the sparse crowd. Not even the majority of parents wanted to come watch this travesty … but his parents didn’t come watch his games either.

He snarled at himself and sunk lower in his seat, attention returning to the field before him.

The Dons won the coin toss. Coach Short shouted out to receive the ball in the 2nd half, so that’s what they elected to do.

The kickoff was nothing spectacular, not even making it all the way to the endzone, and still, the returner barely made it to the 20-yard line before being tackled.

‘Good hustle!’ Coach Short shouted out. Her father, Coach Long, was watching by her side, remaining mostly silent.

Ty watched the Dons’ defence and the Lancers’ offence take the field. To his eyes, no players stuck out, they were all as unremarkable as the next. The only one to catch his eye was Rabbit going out as part of the starting lineup.

He was the delegated “Slot” DB, tasked to cover the innermost Receiver. “Why the fuck is he out there? Did someone get hurt?”

The ball was snapped for the first play. It was a handoff up the middle, a power run, though the gap that had opened up in the Line was narrow, the Lancers’ RB stumbled over the mess of legs and feet within his way and fell down for a gain of barely a single yard.

Ty groaned. This was definitely going to be a long game.

Throughout the first drive, Ty’s focus was mainly on Rabbit, watching and analysing his every move. Rabbit would stick with whoever was lined up in the “slot” opposite him, always following the Receiver closest to the inside of the field before the snap, tracking them wherever they’d go.

While the rest of the team was in press coverage, as Coach Short ordered and reminded them constantly. They seemed to be in variations of zone defences, with the Defensive Line being quite passive, plugging up holes rather than going all out in their pass rush.

The Lancers’ offence was quick. The QB never held the ball for long, and their run plays usually stuck to being up the gut. It was clear to any trained eye that they were used to going up against a hyper-aggressive defence from their own practices.

But, Rabbit’s man didn’t catch a single pass throughout that first drive.

‘Hmm… he’s lucky the guy he’s up against is just about as trash as he is. He should be able to break past that mouse’s weak press easily. And look at his footwork, so sloppy. It’s a wonder he doesn’t trip himself on every play,’ Ty muttered to himself.

Meg looked up from her book and then out to the field, her brow furrowing.

The Lancers floundered before they even got past the halfway mark of the field and they had to punt the ball away.

The Dons’ offence took to the field after a fair catch from the relatively short punt.

‘Watch the blitzes! Don’t be fooled by them, find the real threat!’ Coach Short called out.

‘Don’t forget the corners!’ Coach Long added.

As the offence progressed, they handled the blitzes as best they could with draw plays where the QB faked like they were going to pass, only to hand it off to the RB at the last minute.

When they did pass, it was always something quick. Whether they were hitch curls where the TE or the Slot Receiver would only run ahead a few yards before stopping in an open and turning back to the QB, or one-step slants over the middle where the Receiver would step forward like they were about to sprint downfield only to sharply cut inside in a flat diagonal line.

Even with these quick, blitz-beating plays, the offence was inevitably forced into a third-down situation.

When that happened, Ty was shocked to see Rabbit make his way out onto the field again. This time, he positioned himself behind the QB as the RB.

The ball was snapped and Rabbit darted out of the backfield, rushing towards the nearest sideline, easily outrunning the sluggish LB that tried to keep up with him.

He looked back for the ball as it was tossed his way, and he made the catch. He skirted along the sideline and raced ahead for a first down before being shoved out of bounds.

With a new set of downs, Rabbit hurried back over to the bench, being congratulated by the coaches as he took his seat again.

‘Good job, Max,’ both Coach Long and Short said, the former patting him on the back as he went past.

‘Atta boy, Rabbit!’ Coach Norman thumped him on the helmet.

Ty frowned, watching on silently.

The drive continued, and each time the Dons were forced onto third down, Rabbit would make his way back out there. Sometimes he’d get a rush, other times he’d run a route, though he was covered more closely with another DB after his first catch, and sometimes he’d be in there to block, even if he did get run over in the blink of an eye, he still bought at least half a second more time for the QB to find a target.

The Dons were eventually stopped just outside of the red zone. At least they were in field goal range, and their kicker didn’t let them down, converting to put the first points of the game on the board.

Halfway through the first quarter, the score was 0–3 for a Dons lead.

Rabbit was soon back out there, back to his regular role as part of the defence. Ty was still watching him closely.

‘Hey, see what he’s doing?’ He tapped Megan’s leg, bringing her attention away from her book. She looked up, eyes locking onto Rabbit as Ty pointed him out. ‘How he’s the only one following his opponent no matter what?’

‘You always play like that,’ Megan pointed out.

Ty frowned a bit. ‘Yeah but just because a toddler makes a finger-painting doesn’t mean they’re Picasso or whatever, even if they’re technically both painting.’

‘I didn’t mean… obviously, you’re way better at it.’ Megan squeezed his hand lightly.

‘Hm, anyway, you know what that’s called? Man Everywhere he Goes. Or MEG.’ He grinned at her.

Meg blushed, looking away quickly. ‘You… huh… the way you play is named after me?’

‘It’s cool, isn’t it?’ Ty kept a hold of Megan’s hand as he focused back on the game. ‘Even if that shitty mouse can’t keep up properly.’

The game was a slog. A defensive battle throughout the first half without many more points being scored.

The Dons managed a second field goal, while the Lancers missed one of their own, though just before the half was up, they ran in the game’s first touchdown, taking a 7–6 lead into the major break.

Within the locker room, the coaches gathered together, going over the first half and what adjustments needed to be made.

‘Our Receivers are struggling to break through their press,’ Coach Short said.

‘How can we scheme a way to help them,’ Coach Long said, putting a hand on Coach Norman’s shoulder to stop the OC from interrupting just yet so that Bella would have a chance to find her own solution.

‘We could…’ she looked down, thinking hard. ‘What about using more motion before the snap to free up a Receiver.’

‘Great idea, Bella.’ Coach Norman said, patting her on the back.

She grinned proudly.

‘Next. How could we have stopped their touchdown drive?’ Coach Long asked.

Coach Hoang, the DC, watched Bella think it over, staying silent.

‘Uh… I-I don’t know.’ She looked to Coach Hoang for help.

‘They’re getting too much time to throw. We know that while they’re used to a lot of pressure, that doesn’t mean we can just give them all day in the pocket. I think we need to switch to a more aggressive defence with our front four and see how they handle that.’

Coach Long nodded.

‘Okay,’ Bella agreed.

Coach Long placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder, smiling down at her. ‘Time to rally the troops.’

She nodded then took a deep breath, turning to face the players. She clapped her hands together. ‘Alright! Huddle up, boys.’

They slowly gathered together, the senior coaches sticking to the outside as Coach Short was in the middle of the huddle.

‘You all did great out there in the first half. Keep it up. We’ll get our touchdown if we just keep chipping away. Don’t feel bad about giving up that touchdown, they won’t be in front for long. We’ve got to tighten up defensively, keep plugging away, and clean up some of our mistakes, and this win will be ours. Come on, win on three, again.’

Once more they piled their fists on top of one another, all the coaches joining in.

‘One, two, three, WIN!’

Their voices rumbled out from the locker room before they charged back out into the fray.

When the home team made their way out to begin the 2nd half, the cheers that met them were much louder than at the beginning of the game as more spectators, and families for the varsity players had arrived in preparation for that night’s 2nd game.

Ty watched the 2nd half as closely as he had the first, ignoring the few of his teammates who had arrived as he kept his focus on the game.

“Was everyone always THIS shit?” he wondered. As he watched Rabbit, for some reason the little twerp didn’t seem THAT out of place on the field this time.

The 2nd half was as much of a gritty, defensive, grind-it-out kind of game as the 1st half had been. Deep into the 4th quarter, the scores were still in the single digits, with the Dons only having scored another field goal—though they did also miss another field goal attempt this half, meanwhile, the Lancers were yet to score.

The Lancers’ offence was storming down the field, as the Dons’ defence desperately tried to protect their fragile 7–9 lead.

The Lancers had entered the red zone with just under five minutes left in the game. The ball was snapped, and the QB dropped back for a pass. Rabbit’s man screamed across the congested middle of the field, brushing past the crowd of people while Rabbit got tangled up with another defender and Receiver just long enough for his man to break away.

The catch was made, and Rabbit’s man strolled into the endzone for a 13-yard touchdown, pushing the Lancers back out in front.

Ty strangely, felt a bit of sympathy for Rabbit. Sure, someone as small as he is should be perfect for nimbly darting through the congested parts of the field, but, it wasn’t entirely his fault that he’d been shaken off his man like that.

‘Hmm.’ Ty looked to the scoreboard as the kick for the extra point soared through the uprights.

Four minutes to go, and the Lancers had a 14–9 lead. It was looking like the Dons’ JV was going to stay winless for another week.

‘Hey! Don’t give up hope now,’ Coach Long said as almost every player’s head was hung towards the ground. ‘There’s still plenty of time left.’

Coach Hoang placed a hand on Rabbit’s shoulder. ‘Chin up, Graham. You’ve still got a game to win.’

‘I-It’s my fault…’ Rabbit was shaking as he kept his eyes on the ground.

‘Then you better fix it, shouldn’t you?’

He kept quiet, biting his lip as he weakly nodded his head.

The kickoff return was good, giving the Dons a shorter field to work with, starting their drive at their own 35-yard line.

They’d push down the field, refusing to panic or give up as they worked their way closer to the endzone. By the time the two-minute warning came around, the Dons were sitting just outside the Lancers’ red zone at the 31-yard line, the endzone well within reach, though they were on 3rd down with 7 yards to go for a first.

Coach Short swallowed a lump in her throat, trying to calm her shaking and rapid breathing. Her dad placed an arm around her shoulders, hugging her close. ‘I’m really proud of you today, sweetheart. You want some advice from your pops?’

‘Please.’ She looked up at him desperately.

‘A counter run. They’re so aggressive, and we haven’t run one yet in this game. They’ll fall for it, and we should be able to get a touchdown in one play.’

Coach Norman stood nearby and nodded in agreement. It was the best plan they had for a knockout blow.

‘Okay.’ Bella relaxed, smiling up at the more experienced men. ‘Thank you.’

Rabbit’s heart almost burst out of his chest when he heard the plan. ‘M-Me?... but…’ He held back some bile that crept up into the back of his mouth and drowned it with the rest of his water.

‘You can do it, Max! Just run as fast as you can. You’ve got the easy part, okay? It’s up to the Linemen to open up the hole for you, all you’ve got to do is run through it and keep running until you get to the pylon,’ Coach Short assured him.

Rabbit took a steadying breath. ‘O-Okay…’ He shambled out onto the field with the other members of the offence once it was time to resume play. He was shaking like a leaf as he stood in the backfield.

The endzone looked like it was miles away, and everyone standing in his way looked gigantic. He closed his eyes, trying to stop the shaking.

‘Hike!’

Rabbit’s eyes snapped open and he rushed forward and to the right. He took the ball from the QB, holding onto it for dear life as he slammed on the breaks and shifted direction, he kept his forward momentum but now he suddenly burst towards the left.

Everyone on the field had been following the run and the blocking towards the right side of the field, and when Rabbit suddenly shifted back to the left, he’d wrongfooted every member of the defence. The plan had worked perfectly, and that slight hesitation, that singular misstep from the defenders was all the speedy Rabbit needed to leave them in the dust.

He raced in, untouched for the score. But, the offence wasn’t done just yet. As they looked towards the sideline, they stopped, Coach Norman urging them to stay on the field. Coach Long held up two fingers, and soon Bella did the same.

‘Go for two!’ Coach Long ordered.

Bella’s words caught in her throat, she had no idea what they should do in this situation now that they were going for a two-point conversion instead of a kick for one.

‘Keeper!’ Coach Norman shouted.

The offence understood his coded play call and bunched up close in their Line.

Meg tilted her head as she watched the play being set up; the ball was set just 2 yards out from the endzone.

‘What are they doing?’ she asked Ty.

‘Huh? Oh, right. I guess you’ve never seen this. They’re trying to get two points. See, instead of going for a kick, which almost ALWAYS works. You can try to get the ball into the endzone again with a normal play from the 2-yard line for two extra points instead of just one.’

She nodded as he explained things to her.

‘If the offence can get in for another “touchdown” they’d be awarded an additional two points to go along with the six they’d just scored. Why they’re doing this now, is so they can push their lead out to three points and make it so a field goal would only be good enough to bring things into overtime.’

Meg turned her attention back to the game. The Dons’ QB took the snap directly under Center, and tried ahead, trying to forcefully push his teammates and himself through the opposition.

Both Lines collapsed, and the officials rushed in, waving the play dead as they began the task of pulling bodies away from the pile-up to see where the ball had ended up.

However, when they got to the QB, it was clear that he was short of the endzone. Their conversion had been unsuccessful.

The Dons still had a one-point lead of 14–15, but there was still just under two minutes to go, with the Lancers having all of their timeouts remaining.

The Dons’ defence would have to make one final stand.

Despite the unsuccessful conversion, Rabbit was the brief hero of the game, his teammates swarmed around him to congratulate him on the score. Though he didn’t have much time left to celebrate, he had to get back out there quickly to play his part in the final defensive struggle.

The Lancers’ offence was clearly panicked and rushing even quicker than their usual rapid pace. But instead of quick, short throws, this time they were looking for bigger gains, longer passes, and they had abandoned the run-game altogether—a somewhat necessary sacrifice with such limited time remaining.

They wanted to get those points back in one go, and each throw deep down the field was a clear indicator of that.

They were around half-field with under a minute to go when they came to their fourth and final down.

They still had the full 10 yards to go to get a first down, but with only a single timeout remaining, they didn’t seem to care about a measly first down and were going for the win.

Rabbit lined up with his Receiver, each DB had been told to play back and prevent deep balls over the top now, and Rabbit was no exception.

‘HUT!’

Rabbit’s man rushed forward and then veered towards the outside of the field, wheeling towards the sideline.

At the same time, the Receiver lined up on the outside on the same side of the field shot forward and then darted towards the middle of the field.

Rabbit was forced to go underneath the oncoming Receiver and his own teammate, his man getting a few steps of separation from him as they streaked down the sideline.

The ball was lofted into the air, a high, spiralling rainbow arching down towards the sideline, Rabbit’s man adjusting his path to be directly under it. If he caught the ball, there would be nothing between him and the endzone.

Rabbit pushed as hard as he could, his legs pumping quickly as he closed the gap and looked for the ball. He was severely outsized, like he had been all day, but he knew he could stop this ball—he HAD to.

He jumped with all his might, springing into the air before the Receiver had even turned to make their own leap for the ball.

Despite Rabbit’s smaller stature, his huge jump rocketed him high into the air above the taller Receiver, and he was able to get his hand to the ball first, swatting it out of bounds.

He landed after the Receiver had already fallen onto the ground. The pass was incomplete. The Lancers had run out of downs and therefore turned the ball over to the Dons. There was not enough time left, and the Dons could use their downs to run out the clock with the Lancers unable to do anything.

The Dons had won. All thanks to Rabbit.