Gladiators of the Gridiron

Jackson’s crutches thudded along the floorboards as he made his way over to the front door, where Tommy was already waiting for him.

‘You ready?’ Tommy asked.

Jackson answered with a nod.

‘Alright, see ya, Mom, see ya, Dad, see ya, Chrissy.’

‘Have fun, you two, and stay safe,’ their Mom called out as Tommy opened the door for Jackson and the two went out to Tommy’s car. Their Dad and Chrissy were too engrossed in their game of Connect 4 to give a response.

Jackson laid his crutches over the backseat, then hopped into the front. Tommy looked back at the crutches after he got into the driver’s seat. ‘When can you get rid of those things?’

‘Uhh, two weeks maybe? I’ll visit the doc again and they’ll let me know how much walking I can do without them.’

Tommy nodded, pulling out of the driveway and heading towards Arcadia High’s football field. It was game day, and while Jackson was still forced out onto the sidelines, this was still a perfect time to study the art of the game.

Today, the Titans would be playing at home, going up against the Mesquite Wildcats. The JV squad hoped to carry over their momentum from last week’s hard fought win, while the Varsity team was determined to continue their winning streak.

The brother’s arrived at the field shortly before the afternoon’s first game would begin; the coin toss for the JV game just concluded as they were finding their seats.

When Jackson steered clear of his team’s bench, Tommy didn’t press the issue or ask any questions. He looked the bench over, however, and frowned. ‘Do you guys have a lot of injuries with your JV team?’

‘Huh?’ Jackson frowned as well, looking down at the Titans bench a few rows below them. Coach Otsen was addressing the players just before sending them out for the kickoff. All the familiar and expected faces were there.

Jackson shook his head. ‘No. We just… not many people made the cut for tryouts, and less stayed after training actually started.’

‘There was only twelve of you after summer training camp?’

‘Uhh… eleven including me… they had to bring in someone new when I was injured…’

‘I see…’ Tommy turned his attention back towards the field.

Jackson frowned deeper, lowering his head, reminded of how he’d let the team down before their first game.

Tommy nudged his leg. ‘Keep your head up. This is important. I know you’ve watched tons of games like this, but this time is different. We’re not here just to have a good time, we’re still here to learn.’

‘O-Oh, right. S-Sorry.’ Jackson nodded and with a clenched jaw, he kept his eyes on the game now.

The Titans would be kicking off to start the game, going on defence first. As Tommy watched the Titans take their formation for defence, he leaned forward in his seat.

‘I don’t think I’ve seen your team play yet. What do you think you guys are best at.’ He glanced at Jackson.

‘Oh, uhh. Well, defensively… I mean overall, Kenny is the best player—’

‘Aside from you.’

Jackson chuckled awkwardly and cleared his throat before continuing. He pointed Kenny out to his brother. ‘But, I mean, he’s a more offensive focused player. He’s still a good DB. Other than that, the rest of our pass defence might be a little weak, but our run defence tries to make up for it. Our guys upfront are getting really strong.’

Tommy nodded. As the first drive was underway, it wasn’t long before the apparent weak point of the Titans’ defence was exploited.

Number 18 for the Wildcats was headed straight for Freddy who was backpedalling rapidly and looking quite nervous. #18 shimmied then swerved outside, though once Freddy shifted their hips to turn that way, #18 instantly darted the other way.

Freddy scrambled to keep up, but got all twisted around by his own feet and tumbled to the ground, leaving #18 wide open.

A long ball soared through the air and as #18 slowed up, it fell right into his hands. Thankfully, Lonnie was able to catch up with him and prevent him from scoring a touchdown, even if it was a gain of over 40 yards and the Wildcats were in field goal range just like that.

Jackson winced and his shoulders slumped.

‘What happened there?’ Tommy asked.

‘That was… ahh… he’s the kid they brought in after I was injured. H-He hasn’t played before all this.’

Tommy rested his chin on his hand as he looked at Jackson. ‘I see… but that’s not what I asked, is it? What went wrong and why do you think it happened?’

Jackson’s brow furrowed as he looked towards the field. Freddy had been helped up onto his feet, and the game continued, the defence scrambling to do their best to keep the opposition back.

He replayed the previous play in his head. ‘Uhh… well, he was too nervous, too worried about being beat. He jumped too early on the first thing he saw…’

‘Right. And the Wideout pounced on that chance, as soon as he saw the defender flip his hips, he got him turned around and zipped in behind him. That’s the kind of thing you need to be doing… haha, but it won’t always be that obvious. Spotting a jumpy and nervous defender when you’re lining up is important.’

Not too long after, the Wildcats scored with a quick 7 yard pass into the endzone to their TE. Tommy stood up, cheering and clapping, Jackson looking up at his brother worriedly as he was one of only a few supporters cheering for the away team.

Tommy pointed down at the play excitedly, grinning. ‘See that? It was a zone defence, and that was an option route. The TE saw that the middle of the field was congested because of the threat of a run, but that his teammates had drawn attention way out to the sidelines and the back of the endzone, so he found the gap in the zone and sat right down in it. It was perfect! Just the way they would’ve drawn it up.’

He sat back down, still grinning. ‘Being able to see the field and read the entire defence, it can be even more important than being faster or stronger, or able to jump higher than your defender.’

‘Right…’ Jackson nodded. It really was like the TE had known EXACTLY where to go to find the perfect opening in the defence for that touchdown.

‘I know it can be harder to pick up in real time, but this is good practice. Sure with film you can go into greater detail and you can always pause and rewind, but this helps you understand it all closer to how it would be in a real game. I know you’ve watched a lot of games live before, but there’s a difference between WATCHING and STUDYING.

After the extra point was good, and the short kickoff return, the Titans took the field for offence this time.

Tommy again turned towards Jackson. ‘Offensive strengths, shoot.’

‘Well, Kenny’s the best WR—’

‘Aside from you.’

‘R-Right… uhh, well yeah, but, we’re more of an aerial attack then. Our linemen can provide good time, and our Recievers are good. Petey can put the ball right where you need it, and he doesn’t usually make mistakes. …But I mean, we’ve still only won just one game, so we’re maybe not THAT good yet.’

Tommy shrugged. ‘Don’t beat yourselves up about that. You’re a young team, you’ll get better as the season goes on.’

It didn’t take long for Kenny to showcase his skills. On a deep “in” route, he snagged a nice grab over the middle of the field, yielding a 17-yard gain on the play.

‘Beautiful,’ Tommy commented. ‘You see how decisive he is with his cut? When he’s at the top of his route before he turns towards the middle, he gets the defender to hesitate for just a split second, but that’s all he needs cause he’s already prepared to make his move.’

Jackson could only agree; it had been a crisp, clean route that Kenny ran, the cut towards the middle giving him the space he needed from his defender to make the catch.

‘Then, when he needs to make the catch, he’s… well he’s fearless.’ Tommy frowned.

Jackson looked away. ‘A good Receiver HAS to be fearless…’

Tommy rubbed the back of his head. ‘Noo, no. Fearless isn’t the right word. They have to be courageous. They have to push their fear aside, and focus on their goal instead. That goal being the ball. A Receiver can’t worry about anything else when they’re going for a catch, just the ball. They can’t worry about the defenders, or themselves, they have to be focused solely on catching the ball, no matter what. And with the way Kenny throws himself into it, you can see that’s how it is for him.’

Jackson was quiet. Still looking away from the field.

‘You’ve always been like that too when you were playing,’ Tommy said.

‘Th-Thanks.’

The Titans’ first drive would end in failure, unable to get any points. However, their defence would hold up, and before the first quarter was over they managed to tie the game with another good pass on a well designed pick play to the outside, where Kenny helped free up Nick for the touchdown.

Going into halftime, the score was 7–10 with the Titans behind only because of a field goal kicked just before time was up.

‘You wanna go down there and give them a pep talk? Or even just to say hello?’ Tommy asked.

Jackson shook his head. ‘N-Nah… I should just… I don’t want to distract them. I should just let them focus.’

Tommy let things be.

The second half got underway, and the two brothers kept a watch eye on the battles between the Receivers and DBs throughout the second half.

Tommy would continue to point out good plays and mistakes, then he'd ask Jackson why something worked or why it didn’t. He’d even point out good things he saw from Receivers that didn’t even have the ball thrown their way on the play.

Jackson would keep his eyes peeled for anything impressive, even if it was something simple like a good block, or good effort to reach an uncatchable ball.

But, as the end of the game drew closer, and it looked like it’d come down to a nail-biting finish, the analysis side of things slowly disappeared as the two became engrossed in the game.

Throughout the second half, both teams had managed to score another pair of touchdowns each, so the margin was still the same as it had been at halftime, right in the final moments of the fourth.

The Titans had the ball with under thirty seconds left in the game. They were only 2 yards out from the endzone, but it was fourth down.

Instead of aiming for overtime by taking the near guaranteed field goal, Coach Otsen elected to go for it, having one last trick up his sleeve as he called their final timeout.

‘Alright, come close here.’ He pulled the boys into a tight huddle, leaning down to be eye level with them. ‘We’ll run an Jet Sweep … to Freddy.’

There was shock on all the faces in the huddle, but no one said a word against him, Kenny having to bite his tongue to keep his mouth shut.

Then, Freddy himself broke the silence. ‘Ummm… C-Coach Otsen? What does that mean?’

Coach Otsen pulled the boy in front of him, hands on Freddy’s shoulders as he looked into his eyes. ‘When Petey taps his foot, you’re going to start jogging towards him, like you’re gonna pass right behind him. When you’re close enough he’s going to snap the ball, and he’ll hand it right to you, right here.’ He smacked his hand against the boy’s stomach firmly. ‘Hold it tight, and RUN. Run as fast as you can, and you aim straight for that cone, that pylon at the corner of the endzone, and you don’t stop running until you reach it, no matter what.’

Freddy gulped but nodded meekly, clutching his stomach once Coach Otsen moved his hand away.

‘Now get out there and win this damn game!’

As they took to the field again, Coach Knight gave Coach Otsen a questioning look.

Coach Otsen chuckled. ‘They’ll never expect it. We’ve barely used him as anything more than a blocker and distraction all game, and now we’re giving him ball to win it all on the final play? There won’t even be anyone in his way, he could walk into the endzone.’

As Freddy lined up, he kept his wide eyes on Petey at all times. He was shaking, breathing hard as he felt like he might crack a bone from how hard his heart was pumping against his ribcage.

Then Petey tapped his foot twice, and Freddy started moving. His breathing stopped, but his heart kept racing.

The ball was snapped, and then passed into Freddy’s hands. He squeezed it as hard as he could, and ran like his life depended on it while Petey faked a handoff to Isaac.

In the end, Coach Otsen was right. Freddy could’ve been able to walk into the endzone at a leisurely pace and no one would’ve even laid a finger on him.

He easily ran in for the game-winning touchdown, and the crowd burst into cheers.

Tommy hooted and whistled in joy, stuffing his fingers in his mouth as the whistle carried loudly over the rest of the cheering.

The entire team swarmed Freddy, hoisting him up into the air upon the shoulders of the largest boys. He had just won them another game. Maybe their season was turning around after all.

As he watched all this unfold, Jackson forced a smile, though his fists clenched tighter against his legs. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Freddy and the rest of the team as his replacement was lauded as the hero of the game once again.