Pimplomat

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Today is the day that I turn into a sports nerd

Thursday, September 08, 2005

The 2005 NFL season starts today, and I could not be more excited. Many of my friends are surprised that I'm as in to football as I am. Little do they know that I played football in grades 5 through 12. I mainly played wide receiver and defensive back; however, I never made a touchdown. I came close once in sixth grade, and a guy ran me down and tackled me about five yards from the endzone. Never making a touchdown in eight years of football kind of still gets to me, like never making a 4.0 in college.

I was on the first-string team all the way up to my senior year in high school. By then, my interests were mainly in listening to music and playing music. I remember during my junior year worrying that I would make the varsity team, and if I did I would have to miss the upcoming Cure concert. Varsity played on Friday nights, and the Cure's show was on a Friday night. It was a needless worry though; I didn't make the varsity squad.

Still, while I was at the Cure concert with my mom (wearing her bright yellow shirt--easy to find in a sea of black clothes), my high school's varsity squad got into a fight with the other team. Not just a one player-on-one player fight, but a team bench clearing, fans jumping onto the field fighting other fans kind of fight.

There were no fights during my varsity year. I mainly sat on the sidelines and kept stats. I got to play for about five minutes during our last game of the season. I was really sad in the locker room after the game, as were a lot of my teammates. Most of us had grown up playing football together, and we knew that it was our last game. It was the last activity that pulled us in as one, not defining who we were as individuals, but defining a time when it was about a larger picture, when friendship mattered and when teamwork would actually get you somewhere.

After that, it was mainly about individual accomplishments--look at me, I got into this school and you didn't; I got this job and you didn't; I got this dog and you didn't.

I know not everyone is selfish and willing to stab his or her friends in the front just to get ahead, but to those who remember team sports and actually enjoyed them, I say hats off.

Today is the day we can sit back, eat bad junk food, drink cheap beer, and cheer on our favorite teams. Together.

posted by pimplomat @ 6:13 AM

1 Comments:

At Thursday, 08 September, 2005, Long_Division said…

KICK IT! MOVE THE BALL OVER THE LINE! POUNCE IT! SCORE IT FOR THE TEAM! NOW, WATCH THE OTHER TEAM! DON'T LET THEM MOVE THE BALL TO THE OTHER LINE! TACKLE THEM! GET THE BALL BACK! SMASH THEM! GO TEAM! MOVE THE BALL TO THE LINE! REPEAT!

So I never really got into sports. I understand that my above description may sound more like African Rhino Dung Ball than football, but that's honestly what it sounds like to me. Not that I mentioned shit. Or Africans. But you know what I mean. Honestly, I've been drinking.