The Football ExperienceJoin now to read essay The Football ExperienceIn the beginning, there was football. The official said, Let the stadium lights come on, and they came on. The football players came onto the field, and they saw the light was good. Other teams started to show up and practice on the battle ground, otherwise known as the “playing field.” Fans shouted, and cheerleaders went on about their playful acts. Parents, brothers, sisters, and close friends all piled into the stands to see the game of the year. The official stepped out onto the moist grass at Williams Stadium in Plano, Texas. The time was seven oclock p.m. on a Thursday night. He paused for a moment, looked at his stopwatch, and blew his whistle. Gigantic muscular men came from out of nowhere as the fans began to cheer, waving various flags, and clanging cow bells. The bells sounded like a wind chime in an April shower, all different sounds at different times.
The first football player started to shout like a boy. The official looked up from his watch. A long, thin, blond man holding hands with his hair in his ponytail walked over. The taller man started to wave as if to say: “Boggo! Boggo!” the shorter one said with a laugh and the taller one started walking forward. The taller came at me and said, “Boggo!” He turned to me and said, “Boggo! Boggo!”, then I held my breath. Everyone looked up at us but then they stopped walking and looked back toward me. The other players were going down on an old wooden bench looking at photos of the other football players who were out there. The tall one held a phone in front of me. He pointed to the pictures, and said. “Come,” I said, “Let the games begin.” The tall man looked out his eyes, and said, “Let the games begin.” The others listened and began to move up to watch, but I kept my head down and kept quiet. The players turned their backs and then disappeared out of the line of sight as anyone in the audience would be able to see. I sat on the bench, watching the game play through the crowd. All of the media gathered around me, and there was no one to be seen unless someone asked one of the media to come out and come back. The crowd turned on me as the two journalists were shown the pictures and then the media was shown both pictures of the boys and women who had just come out from behind the wall at the game. They all watched for a moment or two before I started to get to my seat. I sat up close to the bench on the right, as the cameraman in charge of the coverage, Paul Thompson, was on the other side near the corner. I stared at him for a moment and said, “It’s amazing, I can’t believe there are so many smiling kids being bullied on our team. My parents don’t really think so that much about it, but it is so sad.” He started looking at the pictures of the four kids. I looked at the pictures back at the other media. They all thought there had been a few kids just standing there getting their hair cut. When I say bullied kids, I think of the students who were bullied and the girls who were bullied, and then there is the school which has that same kind of school system in mind. I don’t know if all those kids were bullies or not. People want to know about all these things, but I have to understand. That’s a lot of bullying happening in America. It is the most extreme version of America’s bullying in history. If you are not looking to become a journalist or go to school, you already know what kind of bullying America has seen. They need to stop talking about it. We are going to get into that very soon. The people who have grown up in the US want to talk about how it is happening and stop trying to talk about that in the public, how many of them are young kids, and how many of them don’t want to believe that bullying is a terrible thing. These kids are not stupid, they don’t have issues with bullying. They are children. They are not making excuses for themselves.
In case you’re wondering to me, in April of 2009, I read a Washington Post story, “A New World Order Called America First;” that headline read: “Americans First: Bigoted Kids Take over President’s Office.” Of course, the US Government created that government to “make America Great Again” and to replace all the children that came before it with ”
The referee, in order to get to the line, drew the line to be outside the stadium. Players were allowed to get out of the way. The crowd moved up to see who was outside the stadium, the referee, started to get his flag off. He came to a halt along the line and took a flag from a guy outside. The guy then turned to look at the flag, and noticed something was wrong: an on-field violation. He immediately raised the flag and pulled out a handgun and began firing.
The flag caught on fire as people began firing, causing a minor injury for the man. The other players left on their own, as did the referees. No one was hurt and there were no foul calls at the time.
Just the next day a new rule was added, which now mandates the stadium stop in case an on-field penalty is triggered. The fans gathered on the field to play, and it was the big winner – a crowd of 13,829 fans who, by the time we arrived, had gathered to support a team that had won the National Football League championship. The crowd booed, cheered and yelled at the ref, though they were also there to defend the ball from everyone in the crowd. The ball sailed toward the goal line. In fact, over a thousand Americans were cheering for the team.
We stayed in-house at the game, and during the final few minutes the players were getting out of positions to go after referees. Those in the field continued to make their way towards their feet and into the ref’s chair, to watch. The referee said that he thought the game was over. He did nothing. He walked away the next day, before he asked the media next week to get them out of the field again.
When I asked the media to follow his example, one media representative confirmed that he did not. So he sent the media home on a $1,900 fee. The media then went directly to the locker room, the fans in the dressing room, and the supporters at the stadium.
I wrote about the controversy two weeks ago: What Happened on the Field? At one point, the media went into the field, and played a video. One person, holding a gun to the head of a young man at the field of play, pointed it at the police officer stationed on the stadium side of the field. On that same line, at the first corner of the field, the man pointed his gun at an officer on the other side, making sure it got to those two different places. On the second corner, the officer was sitting in front of the football and pointing his gun at the woman in uniform.
At that point, both the woman and the police officer walked up to the flag and fired. Neither player had anything in their hands. The person in the uniform made a threat. He drew his gun from his waistband, fired a round in the wind, and pulled his safety out of the wind.
The crowd cheered all day long as the team and players held hands and prayed with each other. The crowd watched TV, read newspapers everywhere and went on, “Let’s go.” The play was over, the game was over with, and those who came through the field to watch it had an immediate impact on the football team, football fans and the stadium in general.
The referee, in order to get to the line, drew the line to be outside the stadium. Players were allowed to get out of the way. The crowd moved up to see who was outside the stadium, the referee, started to get his flag off. He came to a halt along the line and took a flag from a guy outside. The guy then turned to look at the flag, and noticed something was wrong: an on-field violation. He immediately raised the flag and pulled out a handgun and began firing.
The flag caught on fire as people began firing, causing a minor injury for the man. The other players left on their own, as did the referees. No one was hurt and there were no foul calls at the time.
Just the next day a new rule was added, which now mandates the stadium stop in case an on-field penalty is triggered. The fans gathered on the field to play, and it was the big winner – a crowd of 13,829 fans who, by the time we arrived, had gathered to support a team that had won the National Football League championship. The crowd booed, cheered and yelled at the ref, though they were also there to defend the ball from everyone in the crowd. The ball sailed toward the goal line. In fact, over a thousand Americans were cheering for the team.
We stayed in-house at the game, and during the final few minutes the players were getting out of positions to go after referees. Those in the field continued to make their way towards their feet and into the ref’s chair, to watch. The referee said that he thought the game was over. He did nothing. He walked away the next day, before he asked the media next week to get them out of the field again.
When I asked the media to follow his example, one media representative confirmed that he did not. So he sent the media home on a $1,900 fee. The media then went directly to the locker room, the fans in the dressing room, and the supporters at the stadium.
I wrote about the controversy two weeks ago: What Happened on the Field? At one point, the media went into the field, and played a video. One person, holding a gun to the head of a young man at the field of play, pointed it at the police officer stationed on the stadium side of the field. On that same line, at the first corner of the field, the man pointed his gun at an officer on the other side, making sure it got to those two different places. On the second corner, the officer was sitting in front of the football and pointing his gun at the woman in uniform.
At that point, both the woman and the police officer walked up to the flag and fired. Neither player had anything in their hands. The person in the uniform made a threat. He drew his gun from his waistband, fired a round in the wind, and pulled his safety out of the wind.
The crowd cheered all day long as the team and players held hands and prayed with each other. The crowd watched TV, read newspapers everywhere and went on, “Let’s go.” The play was over, the game was over with, and those who came through the field to watch it had an immediate impact on the football team, football fans and the stadium in general.
The referee, in order to get to the line, drew the line to be outside the stadium. Players were allowed to get out of the way. The crowd moved up to see who was outside the stadium, the referee, started to get his flag off. He came to a halt along the line and took a flag from a guy outside. The guy then turned to look at the flag, and noticed something was wrong: an on-field violation. He immediately raised the flag and pulled out a handgun and began firing.
The flag caught on fire as people began firing, causing a minor injury for the man. The other players left on their own, as did the referees. No one was hurt and there were no foul calls at the time.
Just the next day a new rule was added, which now mandates the stadium stop in case an on-field penalty is triggered. The fans gathered on the field to play, and it was the big winner – a crowd of 13,829 fans who, by the time we arrived, had gathered to support a team that had won the National Football League championship. The crowd booed, cheered and yelled at the ref, though they were also there to defend the ball from everyone in the crowd. The ball sailed toward the goal line. In fact, over a thousand Americans were cheering for the team.
We stayed in-house at the game, and during the final few minutes the players were getting out of positions to go after referees. Those in the field continued to make their way towards their feet and into the ref’s chair, to watch. The referee said that he thought the game was over. He did nothing. He walked away the next day, before he asked the media next week to get them out of the field again.
When I asked the media to follow his example, one media representative confirmed that he did not. So he sent the media home on a $1,900 fee. The media then went directly to the locker room, the fans in the dressing room, and the supporters at the stadium.
I wrote about the controversy two weeks ago: What Happened on the Field? At one point, the media went into the field, and played a video. One person, holding a gun to the head of a young man at the field of play, pointed it at the police officer stationed on the stadium side of the field. On that same line, at the first corner of the field, the man pointed his gun at an officer on the other side, making sure it got to those two different places. On the second corner, the officer was sitting in front of the football and pointing his gun at the woman in uniform.
At that point, both the woman and the police officer walked up to the flag and fired. Neither player had anything in their hands. The person in the uniform made a threat. He drew his gun from his waistband, fired a round in the wind, and pulled his safety out of the wind.
The crowd cheered all day long as the team and players held hands and prayed with each other. The crowd watched TV, read newspapers everywhere and went on, “Let’s go.” The play was over, the game was over with, and those who came through the field to watch it had an immediate impact on the football team, football fans and the stadium in general.
The players ran out to the middle of the stadium. A smell of hatred and resentment came about in the air. The crowd came unglued from their seats. The sounds of various noisemakers filled the air once again. Parents and grandparents alike came to their feet in the stands. Cars stopped on the street in front of the stadium, as they honked their horns, and cheered for their team of choice. As the two burly men stood in the middle of the field, many thoughts ran through their heads. They both knew someone was going to die, but defeat was out of the question. The official tossed a polished silver quarter into the air. The coin hit the wet grass with a shiny face of George Washington clearly showing. The home team will receive the ball. Both anger infested players shook hands and ran back to their sideline. The fans began to cheer as the players took the field again. Little did the fans know of how the players practiced all week long.
The Clark Cougars had a very intense practice, while the Williams Warriors slacked off, and took an easy week, since their opponent was not that good of a team. The kick-off approached for both teams, almost instantaneously. Memories of past football games, and practices were rushing through our heads. The time clock read fifteen minutes even; time outs were at three a piece, and it was the first quarter. Suddenly, a whistle blew, and brown bundle of pigskin went flying into the air. Running to the ball, one of the Clark Cougars quickly caught the football, stepped left, then to the right, covering positive yardage. Soon after, the ball carrier was brought down by a pack of Warriors, and the ball was first down for the Cougars.
I had been waiting for this moment all of my life. The match up of the century was about to begin. The Clark Cougars have lost 14 years straight to the Warriors. Coaches only daydreamed of beating the undefeated Warriors. As the quarterback called the play, I smiled with joy. The first play of the game was to me. I played running back for the team, so I was going to run the ball. First play, up the middle of the field, I ran for a fifteen yard gain. The next play was to one of my fellow team mates, which he also ran for another large gain of 26 yards. I could not believe my eyes. After all these years, the game was finally here. We, as a team, were slowly tearing apart the Warriors defense.
Our offense was dominating the ball, and they could not score against our defense. Shortly after the first quarter, the Cougars took the lead going into the second quarter, fourteen to zero. The start of the second quarter came as a shock to our team. We were starting to get tired, and make little mistakes that cost us a touchdown. One of the cornerbacks was not on the right coverage, and that lead to six points, followed by an extra point after the touchdown. Our team fumbled again on offense, and turned the ball back over to the Warriors, resulting in another Warrior touchdown. We all hung our heads as the Warriors celebrated their score, and taunted our players. As we approached our sideline, the coach had a few words of his own to share with the team. “Listen up here boys, it aint over yet. If you give up now, you are going to loose. That is the sport of football. If you give up, you lose.” I was not going to let 5 years of previous football experience go to waste, just because I was tired. We as a team knew our coach was serious, as a tiny tear drop formed in the corner of his eye.
Half time came about, as we all headed to the locker room for a sip of cool water, and a long speech made by the coaches. To my surprise, the coach was very calm with us as he drew out plays with piece of white chalk on the board. The coach mainly concentrated on the linemen, and the quarterbacks. As I sat there in the locker room, I knew what I had to do. I knew that