Football Hero

It was a fall Thursday night in a small town in Southeastern Arkansas, it was my first time to play in a football game and my whole family was there to see me. I was on the 7th grade team, just below the 8th grade and JV (Junior Varsity) team. I wore number 22.

I had never been so nervous in my life, I knew I could play because practice was great and the coaches had told me how good I was. All I had to do was get through the nerves and listen to the play call from the quarterback.

The air was hot and sticky, the crowd was loud and the other team was big, very big, Coach A called them hawg and corn fed boys. I called them monsters. They looked like they wanted to eat me and sounded like it too.

I could hear them saying things like: hey number 22 we're going to put you on your back and stomp a hole in you, number 22 you are going to be apart of the field when the game is over.

Coach A told me to ignore them and just focus on what I practiced and show them what I was about.

Coach J came over to me and said, "Son, you know them boys aint nothin' but hot air and jelly donuts, go whoop up on em!" I responded with "Yes, Coach!" and left the bench running as fast as I could.

When I reached the huddle I felt weird and did not know at the time why, the play was called and we got into formation and the quarterback, Mike, snapped the ball and handed off to me. I ran through the line as hard as I could and then stumbled and was tackled hard.

The referee had signaled touchdown and I had scored.

When I stood up I noticed everyone was laughing, even my dad was laughing in the stands.

Coach A was yelling at me, but I could not understand what he was saying, Mike ran over to me and said, your pants are on the ground, pull your pants up.

I realized that I had not put on my belt due to my nerves and my pants and pads were down to my ankles and I was in my transformers briefs for all to see. My teammates started singing the theme song, and then the other team and even the folks in the stands. I was so embarrassed that I could not even look up and just sat at the end of the bench.

Coach J came over, and told me to stand up and hold my head up high and had some of my teammates gather around me and taped my pants and pad around my waist and said that would do until halftime and we can fix you up with a new belt.

Coach A asked if I was ready to go back in, I nodded yes, but really was not. I could hear people calling me Optimus Pants, Fumble Bee and wanna be autobot.

If I could only have changed my underwear to just plain white and forget that happened.

I get in the huddle and Mike tells me to shake it off and his favorite is Megatron and the other guys start naming their favorite transformer. I smile and feel better. I tell Mike to call the play and let Geno get the ball and I will block.

We got 4 yards on the play, the next play was a pass, we kept that going till we were 2o yards from the goal line. I could hear the crowd now shouting give the ball to the Autobot and laughing.

Don't worry about them, Mike says and calls the next play, which a run for me to the right.

I get the ball and run as hard as I could and BAM!

I got hit hard and it hurt, I stood up and my pants were still up and I ran back to the huddle and told Mike to run the same play, I needed payback and was not focused on my pants anymore.

Again, the crowd is yelling for me to get the ball, "Autobot! Autobot!"

I line up to the left and follow Brian, who is lead blocking for me and go left. I put my shoulder into the linebacker from the other team and push forward and hear the whistle blow. I had scored again.

Now the crowd is going crazy and singing the theme song: Transformers More than meets the eye, Transformers, More than meets the eye, Transformers, Robots in disguise.

I had gone from being laughed at to the Hero.

I never scored another touchdown and barely played football again after that night, but for that moment I was a football Hero and an Autobot.