Gladiators of the Gridiron

JJ’s gloved hand came into my vision, I stared at it for a moment before finally grabbing onto it, and then I was promptly yanked up to my feet. He patted me on the back of my helmet and said,

‘Keep your head up, you’ll get him next time.’ I brushed myself off and made my way back over to the huddle. Though my focus was on the opposite team’s huddle, namely, that hulking brute that had knocked me on my ass.

JJ gave a quick pep talk about how we shouldn’t feel bad about giving up one first down and it didn’t mean anything, I zoned most of it out. But then my head snapped towards him as I heard what adjustments would be made to our defence after that play.

‘I’ll mark 88 (Ogre), I’ll follow him wherever he goes. Ty, you’ve got 17, Lachie, you’ll cover the middle. Okay? Great. Let’s get out there and smash ‘em,’ JJ said.

As the huddle broke away, I grabbed JJ’s arm. ‘Wait up,’ I said. He stopped and looked back at me. I narrowed my eyes, glaring at him as I tightened my grasp on his arm.

‘I’m guarding number 88.’ He frowned and looked past me towards our bench; I kept my eyes on him. ‘I don’t care that the decision came from Coach Hoang. He won’t beat me, I can stop him. I won’t lose.’

He nodded and then patted my shoulder. ‘I know you won’t. You got him, man.’ He flashed a grin, I stayed deadly serious before we broke away and I went to my spot in front of that massive Ogre and JJ went over to cover Milquetoast.

‘Back for more?’ Ogre sneered. I glared up at him but didn’t respond.

The ball was snapped; Ogre slammed into me and shoved me back even as I dug my heels into the turf, which did nothing but tear up a ton of grass as he moved me back like I was as light as a leaf.

But this time, it was another run, and without JJ being in the middle like he usually was, they got a decent chunk of yards out of it. When their Shorty was finally caught and dragged down, they only had three yards left to go before they got another first down.

We huddled up again, I glared at the ground, JJ made some on-the-fly adjustments, he was still super cool and composed, showing his leadership and experience. We didn’t change the game plan much, but now he was back where he needed to be in the middle of everything to hold us all up.

Another snap, another run, they just barely got the three yards they needed, and once again I was easily shoved back, ending up on my ass again, with Ogre stepping over me and laughing once the play was whistled dead.

My teeth almost tore my mouthguard to shreds they were grinding so much. Their offence continued.

The next snap, another pass, finally. But still, I couldn’t stop Ogre or even impede his progress at all. He shoved me aside with ease and stepped across the middle of the field.

The ball flew his way, and I stretched out as far as I could, but there was nothing I could do, I couldn’t even lay a finger on the ball before he caught it.

He was slow though, and quickly got swarmed by my teammates. However, it was still an eight-yard gain in the end.

JJ patted me on the helmet again, I didn’t raise my eyes to meet his, but I could feel his gaze judging me, telling me I wasn’t good enough and that I was in over my head, that I should quit.

But he didn’t say anything, and he didn’t step in to try and change the plan, he still went against the coaches for my sake, just so I could make a bigger fool of myself. He’d let me go until I decided to give up on myself. JJ was a good guy, and I was beginning to like him more and more.

I clenched my fists and stomped over to my spot in front of Ogre. I blocked out whatever retarded bullshit he slurred out of his fat, stupid mouth.

‘Hut!’ He backed me down with ease again and pushed me off to get enough space as he turned around for the ball.

Again, I stumbled and was slow to recover. He reached his hands out, and the ball bounced right off those thick, brick mitts of his. I dived and outstretched my hand, my fingers grazed leather, but I couldn’t reel the ball in and it fell harmlessly to the ground.

‘Nice catch, fuckface,’ I muttered as I got back up.

‘Wut you say, you tiny piece o’ shit!?’ Ogre angrily shoved me away. One of the umpires got in between us, but neither of us tried to escalate the matter, and we both backed away.

His drop only heightened my anger. “How am I losing to such trash?!” It was embarrassing.

We couldn’t stop them now, whether it was on the ground, or through the air with short passes to Ogre, they’d found their groove and now it was the Monsoons who were slowly chipping away at the defence in front of them and working their way down the field.

I felt like I was slowly climbing higher on the immovable wall that was Ogre, but I had to fight tooth and nail for only an inch of progress, and I still had way too far to fully get over that wall in front of me. Sure, I could recover faster, and my arm got closer, but I was still unable to disrupt any pass.

They passed the halfway mark of the field and made it into our territory, and still, they advanced without any sign of slowing as they crept closer and closer to our endzone.

That was until JJ slammed into their Shorty behind the line of scrimmage right after the RB had gotten the ball. With his solo charge, we’d pushed them back a few yards.

With the increased distance they had to win back now, and the fact that they’d already lost one of their downs, the rest of the defence shifted back to a less aggressive Zone, focusing more on defending passes rather than the run.

That didn’t stop them from trying to force their way through with another pass though, and it didn’t help me at stopping Ogre, but luckily, the stupid oaf dropped another easy catch and their second play ended with no gain.

Now they were in a tricky spot, but they still had faith, they still felt they had one weakness to exploit in our defence … me.

We only needed one more stop. No… at this range, we needed more than just a stop if we wanted to avoid giving up any points. It’d be easy for them to score a field goal with how close the kick would be. We needed another turnover.

I lined up in front of Ogre, my heart was racing, he was snarling, but otherwise stayed silent—both of us were too focused to waste any time talking trash.

‘Hut!’ He charged forth like he always did and backed me down further than he ever had before—they needed to cover a lot of ground if they wanted this drive to continue.

He got out to around fifteen yards past the line of scrimmage before he broke off some space between us and turned back to catch the ball.

The throw was a little slow coming out of the QB’s hands this time, and with the increased distance the ball had to travel, it gave me enough time to recover.

“I can get there!” I lunged forward, my arm outstretched as far as it could as I slipped around Ogre and went for the ball.

I disrupted the pass, but that was all I could do. The ball bounced up into the air off my deflection, and I stumbled to the ground, flailing at the ball as it slowly rainbowed towards the ground away from me.

It was just out of reach and I couldn’t snag it. No one else was in the vicinity, and the ball hit the ground. We’d stopped them, but we’d failed to keep them from getting any points.

“Fuck…” I picked myself up, and while the others congratulated me on stopping the pass, it didn’t feel like I’d accomplished anything.

We made our way back to the sidelines as the Monsoon’s kicking team came out to attempt their field goal. I wasn’t interested in the result—in my mind, letting them get the opportunity of a kick from so close to our endzone was already a failure, it didn’t matter if a miracle happened and they missed.

Coach Hoang wasn’t pleased to see me when I sat down on the bench again.

‘Why didn’t you listen to me and let Jones handle number 88?’ he said.

‘Because I can beat him!... and JJ’s better in the middle.’

‘Oh, now you know better than your Defensive Coordinator? It didn’t look like you could stop him. He dropped more passes than you actually deflected.’

I clenched my fists tight and scowled at Coach Hoang. ‘I can stop him.’

He stayed quiet for some time, staring into my eyes the whole time. ‘One more drive. If you can’t stop him after that, we’re switching assignments and you’re sitting on the bench for the rest of the game,’ he calmly said.

My eyes widened. Benching me for the rest of the game was severe, and… something I definitely couldn’t let happen. ‘Fine. I’ll show you.’

I wouldn’t have to wait long to get my chance. Our offence was still in a rut and couldn’t get much of anything going, so after only a couple of minutes of rest, our defence was forced back out onto the field.

I checked the scoreboard. It was 13–3 now thanks to their earlier field goal attempt ending in a success. We were still in the third quarter, but my eyes were fixated on the three on the away team’s side of the scoreboard.

That three was a mark against me and I felt full responsibility for letting them score anything at all. We should’ve been able to beat trash like this without giving up any points.

I lined up in front of Ogre again. Deshaun passed by me on his way to his spot on the opposite side of the field.

‘Don’t fuck this shit up, boy. Or you can say goodbye to the varsity team,’ he said as he purposefully bumped me. Ogre laughed and grinned.

“Smug assholes… I’ll show you all,” I thought.

‘Hut!’ I threw myself against Ogre as hard as I could. But it was useless, I bounced off him like a pinball and he rushed right by. I was on the floor again and he was free to catch the ball and rumble down the field for a first down straight away.

I tore up more of the turf in my fists and picked myself up. All I could think about was smashing that giant fucker down on his ass.

But I couldn’t stop him, no matter how hard I tried, and my anger only backfired on me. It seemed like the harder I tried to stop him, the worse I did and the easier it was for him to get bigger and bigger gains.

They were knocking on the doorstep of our endzone, only a few more yards away from getting a touchdown, that damn Ogre had done most of the heavy lifting this drive, and he’d seemingly gotten over his problem with dropping passes.

They only needed one more successful pass, and they’d get a touchdown.

Thankfully, the whistle blew to call an end to the third quarter, it wouldn’t save us from our shitty position, but it’d give me some time to think and collect myself. I sat down on the bench, not saying a word to anyone as I struggled to catch my breath.

Coach Hoang didn’t say anything to me other. Coach Long gave me a pat on the back and told me to keep trying and not to lose hope. JJ also gave me some generic words of encouragement, mostly echoing what Coach had said.

The rest of my teammates … weren’t as supportive. Led by Deshaun’s obnoxious voice, they muttered insults and, rightfully, blamed me for everything, saying how useless I was, that I was the clear weak link, and that the opposition was about to get a touchdown all because of me.

And they were right.

I hung my head, staring at my hands and feet. They’d never failed me before. Why couldn’t I stop this one guy now? So what if he was bigger than me, everyone always was…

“Why am I playing his game? Of course, I’ll never get anywhere if I try to beat him with strength… I’m so angry, all I could think about was knocking him on his ass, but that’s fucking impossible! I need to beat that fat piece of shit with my feet!”

I picked myself up when the short break was over, and made my way back out onto the field, stopping by Coach Hoang first.

‘Sorry I made you worry, Coach. I was being an idiot, but I’ll stop them right now. They won’t score again,’ I promised him.

I looked down at him, my hand on his shoulder as my eyes were laser-focused. He stared up at me silently, then nodded with a confident smirk. I was liking Luke more and more too.

I strode out in front of Ogre once again as both teams lined up opposite one another to get the final quarter underway. Even though we were right at the endzone, and everyone on the defence was stepping up as close as possible to our opposition, I backed away and gave Ogre a lot of space.

‘Wot are you being a scared lil pussy for? Come closer, boy,’ he said.

I stayed quiet, staring him down.

‘Hut!’ He burst forward and I backed up further, keeping my distance from him but letting him get closer and closer. My eyes were focused on the QB.

The QB reared his arm back to throw, and I jumped forward as the ball was flung out of his hand. Before Ogre had even turned to make his catch, I’d already leapt past him.

The ball was mine. Without that fat Ogre shoving me around, I hadn’t stumbled, and with my solid footing, I was able to shoot off my back foot like a rocket as soon as I knew the ball was coming our way.

I intercepted the pass, and there was nothing in front of me except for a wide plain of green grass. I took off and tucked the ball under my arm.

Nothing else mattered. It was just me, the ball, and the field in front of me. No one could catch me. I ran the entire length of the field, from endzone to endzone, over 100 yards, and took that interception all the way back for a touchdown.

The game was mine. No one could beat me.