Gladiators of the Gridiron

‘Just how exactly am I wasting my time?’ JJ said, still glaring at Ty. ‘I’m training and working out with a teammate, we’re growing together, how’s that a waste in any way?’

Ty laughed. ‘With him?’ He pointed a thumb in Rabbit’s direction. ‘You might as well expect a dead stick to grow taller.’

‘That’s not true. He’s getting better, you can’t deny that. He’ll be great in no time with how hard he works, there’s a lot of room to grow, and it’s just his first year, not everyone is as lucky as you.’

One of Tyrese’s eyes twitched. ‘Lucky?…’ His expression darkened and he clenched his fists, but he let it go and took a breath.

‘Luck ain’t got shit to do with it,’ Ty said. ‘But you’re right he has a lot of room to grow, but so does an ant when you compare it to the size of a lion. He’s just clinging to your coattails… don’t let him drag you down.’

‘Or am I dragging him up? Like how teammates do? Did you even watch him play on the weekend?’

‘Hah! As if I’d watch those losers in JV play. You should be careful, seeing how shit their imitation of our game is, you might pick up some bad habits.’

‘So you don’t even know that he helped his team and played a key part in the end?’ JJ said.

‘Yet they didn’t even win,’ Ty retorted.

‘I thought you didn’t watch?’

‘I saw the results. And besides, whether he did good or not in JV doesn’t matter, that isn’t real football… I can’t respect anyone who plays in that shit excuse of a league.’

JJ’s scowl deepened. ‘I played my first year in JV.’

Ty scoffed. ‘It shows… you’re good, Julian, I’ll give you that. But that’s all…’ He turned his harsh gaze upon Rabbit. ‘Try as he might, this little bunny will never be able to reach even that level.’

‘And what if he does,’ JJ said, glossing over the insult directed at himself. ‘What if he makes it onto varsity?’

Again Ty laughed. ‘If—and this is a very big if, mind you—he manages to move up from JV, by the end of this season… then I might respect the little bunny.’

Ty walked off, bumping past Rabbit on his way by. ‘But that still won’t make you special,’ he muttered.

JJ watched him go, frowning as he shook his head. ‘I’m sorry about that,’ he said to Rabbit.

‘N-No… I’m sorry, it was my fault he yelled at you I…I mean he’s not wrong… there’s a reason I’m only on JV…’

‘Hey,’ JJ said, grabbing both of Rabbit’s shoulders. ‘We all start somewhere, I wasn’t bullshitting you when I said I started out on JV my first year too, most of us do, we can’t all be as talented as guys like him.’

They both looked over at Ty, who was warming up on his own. The coaches were getting things set up and ready, but soon enough the rest of the team slowly arrived one by one, and practice officially got underway.

As the whole team warmed up together, JJ found himself gravitating towards Ty. He’d seen some talented guys come and go over his years playing in high school and even middle school, as well as guys with that same kind of attitude, always looking down on everyone around them, but Ty was different.

Normally, those guys looked down on hard work too, got bored with practice, and only showed up just so the coach wouldn’t sit them on the bench all game, and until they realised they couldn’t afford to coast off the back of their talent anymore and saw that all the hard workers were catching up with them.

But Ty was always at every session early, always late to leave, and he was always focused, giving it his all. Why couldn’t he see Rabbit was doing the same then?

As the team ran laps, JJ moved to Ty’s side and said, ‘Hey, you need to apologise to Max.’

‘Who? Shit, you mean the bunny? Why the fuck would I?’

JJ pulled Ty out of the pack and dragged him aside.

‘What the fuck man? Get off me.’ Ty tried to yank his arm free, but JJ’s hand was like a vice. In terms of strength, he was powerless against the much larger, older boy.

‘I’m serious, he’s doing his best, and you need to stop putting him down, do you want him to quit?’ JJ sternly said.

‘Yes,’ Ty responded flatly. ‘Some people just aren’t cut out for this. No matter how hard they try. He needs to stop before he hurts himself.’

‘You’re wrong, just watch and he’ll prove it to you.’ JJ stared down at him, unwavering.

‘Tch, fine, whatever, I’ll lay off him… fuck man, why the hell do you care? Why were you even practising with him?’

‘I care because he’s my teammate, and as a captain, it’s my responsibility to look out for him, JV or not. And we were training together because we were both here, and I needed to polish up my coverage skills.’

‘Huh?’ Ty frowned.

‘Hey! Why the hold-up, captain? Let’s get a move on you two!’ Coach Long called out to them both before his whistle cut through the air shrilly.

Every coach had their eyes on JJ and Ty. JJ apologised to them all, and said he just had something he needed to discuss with his Ty. The two of them resumed jogging together.

‘I need to get better at sticking to a man, covering passes,’ JJ said. ‘So my team can rely on me without worrying about any of my assignments.’

Ty’s brow furrowed. ‘Hey, this ain’t about what happened during the game with that Tight End, is it? Look man, I don’t care about you being shit against passes or anything, honestly, I’ve got more faith in you than that Deshaun prick.’

JJ frowned and grumbled that Ty was putting down yet another teammate.

‘It’s just,’ Ty continued, ‘nobody gets in the way of me and someone I’ve set my sights on. I can cover anyone, and when I find my target, I’m not gonna stop until everyone can see how much better I am than them, until I’ve ground them down and taken them out of the game completely.’

JJ was taken aback by the serious tone in Ty’s fire, and the glint in his dark eyes. Ty sped off to catch up to the others, and JJ continued to jog behind them.

When they were done warming up, Coach Long gathered the players together, going over his typical speech of how he wanted a focused, hard session of practice, and how they all needed to lock in ahead of their upcoming games this weekend.

But during his rambling, Ty’s attention fell on Coach Hoang off to the side … and the annoying brat talking with him. He let out a groan.

“Ugh. That snotty little scout is back?” Ty thought.

When Coach Long was finished with his speech, and the players were separated into their teams of offence and defence, Ty headed straight for Coach Hoang, and Ricky.

‘What’s this little shit doing here?’ Ty said.

Luke scoffed as he turned towards him. ‘You know, you’re not real good at making friends, are you, Samuels?’

‘I don’t need friends.’

Luke rolled his eyes. ‘Anyways. Ricky here was just giving me info on our next opponents.’

Ricky looked as smug as ever.

‘Who’s their strongest Receiver?’ Ty asked the boy.

‘I thought I was just a little shit, why do you need my help huh? Why should I tell you?’

‘Tch.’ Ty gritted his teeth. ‘Right, as if I need your help. You don’t even know what you’re talking about. Did ya see my two picks last game? How’s that for a 75 overall? And, you said their QB had a weak arm.’

Ricky shrugged. ‘He did. If his arm wasn’t crap they would’ve had a touchdown on that back shoulder throw against you in the first quarter… but, I’m glad you feel good about yourself after beating some track stars in their first game.’

Ricky still had a smug smirk as Ty glared at him. ‘Plus, I remember that YOU were the corner who gave up the most catches and yards that game.’

Ty clenched his fists again, and Luke got between the two. ‘Alright, alright, that’s enough fighting with children. Thanks for your info Ricky, I’m sure the coach will wanna hear all about it.’

Ricky stuck his tongue out at Ty as he started to move away. Ty smacked the brim of his baseball cap and knocked it off his head. After Ricky picked it up and dusted it off, the two flipped each other the bird as Ricky backed away.

Luke sighed and rubbed at his temples with one hand. ‘Just… fall back in with the others, Samuels.’

Ty turned away and made his way to the group of other players waiting nearby.

‘Alright, this weekend we’ve got the Paramount Pirates coming to face us. They were one of the weaker teams last season, but that doesn’t mean much, you can never underestimate ANY opponent,’ Coach Hoang said.

‘And a new season means a new team anyway. It seems they’ve switched up their style a little bit as well and have gotten a new coach. Today we’ll be focusing on how to combat screen plays and outside runs.’

The shrill cry of a whistle rang out, and Coach Hoang ordered the players to split off into their position groups.

The Defensive Linemen went up against the JV Offensive Linemen, with a focus on “sealing the edge” and maintaining dominance over the outside positioning so no runs to the outside could get by them.

At the same time, Coach Hoang was constantly reminding them and preaching discipline to them: the discipline to not over-chase or overcommit to one side of the run and give up cutback lanes for the RB to flip the play and take it down the opposite side of the field for easy gains.

The Linebackers got similar orders. They would need to constantly pay attention in the upcoming game and be quick to react to whatever play the opposing team calls, whether it’s a run or a pass, they needed to fill up the gaps in the line and overwhelm the blockers with their numbers to disrupt everything before they could get deep downfield.

The DBs first had to work on their tackling.

‘If a run does break it to the outside, it’ll be up to you to make the tackle and stop the runner before he can turn it upfield and start racking up the yards. But, before you can do that, you better be able to shed a block, ‘cause the Wideout your covering sure as hell won’t just stay there with his hands in his pockets and let you do whatever you want,’ Coach Hoang told them.

Ty frowned. While this was certainly a part of the sport that he loved, it wasn’t what he played Cornerback for. It gave him no thrill, and he saw no achievement in it.

He played to completely shut down a Receiver and disrupt passes, in that situation, if he ever had to make a tackle, he already failed at his challenge.

But, shedding the attempted blocks from the JV Receivers wasn’t too big of a problem for him. He knew he had to use his long reach to his advantage, and it wasn’t like he had to get past an O-Lineman, whose entire job it was to block: these Receivers couldn’t block Coach Hoang if their life depended on it.

And when it came to making the tackle against the RB, Ty still wasn’t in much trouble. While it might not be a part of the game that he overly enjoys, he still knew it was the most important part of it for any defender, and he had no doubts about his ability to tackle someone.

Especially when that someone was actually his size for once. With the Freshmen, or Sophomore RBs that were on the JV team, most were around his size, and some were even smaller, which meant they were much easier to wrap up and drag down than the bigger Receivers he was used to.

They drilled it over and over. A 1 on 1 blocking situation with the Receiver, having to get past them as quickly as possible before the RB got around them so Ty could make the tackle.

Each DB had their go as they took turns one after another for what felt like half an hour.

Then, after a short break, the next set of drills began. For the DBs, that meant trying to combat the various types of screen passes they might see in the next game.

‘DBs! Line up!’ Coach Hoang ordered, and when they were all lined up before him, he rolled down the line, pointing out two of the players at a time and telling them to pair up.

When he got to Ty, he pointed at him and looked around. ‘Samuels annnd… Banks, pair up. You’ll be working together for this one.’

Deshaun groaned loudly and rolled his eyes. Ty sighed as he made his way over to the senior CB’s side.

‘Don’t get in my way,’ they both said at the same time.

A vein bulged over Deshaun’s temple. ‘Shut the fuck up, freshy. Just stay out of my way and follow my lead.’ He shoved past Ty as they made their way to their spot to line up for the next drill.

‘Yeah, I’ll be sure to follow you if I want to end up with no D1 offers,’ Ty said.

Deshaun coldly glared back at him, but didn’t say anything further.

For this drill working on their defence against screen passes, the paired-up DBs had to work together against two Receivers to disrupt the pass altogether, or hold them to either no gain or just a couple of yards.

The main key to accomplishing this, was teamwork and communication, as they’d never know which Receiver was going to be setting the “screen” and blocking for the other, and which was going to be catching the incoming pass.

When it came to Deshaun and Ty’s turn, their first attempt was a trainwreck.

Ty and Deshaun were lined up side by side, and when the whistle blew for the play to commence, both defenders were locked in on their own Receivers and only worrying about what was in front of them.

So when Deshaun’s assigned Receiver burst forward and then darted to the left, Ty was completely blindsided and ran straight into the block AND Deshaun as he was trying to follow Receiver #2 going in the opposite direction.

The Receiver Ty was supposed to be guarding simply stepped behind his teammate’s block, caught the pass, and was free to get away down the field.

‘Watch where the fuck you’re going!’ Deshaun yelled, shoving Ty away as the drill was whistled dead.

‘Keep your fucking man off me!’ Ty growled back, getting in Deshaun’s face.

Coach Hoang’s whistle diffused the situation. ‘Samuels! Banks! Back of the line, now!’ he ordered.

Deshaun shoved Ty away and the two trudged back to the line to await their next turn.

Though the next attempt didn’t fare any better. This time the opposite happened and it was Ty’s man who ran straight into Deshaun.

Though this time Ty recognised what was happening and at the last second tried to turn away to go and cover Deshaun’s man instead, but as he turned around Deshaun smashed through the block and both he and the blocker fell on top of Ty.

Again the Receiver caught the ball with ease and strolled away untouched.

‘Man get off me!’ Ty tried to shove Deshaun off him.

‘Can’t you fucking control your man! What the fuck? You let mine get away! Ugh, I told you to stay out of my fucking way, you’re really pissing me off freshy!’ Deshaun stood up, but as he did so, he shoved Ty back into the ground even harder to push himself up.

Ty grabbed onto him and almost dragged him back to the ground as he pulled himself up onto his feet.

There was plenty more pushing and shoving before once again Coach Hoang’s whistle told them to separate.

‘Samuels and Banks, do you two wanna sit on the sidelines for the rest of practice?’

The boys quieted down, glaring at each other as they stomped back to their place in line.

Ty watched the next pair step up and take their turn at the drill. He listened as the two DBs called out what was happening with the Receivers.

‘Yo Switch!’ ‘It’s coming your way! Watch the block!’

And thanks to their communication, the two easily covered each Receiver, they knew exactly what was happening, and they were able to blow up the passing play with ease.

Ty clenched his fists, watching each other pair take their shot at the drill and come out with varying degrees of success, but success nonetheless.

He took a deep breath as it came down to his and Deshaun’s turn again.

He was ready, and hyperfocused before the start of the drill. He COULDN’T fail this time.

The whistle blew, and he saw his man head straight for Deshaun.

‘Watch out block coming!’ Ty jumped forward, getting in the path of Deshaun’s man as he cut underneath the block.

Thanks to Ty’s warning, Deshaun slipped past the block attempt and both defenders closed in on the Receiver behind it. They were both right there in the perfect position to intercept the pass, but it never came … at least not to the Receiver that stayed behind.

Ty’s man, who had initially gone to block Deshaun, when met with no resistance, continued forward and with no one marking him, was free to make the catch downfield.

Ty was ready to tear his hair out.

Deshaun gave him another shove. ‘Nice one, watch your own man, asshole.’

The pair failed over and over. Either failing to communicate correctly, or both of them would try to make the play and get in each other’s way, or completely forget about one of the two Receivers.

And whilst every other pairing figured it out and would be able to stop each pass, Ty and Deshaun continued to fail until practice was over.

Ty sat on his ass, panting hard. Deshaun lay nearby, panting just as hard as he stared up at the darkening sky.

Coach Hoang came over to them both. ‘I’m disappointed in you two,’ he said. ‘One of the leaders of the defence, and our brightest freshman player. You should be leading examples for the team… you both better sort your shit out before the game.’

He rolled away without either of the boys responding.

‘Man, fuck this,’ Deshaun said, standing up. ‘You better not fuck me up during the game.’ He smacked Ty on the back of the head as he walked by.

Ty didn’t react. He pulled up fistfuls of grass, a deep scowl on his face as he looked around. Everyone else’s practice had gone smoothly, and they were all smiles, looking forward to the game.

Even Ricky was still there, the brat laughed and grinned at Ty as the two locked eyes.

Ty punched the ground and abruptly stood up.

Ty walked out of that last practice before the game with an iron resolve. “I’m going to crush these fucking pussies. Screens are for weak shits who know they can’t win 1 on 1. Even if I have to do it myself.”