Gladiators of the Gridiron

“Can’t they shut the fuck up?” Ty thought. He kept his eyes on the TV in front of him, though he could barely hear the children’s cartoon over the yelling coming from the back of the house.

‘Well if ya ain’t gonna go to school, the least ya could do is get a damn job already!’ his mother screamed.

‘Why? Just so you can go out gamblin’ with it? I’m almost eighteen! You can’t tell me what to do,’ his older brother snapped back.

Elsewhere in the house, his older sister would let out a wail.

‘It’s not like that! I would never cheat on you! Baby just, just listen! Let me explain! You’re not letting me explain!’

“Shut the fuck up! No one fucking cares your boyfriend finally caught you.” Ty ground his teeth together and scratched at the arm of the couch. He couldn’t wait ‘til he could get out of there, counting down the minutes ‘til it was time for the game.

‘Ty,’ Megan said, ‘do you… need to step outside? Come on, how about we all just step outside for a little bit.’ She set her book aside, standing up and looking at the twins, who sat close to the TV, but Megan could see they weren’t really focusing on what was on screen.

They looked back at her, Ty was oblivious to the distress on their faces. They nodded meekly and each took one of her hands as they followed her out.

Ty got to the front door but stopped there, looking out at Megan and the twins. ‘I’m just gonna go to the field. I can’t stand it here,’ he said.

‘Oh. Y-Yeah okay.’ Megan looked back at him, but before she could say anything further he was already walking back inside.

He got to his room and didn’t hesitate about barging in during the middle of the ongoing argument, they didn’t even notice him at first as he started grabbing his stuff, though as he picked up his bag, his mother turned her attention to him.

‘And where the hell do ya think YOU’RE going?’ their mom said.

Devon breathed a sigh of relief as the focus was drawn away from him, at least for a moment.

‘Out … to my game,’ Ty said, stuffing his cleats into his bag.

‘A game?’

Ty paused, gritting his teeth. He took a deep breath and slung his bag over his shoulder, heading back out of the room. ‘I’ll be back later.’

‘Don’t walk away from me when I’m talking to you! Get back here, boy.’

But Ty continued to ignore her, slamming the front door on his way out. Even outside he could still hear his mother’s ranting and raving, as Devon quickly drew her ire once again.

‘You alright?’ Megan said.

Ty nodded. ‘Just perfect, sis.’

Megan frowned. ‘Uhm, wh-what time is your game? I’ll be there again, cheering you on, just like last time.’

“Do they notice when she’s gone?” Ty thought. “I bet the whole house falls apart when Megan is gone for a couple of hours. Probably gets cussed out for daring to not look after the twins and live her own life for once.”

‘It starts in an hour and a half,’ he said, walking past Megan.

She hugged him tight from behind and wished him luck.

He thanked her, gently patted one of her arms and waited to be let go. When he was, he resumed walking out of the ratty front yard, passing the twins on the pavement just before their overgrown nature strip, the boys were playing hopscotch on wonkily drawn chalk squares.

He watched them as he walked by, and they stopped to stare at him as he left. Behind him, he heard one of them ask Megan where he was going, and she told them that their big brother was off to play football.

‘Oh … okay.’ That was all they said to that information before he heard the sounds of them going back to their game.

“That’s it? You don’t care? You don’t care that your big brother is going off to be the best football player in the country?” Again, he clenched his fists tightly and ground his teeth, the gnashing sound audible over his footsteps.

Ty remembered when he was their age, he idolised football players, he wanted nothing else but to grow up and be like them. If Devon had been playing football, Ty would’ve been pestering him about it constantly and would’ve been his biggest fan.

“But not those empty, stupid brats. What the fuck do they even care about?” He impulsively kicked over someone’s trash can.

When Ty got to the school field, the JV team’s game was winding down, the fourth quarter only having just got underway—the Dons were losing, 14–17.

The bleachers were mostly empty, but the few sparse spectators were more than vocal enough to make up for the empty seats, the quietness only enhancing their specific cheers and cries.

Ty saw JJ, among a few other varsity players already there and watching the game as well, but sat apart from them, watching the game silently.

From what he saw, he yearned to be blind.

He thought it a disgrace to try and call what they were doing out there on that field football. It was sloppy in every single aspect, and he could pick out multiple mistakes from everyone on the field on every single play.

His scowl only grew the longer he forced himself to watch, envisioning how easy it would be to defend the sluggish and clumsy routes the Receivers ran, or how easy it would be to intercept the slow, lollipop passes from the inexperienced QB, yet the Dons DBs constantly let their Receivers get open, or failed to even deflect the crappy passes that came their way.

And Ty of course made note of the fact that despite all this horrendous play from both sides, and the Dons DBs specifically, Rabbit was still sitting on the bench, and he did so for the remainder of the game.

When it was all over, the score read 14–20, for a Paramount Pirates victory. Ty vowed that the results would be different for the varsity game.

As Ty stood, he saw his enemies for that day start to file into the field, walking past him down at the bottom of the bleachers.

They were jovial, and joking with one another, they looked relaxed and were all smiles. But Ty was not impressed. Nothing stood out about any of them.

‘Fucking shitty scout… didn’t even tell me which ones were the Receivers,’ Ty grumbled to himself as he scanned the players, though had no idea which ones he’d be directly competing against that day.

‘Brrr… damn! You feel that?’ a dark-skinned “pirate” said. The boy would’ve been in his sophomore year, standing at 5’9”, and wore an oversized team hoodie to hide his slim build. He had thick glasses, and a simple, short, black afro.

He felt at the back of his neck, his hands standing up on it, scanning the bleachers.

‘Feel what?’ the tanned youth walking by his side said. This one was slightly taller and had a bit more meat on his bones. He had a wide, carefree smile, and wore headphones around his neck. His brown hair was shaved down to a buzz cut.

‘Just… I got the chills, like somebody was watching me,’ the black youth kept rubbing at his neck, looking at his friend.

‘Whoa… creepy… but nah, you’re just freaking out, B. You always get jumpy before a game.’ The friend laughed, smacking “B” on the back.

‘Ugh, I’m being serious, Patty! You didn’t feel that?’ “B” asked.

‘Bastion, relax.’ Patty stopped, getting in front of Bastion and put his hands on Bastion’s shoulders. ‘They were probably just watching us, ‘cause they know we’re hot shit, the real deal! And that we’re here to kick some ass!’

Bastion’s golden eyes rolled as he shoved Patty’s hands aside and moved past him. ‘Forget I said anything.’

Patty laughed more and quickly caught back up to his friend’s side. ‘Aww c’mon, don’t be like that! Get pumped! I’m telling ya, we’re gonna smack these losers down.’

‘We’re the losers, Patty… we lost our first game, these guys won theirs.’

‘Hey, that loss had nothing to do with us… their Running Back was on some Captain America super soldier serum shit or something.’

‘72–21! I’ve never been so humiliated before…’ Bastion groaned, rubbing at his eyes and dragging his hands down his face, his glasses falling back into place.

‘Which is exactly why we’re gonna win this game!’ Patty thumped his fist into his other palm. ‘We need to make up for that bullshit that happened last week, use that humiliation and shame to fuel you! And, these guys are gonna underestimate us, they won’t take us seriously, and they’ll be all cocky after a taste of victory.’

Bastion looked at Patty and couldn’t help but grin. Patty grinned back; one of his front teeth along the bottom row was missing.

‘Yeah, we’re gonna beat these guys, you and me, we can do it,’ Bastion said.

The two clasped hands and pulled each other close, bumping chests as they dapped each other up.

Ty walked right by them as he headed out across the field and off to the Dons’ locker room opposite the bleachers. The two pirates took no notice of him.

The rest of the coaching staff and varsity players would slowly flow into the locker room as well.

Ty put his earphones in, getting geared up as Scarlxrd’s “Dxxm” got his adrenaline pumping. Though his vibe was thrown completely out of whack when Deshaun came over by his side.

There shouldn’t have been any reason for this, Deshaun’s locker wasn’t next to Ty’s, but as Ty looked up and slipped his earphone’s out, Coach Hoang came over and it made a little more sense.

‘Alright, you two. I hope you learnt SOMETHING from practice,’ Coach Hoang said. ‘You two are a unit for this game, that means, if you can’t work together, neither of you will play, you’ll either both sit out, or you’ll put aside your differences and get it done out on the field.’

Neither player said anything as they looked one another over, Deshaun looking down on his younger teammate.

Ty was indifferent towards the older CB. ‘Don’t worry,’ Ty said, ‘we’ll get it done. They won’t score on us.’

‘Good. I know you’re both more than capable of doing this, Don’t disappoint me,’ Coach Hoang said before he left them both.

Deshaun leaned over, speaking just quietly enough so only Ty would hear him. ‘Don’t get in my fucking way, Freshy, or you’ll be kicked down to JV where you belong.’

Ty glared at Deshaun, his black eyes as cold as ice. ‘How many picks you got since you’ve been playing in high school?’

‘Huh?’

‘I just wanna know how many I need this season to make your career irrelevant.’

Deshaun shoved Ty into his locker. ‘Don’t fuck with me, bitch.’

‘Huddle up!’ Coach Long called, sending a stern look Deshaun and Ty’s way. The rest of the locker room slowly faded into silence.

He went on with his usual uplifting spiel about working together, giving it their all, and going out there to win but more importantly, have a fun time. Then he handed it over to a captain for the closing words, this time picking Deshaun.

‘Ah shit… alright, alright, listen up!’ Deshaun stood in the middle of the huddle, a fist raised high as he looked around the room, eyes lingering on Ty for a moment longer than the others.

‘These fuckers can’t hang with us. We won last week, and we ain’t about to stop winning now! Ain’t no way we gonna lose to these pussies. Keep on pounding them ‘til they break! We’re stronger, faster, tougher than any of these motherfuckers! Let’s stomp their faces!’

‘Stomp on three!’ JJ yelled. ‘One, two, three, STOMP!’

The team stomped their feet and rumbled out of the locker room, running out onto the field, the bleachers now more packed than earlier, but a far cry from how full they were for the opening game.

The team took their lap around the field, basking in the cheers, and Ty used the moment to lock in and focus on the task ahead.

They’d begin to warm up, when their opponents for that game ran out, taking their lap to much less cheers, though there still was a small section of fans for the away team.

When it came to the coin toss for this game, the Pirates called tails, and tails it was. They elected to receive the ball first, and when Ty heard the news, he was elated.

He watched the kickoff, and there was a strange tension in him as he watched number 21 for the Pirates catch the ball and take off for his attempt at a return.

Ty didn’t think he was overly fussed about not being a part of Special Teams, it wasn’t going to bring him any accolades, and it certainly didn’t align with his goal and his main reason for playing the sport—to be the greatest lockdown Corner that ever lived—but… there was a bit of anxiety within him whenever he watched the returner slip past a tackle or scurry ahead behind a solid block.

“What if they scored a touchdown?” he thought. “If I was out there, they wouldn’t have a chance… but I’m not out there.”

This time, at least, his worries were unwarranted. Number 21 got out to the 26-yard line before being dragged down by multiple defenders.

And then it was Ty’s turn to take the stage. His sharp grin gleamed in the fading light of the setting sun before he shoved his mouthguard in and took to the field.

On defence, to start the game, were taking a balanced formation, man to man, with both Safeties watching deep down the sidelines, and the LBs spread out wide, with JJ parked right in the middle of the somewhat crowded box.

It might’ve looked more favoured against the run, but the edge rushers on their defensive line were prepared to split away and help with any passes out to the flats if that’s what they needed.

The Pirates came out with a fairly standard formation, just the singular back behind the QB—who was under Center—a TE and one WR out to the weak side, and two WRs in a close bunch on the strong side, where it was Deshaun and Ty’s duty to match up with this pairing.

Ty ignored Deshaun as the two lined up next to each other, and kept his eyes on the two opponents that approached, they were both a bit taller than him, but not overly so, and his long wingspan could more than make up for that little difference in height; there would be no “Ogre” to physically overwhelm him this day.

Patty and Bastion strolled right up to the line of scrimmage and stopped in front of Deshaun and Ty, where they dapped each other up again.

‘Good luck, brodie,’ Patty said to Bastion.

‘I’m right behind you, Patty.’

When the WRs separated and took up their stances, Bastion, who was lined up in front of Deshaun, extended a hand out to him.

Deshaun slapped it away.

Bastion looked offended, but didn’t say anything as he rubbed his gloved hand.

Patty laughed and grinned at Ty, shaking his head. ‘Ohhh, man!’ Patty said. ‘I’m gonna have sooo much fun making you two look like idiots!’

Ty smiled and licked his lips, his entire body coiling up like a spring, waiting for that first snap.