The Perfect Season
...uld not come lose during the game. After that I squirmed into my shoulder pads, an awkward experience because no one ever gets used to slipping on shoulder pads until it is practiced a couple times. Now I felt completely guarded and had a remarkable feel of safety as my defense created an outer shell of protection around my entire body. The pads I had on made me feel like a tank rolling through the field of battle, before any shots have been fired, in a parading manner to show off my enormous power and weapons. The last part of my shield before war was my helmet, the piece of armor that made me invincible from any attack and allowed me to infiltrate my enemies defenses. The sides of the helmet cut off a lot of my view, but in actuality the narrowed vision just kept focus on the skirmish ahead. My team, the Vikings, was now battle ready with the armor that we carried on our legs, shoulders, and heads. The team was ready, and so was I. Even though I was much larger then most of my teammates a lot of them where more experienced; some of them had played two or three years, while this was my first time to ever tie up my cleats. As I looked around I could see at least ten different teams there, with ten different team uniforms and mascots. In reality the teams looked unlike the others, but there was something similar they all had. No matter how different every squad looked, it was effortless to see the same fire in their eyes and the same drive to win as all the other players. As our coach always said, “No matter how big or how strong they look; everyone here puts their pants on the same way, one leg at a time.” We always knew that we were all kids and in that way we were the same, but it just happened that we were to play the undisputed champions for the last five years in a row for our first game. With that knowledge it made the other team seem more like giants, and not children like us. They all seemed bigger and faster than us but maybe all of that was in our head, nevertheless it looked to be a fight of David versus Goliath. As both the Vikings and the Panthers lined up for pre-game stretches there was a tension between us both that filled the air with such a feeling of anxiety. Immediately after pre-game jitters had been suffered, the captains from each team went to midfield for the coin toss. The Vikings had won the toss and we had chosen to receive; how exciting was this? The Panthers stepped up to kick the ball and it was off. Our fastest running back, Daniel Moiser, received the kick and ran all the way to the fifty yard line. Cou...