Chapter 30

We arrived at the stadium about nine o’clock in the morning, most of us going out on the field and stretching, starting to warm up. After a warmup period I played pitch and catch with Josh and the other receivers. The Baltimore team was beginning to fill up the other end of the field warming up as well. Sometime about ten thirty we all headed back to the locker room, the trainers began taping everyone up. I was suited and ready to go by quarter after eleven, sitting quietly in the corner.

The game started out slow, both teams blowing their opening possession with miscues. On our second possession we became to heat up moving the ball in large chunks of real estate, quickly finding ourselves on their thirty five yard line. Our substitution packages were beginning to disrupt the continuity of their defensive play calling.

“Dual left, trips motion left, power right, swing check on three.” Josh barked.

We lined up with two receivers on the left, one to the right. I was lined on the right side as well. Once Josh started cadence, the lone receiver went in motion toward the left overloading that side, leaving me as the only receiver on that side. I would run an out pattern based on the depth of the defender, I was the primary target. If I was covered, the rookie would swing out of the backfield on my side looking for a dump off pass. Usually we would see defenses shift to a Tampa Two when they saw this package, I would be covered up by a linebacker. Instead though they stayed in a standard two over formation, passing the running back coverage to the linebacker. Josh immediately saw this deadly error. No way any linebacker in the league could cover our rookie, Scott Douglas.

“Forty seven power, Forty seven power, Slam, Slam, Slam”, Josh barked dropping into the shotgun formation.

He had checked down to the fourth option, he would be looking for Scott on the swing route out of the backfield. I would feign my out route, then come back to the middle, looking for a crack back block on that linebacker. The ball was snapped, I drove up the field five yards then cut out to the sidelines, taking the cornerback with me. I was close to three yards from the stripes when Scott swung out of the backfield, he caught the linebacker flat footed. I immediately headed straight to where I knew the ball would be thrown. The linebacker was accelerating trying to catch Scott as Josh lofted him the ball. He pulled it in effortlessly and turned to head up field. I had timed the crack back perfectly arriving just seconds ahead of Scott, the linebacker never saw me. I was able to get my head and shoulder in front of his torso before all two hundred sixty pounds of me, slammed into him taking both of us off our feet. It was the most violent hit I had ever been involved in, I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder and neck area, then wrap around my back.

By the time I was able to even get up on one knee, the entire team was celebrating a thirty five yard touchdown pass in the end zone. I looked over at my opponent, he was still down, barely moving. I started moving my shoulder up and down, I still had a little pain, but nothing severe. I moved over to check on my opponent concerned for his safety. We are taught to be violent, it’s not a pleasant game. But with that said, I had never wanted to intentionally hurt anyone. Suddenly I felt someone grab the back of my shoulder pads pulling me backwards down to the ground. I stumbled as I fell, turning to see one of the other Baltimore players having a hold of my jersey. I jumped up and went after him, some of the players trying to separate us. I reached across the pile of players grabbing his face mask pulling it violently. Players were pushing and cursing at each other, I saw several yellow flags fly, hitting the ground around us.

“Fuck you punk, that was a cheap shot.” my opponent yelled at me, “We’ll get your ass.”

“Get me now.” I screamed back, still pulling on his face mask.

Finally I heard one of the officials yelling in my ear, bringing me back to my senses.

“Let him go, eight nine, let him go now or you’re outta here.” he screamed.

I released my hold on my opponent but he still was still shouting back at me, his players pushing him towards the sideline. The linebacker I had hit was still down, but I decided at that point the best thing I could do was head to the sideline. The crowd was in hysterics, shouting at me, wanting me thrown out. What didn’t help was that the instant replay man kept showing the hit over and over on the two big screens in each end zone. I looked up at the north end seeing the play in slow motion for the first time. I sighed in relief when I saw I had indeed made a legal block, my body was in front of his. I arrived at the side lines heading for bench when our middle linebacker and defensive team captain, Luther Williams, a real beast in his own right, grabbed me by the arm.

“That was a mother fucking hit boy, you keep that up, I might let you line up with me. You busted that fucker’s ass.” he growled, slapping my helmet.

I slapped him back, walking past him coming within ear shot of Coach Cullen.

“Nice block Stevens, you made that happen.” he shouted.

I acknowledged him, then found my place on the bench, still moving my shoulder trying to get the stiffness out. One the next possession with the emotions still running high, they mishandled a ball, fumbling at their own forty two yard line. This was our chance to put them in a hole. Josh called a quick slant route in which I would set a flat inside pick for one of our wide outs to run a skinny post across the middle. The ball was snapped, I ran five yards, stopped pivoted to the right and set the screen on the corner, it was perfect, our receiver brushing my right shoulder as he went past me. I had just glanced over my shoulder to see him catch the ball, when it felt like I had just been hit by a small car from behind. I went down hard, face first into the turf. I struggled to get up, my head was spinning, by the time I regained my senses, both teams were once again pushing and shoving. At that point, it was obvious someone had hit me late from behind. I looked over to their sidelines, I saw a yellow flag on the ground. Several of their players were still jawing at me, apparently pleased they had somewhat settled the score. I looked back down the field to see we had moved the ball down to their seventeen. The official stepped to the center of the field turning on his microphone.

“We have a personal foul on the defense, number forty one, unsportsman-like conduct, the penalty will be half the distance to the goal. First down San Diego.” he finished, turning off the microphone on his belt.

I looked over at number forty one, their strong safety, he was standing about five yards from me, nodding his head up and down, smiling.

“Pay back is a bitch boy.” he shouted.

Coach Cullen sent Billy Huber in the huddle, telling me I was out. As I trotted back to the sidelines, I was still trying to clear the cob webs from my head.

“You ok Stevens?” Coach Cullen asked.

“Yea, I’m good to go Coach.” I answered.

We ran two plays gaining only three yards, it was third and goal from the seven. I went over to Coach Cullen as he was scanning the chart for what play to call.

“Split right, Scat Right, 639 F, Power Right Angle”, I shouted loudly.

“Why?” he shot back, quickly.

“Because I promise you if I go back out there and we go strong right, forty one is cocky enough to try and cover me. The corner fade will be there.” I shouted.

“Run it.” he said, motioning for me to hit the field.

I told Josh the play, which he called quickly in the huddle. We hurried to the line of scrimmage there were only about ten seconds left on the play clock. I looked own the line to see we were not in the right formation, I pointed down the line to Josh. He saw it immediately.

“Time out, Time out.” he signaled.

The referee blew the whistle giving us the timeout, Josh headed over to talk to Coach Cullen as we waited in the huddle for him. He returned several minutes later after the TV timeout was over. He leaned in, taking immediate command.

“Split right, Scat Right, 639 F, Power Right Angle”, Josh again shouted.

“Lester get you’re ass on the line of scrimmage this time, Zach you have the hot read.” he reminded the left side of the formation.

I lined up next to the right guard in my standard run formation, looking up at the coverage developing on the other side of the line.

“Forty seven shift, Forty seven shift.” Josh called out.

I quickly split out four yards wider in the slot, then two steps back making sure I was not on the line of scrimmage. I looked across the line and sure enough forty one was barking out orders shifting the coverage so he would have me man to man. Josh quickly snapped the ball, I came off hard, planted a foot inside like I was running a post, the safety slammed into me blocking the middle. With my inside hand I was able to slightly push him off as I accelerated for the right corner of the end zone. Josh and I had worked on this pass hundreds of time, if I felt I was open, the key was to immediately raise a hand asking for the ball. I barely had my hand extended when I saw the ball leave Josh’s hand. The ball was high enough but it was going to be short, I had to slow down and wait for it. Thankfully I was able to get a great plant, then simply elevated as high as I could. The safety was all over me, one hand under my face mask, the other holding the back of my pads. It didn’t matter, he simply couldn’t get high enough to make a play, I pulled the ball in, both of us hitting the turf together. He was on top of me, but the catch was clean, I saw the signal. I felt him deliver a short punch to my lower back, as he got up off of me. He was able to use my body to shield the infraction from the referee, so no flag came down. I got up and looked at him, he was still nodding and grinning.

“Hey superstar, see if this makes you smile.” I shouted.

I took off in the direction of the goal post, I got to top speed and jumped as high as I could, slamming the ball over the crossbar. The crowd booed in unison, the sound was deafening. I turned and pointed right at forty one, smiling and nodded. As I saw the official throw the flag, I immediately regretted what I had done. He had suckered me in, I was better than that. I picked up the ball and headed to the sidelines.

I had barely arrived when Coach Reed had me by the face mask, dragging me towards him.

“God damn it Brian. You make a great play, then you go fucking brain dead and cost me a penalty. Fuck it son, think.” he shouted, throwing me to the side by my face mask.

Thankfully they didn’t did great field position on the ensuing kickoff, only starting at the thirty seven yard line. Once again our defense held, forcing them to punt. At halftime, we held a 17-7 lead. I went directly to the trainers table durning halftime, my back was beginning to stiffen up bad. As they pulled my jersey off, removed my pads then lifted my compression shirt off.

“You’re severely bruised Brian, this is going to stiffen up bad.” Lee, our head trainer said.

“Do you’re magic doc, just fix it for two more quarters.” I told him.

I knew what was coming, I had been around this game long enough. You either played hurt, played in pain or you didn’t last long. No one wanted to pay you big money to sit on the bench. I felt the needle in my lower back, then the second in my upper back. I could immediately feel my back becoming numb, medicine was a wonderful but dangerous thing. One of the other trainers came over with two pills and a cup of water. He handed both to me, I took the medication with no questions.

“You want me to add a back plate to your pads?” he asked.

“Nah, they bother me. I’ll be ok.” I replied, pulling my compression shirt back on. They helped me put my pads back on, then both of them stretched my jersey back over them and pulled it down. I was just about off the table when Coach Reed stuck his head in the training room.

“Can he play the second half?” he asked Lee.

“It’s not pretty Coach, but I guess he can go.,”, he replied.

I got off the table and rejoined the team in the meeting area, the coordinators were going over final instructions for the second half. Josh quickly brought me up to speed on what was happening. By now the two injections and the pills had me numb, I was feeling great again.