The new receiver jogs on to the field and we watch him make his way over. I look to my left and smack Nick, our right tackle, on the shoulder.

“You can do this man, c’mon, give Matt five seconds, just five.”

Sean, our receiver, gets to the huddle and calls out “trips nine fifty-five, x-hitch.”
Matt takes a moment, looks us in the eyes, and very slowly, declares “trips nine fifty-five, x-hitch, on two.”

He calls it again, “trips nine fifty-five, x-hitch, on two.”

“Ready!”

“Break!”

We make our way to the line; I take my spot at the left tackle position. They are in a four man front. In front of me and to my left crouches the defensive end.

I watch as the defense gets set and relax my body so I don’t jump off sides. I see the wide receivers take their position and our center grabs the ball as he prepares for the snap. The tension in the air is palpable as the play clock ticks downward.
“Down!” Matt begins the cadence.

“Seeeet!” I spot movement, the linebacker is creeping up, it’s going to be a blitz. Brogan, my left guard tenses up a little, he sees it. As soon as the play starts I’m going to have to block the blitz for a split second so Brogan can pass his defender on to the center. Then I have to slide back as quickly as possible to catch the defensive end.

“GO!” The linebacker leaps forwards, but at the last moment stops himself. At the same time the defensive end takes a quick step to my left, making it even more difficult to get back to him. We almost had them.

“GO!” The ball is snapped and everything happens at once, the linebacker jolts into action, heading for the line of scrimmage. He arrives just as I slide sideways and fill the gap. I fire my arms out like pistons and jam him in the chest. I don’t stop him, but the two blows to the chest knocks the wind out of him and gives me the tenth of a second it takes to get a firm handhold on his chest plate. I feel Brogan coming back to block the linebacker and I start to kick back as soon as I know he has a hand on the defender. The defensive end is level with me and he is running full tilt for the quarterback, all I can do is slide backwards and beat him there. I am able to lay a hand on him before he knocks it away. I turn to pursue and see Matt and the other half of the line, they had the same problem, the two defensive ends are closing in on our quarterback.


“S***!”

But at the last moment Matt takes off. The defender closest to me reaches for him and Matt ducks under the arm, spins around, and takes off, sprinting towards me. The defensive end slides to a stop and reverses direction, coming straight at me as well.

Matt is running past me, preparing to throw the ball, and the two defensive ends are next to each other five paces behind him. Neither of them is looking at me, I see the opportunity to blindside both of them and I take it. I crash at full speed into the first defensive end. The impact throws him backwards at the same speed he had been sprinting forward. The defender crashes into his teammate and they both go down. Matt releases the ball and it soars through the air before landing right in Sean’s hands as he jumps up for the ball. In slow motion he comes down with the football, both his feet land in the end zone, and we all go nuts.