The whistle blew as Todd Gunner took off from one sideline to the other. All he could hear was the clack of his pads and heavy breathing. He made it from one end of the field, back to the start.

“Great sprint guys,” coach Butler yelled, “only one more,”
“You said that two sprints ago,” whispered Todd. The whistle blew again and everybody started to run.
The next day at lunch, Todd sat with his friends Mike, the quarterback, and Blake, one of the wide receivers.

Blake pulled out his phone with game film on the screen.

”Look at the Small Ville Bears’ linebacker,” said Blake.
“Don’t we play them this week?” Todd asked as on screen the linebacker violently tackled the running back. Mike just nodded slowly while staring at his tray.
“Mike said he’s 6’0”, 220 pounds!”
“He’s only in Junior high?” asked Todd frantically.
“Yes”
During practice, the coach started talking about the Bears’ linebacker.

“He’s obviously a really big guy and a great all-around player,” coach said. “We’re going to have to stop him.” Everyone nodded their heads in agreement silently. The team started running some offensive plays and Todd finally got to run the ball after so many pass plays. Mike snapped the ball and handed it off to Todd. He ran right up the middle, lowered his shoulder, made contact, and blacked out.

“Todd?” coach Butler asked as he woke up. “Are you alright?”
“How long have I been lying here?”
“About 30 seconds.”
“Oh, I was just letting the pile clear out…” Todd lied.

After practice, Todd was called into the coach’s office for an unknown reason. It was most likely that they would discuss the game, but Todd felt very uneasy about this meeting with the coaches.

“Todd, we feel that when you were hit, that you weren’t waiting for the pile to clear. That’s why we probably aren’t going to play you very much tomorrow,” coach Butler said. The room was very quiet and Todd had mixed feelings about the conversation that was taking place.

“Yes sir,” said Todd very quietly, almost like it was a whisper.

It was finally game time. Todd had been waiting for this all week. Coach came up to him and said, “I’m very sorry about not playing you, I just don’t feel comfortable playing you tonight.”

“I understand.”

Sometime had passed and It was now late in the fourth quarter and the score was 21-20. Todd’s team was down by one point, they had the ball on the 20 yard line and were about to score, but time was running out. With 20 seconds left and maybe one play left to run, the coach decided to put Todd in and let him run one play. He was their best running back on the team. Todd got the ball and took off to the left. He passed the defensive line into the linebackers. Todd met the big linebacker, they were staring each other down as everything went in slow motion, Todd stepped right, and then jerked left. Todd had juked him out of his shoes; the linebacker was laying on his face now. All Todd saw in front of him was green grass, and an end zone.