Football is an amazing sport. It is one of the most primal activities young boys participate in, even though it has been adapted to modern times with modern equipment and modern safety rules. It teaches teamwork, trust, and encourages being healthy. Football is a sport that I have participated in from fifth grade through Sophomore year. While I feel that I have outgrown it and have moved on, I do see its value and can actually point out what it has done for me.
I remember at one of the practices in 5th grade, the girl I liked, Kylie, was there because she happened to be the coach’s daughter. It was towards the end of practice. We were playing a pseudo-game of the 5th graders against the 6th graders. Most of the time we would lose to them, only because at that point an extra year of growth makes a huge difference. That’s not to mention that the center of the 6th graders line was occupied by a giant who was 220 pounds–in 6th grade! He was slow, so we had a little time to get the ball out of the way, but there was usually no stopping him unless we dedicated a pair of linemen to the task.
I was so motivated by trying to impress Kylie that I was giving every play my full effort, trying to be as much of a monster as I could be at age 11. A few times I was able to launch fast enough that I was on the big guy before he was ready, catching him off balance and toppling him like one of those California redwoods that are hundreds of feet high. I’m not sure if she ever noticed, but my coach did, calling me out after one of the plays and complimenting me. I learned that day that hard work will always get one something, even if it can be impossible to know what “something” is ahead of time.
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There are several reasons that I decided not to do football anymore. The final issue which made my decision to quit was that I kept dislocating knuckles in my fingers. They would be bent sideways so far that even the athletic trainer at our school didn’t feel confident enough to help place it back where it belonged. I also felt like I didn’t fit in as well anymore. I think the nicest way I can say it is that the people who were still doing football in high school are knuckleheads, and in addition to that, they are just harder to get along with.
After playing football for so long, it makes them more sensitive to signs of aggression, setting them off faster on things that bother them. This is not the person that I wanted to become. The biggest thing for was that it just wasn’t as much fun anymore. Even though I was doing track in the spring, throwing shot and disk, I fell behind because they focused exclusively on working out. This caused me to lose playing time, further worsening my experience even though I was already burnt out of football games. I’ve had my fun; Football just wasn’t for me anymore.
As I progressed through high school, I realized that Football didn’t fit me anymore. I became more interested in other, more intellectually stimulating activities. I joined a club, Powerdrive, letting me explore engineering, which I’m actually planning on pursuing a career in. I was lured toward engineering because I enjoy finding and solving problems. Using this skill, I figured out why I was relatively unhappy towards the end of my time in Football and have pursued other activities.
