watched my 9 year-old-son play in his 4th tackle football game of this season. His team is not very good.
What I mean to say is that they are not very good by the standards of wins and losses. They are currently
0 - 4. Four losses by a combined score of around 160 - 0. I'm not exaggerating the score either. Yesterday
the sixty or so parents that were at the game screamed and cheered when we achieved our first, first down of
the season.
My son plays center or interior lineman on the offense and defense for his team. They are not very glorious
positions. Caleb wanted to be a running back but he's the tallest kid on the team and weighs 2 lbs over the
limit for a kid to carry the ball in his league. He also inherited his father's speed and that doesn't help him
much either when it comes to being a running back. Not that Caleb complains mind you, exactly the opposite
he relishes the challenges of blocking and tackling. I've never heard him complain once this year about
anything, not the score, not the heat, not the coaches and not being at the bottom of a number of piles of
entangled limbs and bodies after the end of a play. Quite the contrary, he constantly talks about how great
it is to be a football player, to tackle, to block and to play the game every week. He smiles and waves to me
occasion during the game and practices. He truly plays for the "love of the game". Yesterday his team was
losing 41-0 and on the extra point Caleb tackled the kid on the one yard line. He immediately got up,
started jumping up and down, slapping his teammates on their helmets and pumping his fists. Most of his
teammates just walked off the field with their heads down but he truly celebrated just the moment. It
was glorious in his mind, as if he were Barry Krauss and he had stopped Penn State for the winning
touchdown in the National Championship game. In today's age of technology, nutrition, training techniques
and the monetary awards for being a great athlete my son celebrates the moment for what it is....an
opportunity to play for the love of the game. I am humbled by my son who reminds his father to
celebrate every moment, to cherish every opportunity and to do my best every day regardless of the reward.
You'll have to excuse me now, I've leaving shortly for my daily run of 6 miles, only today I'm leaving my
expensive modern runner's watch at home. I'm just going to run, give it my best effort and have a good time.
If you are around when I finish today don't be surprised if I high five you, jump up and down with a big
smile on my face. I didn't just win the Boston Marathon, I ran for the love of the game.
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