THE game

I learned something today. I was afraid that as the years have piled up on me, I had lost something. I thought maybe I was a step slower. Anyone that watched today’s greatest football game might also be inclined to think that I’ve slowed down a bit. For all intensive purposes, my game does look like it has deteriorated. But I assure you it has not. My reflexes have not slowed down one iota. My hands and feet are as nimble as ever.

What I learned today, is that while my reflexes look dull and my body slow, they are not. I learned that my problem is that the muscles receiving commands from my brain and consequently controlling my body are the problem, not the way the messages are being sent. The problem is with the execution of those commands. I’m sure you will all be shocked to hear this, but it turns out that sitting at a desk for 8-12 hours a day for almost 4 years straight is not, as they say, the way to an athletically superior body. Slow-pitch softball once a week doesn’t seem to be doing the trick either… (maybe that’s why they call it an old man’s game…)

The good news is that I didn’t pull anything, break anything or herniate anything (that’s a big one). Ultimately, my team lost. And since no one on that team reads this blog, I feel very comfortable telling you, the internet readers, that it is a direct result of them not playing a team game. We had 9 on 9 (virtually unheard of numbers for a turkey bowl), but only 4 of those guys seemed to think they were playing. I was not among those four, thus I had the ball thrown my way approximately twice in the two hours we were out there playing. One I caught and ran in for a touchdown, the other, I’m being generous when I say it was thrown in my direction. Those in the know would use a certain fowl reference for the type of pass that was tossed up. I also had one interception that didn’t have much of a runback because I was in heavy traffic. But I should point out that it was the first interception in the game, and it sparked 3 unanswered touchdowns by my team.

We lost 9 scores to 10. I’ve called a 5 am practice for tomorrow morning and we’ll be doing two-a-days until our next game.