I played some football last weekend, and it took me back.
When I was in high school, more than five years ago, I ran a weekly football game that we called the Ghetto Football League. We played wednesday nights from about January through March. We played in the parking lot of Trailview School, starting at 7 or 8 p.m. There was a group that used to play there once in a while, but I was the one who made it a weekly game.
More on the GFL in a moment.
Last weekend, only 6 guys showed up. We played 3 on 3, and actually had two pretty good games. On my team was myself, Patrick and D Low Randel El. I'd never really played with D Low before, but he tore it up. He seemed to get his prowess from smoking. the more he smoked, the better he would play. He also had problems catching the ball when he was wide open and I hit him in the chest, but if he had someone hanging on his back in the endzone and I threw it three feet over his head, he would always come down to it.
But after the game I got into an analysis of my own skills.
Defensively, I'm hopeless. I can't play man. I'm not terribly slow, but my man will always beat me deep, and I'll generally give up and if he catches it, he's gone. I'm also prone to bite on pump fakes and get beat, and honestly, I'm just very bad on defense.
Offense however, I can contribute.
Generall, I play as a wide reciever. I run hard the whole game, and don't get thrown to nearly often enough. I play hard, every play, and sooner or later my defender will realize my quarterback never even looks at me, and I'll find myself even MORE open. I don't mean to sound like I should have the ball every play, but I'm usually a last option.
Now, last weekend I played quarterback the entire game, and I think I found my niche. I don't have a particularly strong arm, I'm not all that accurate, but my throws are serviceable. I can get it near my reciever, they allmost always have a CHANCE to make a catch. On deep balls, I release it early enough to let my reciever (DeGeests) to run under it and score. But, more importantly, I keep my team's head and heart in the game. I yell. I curse. When I make a good throw, I cheer myself, when I make a mistake I berate myself. I hope that my energy is contagious. But more importantly, I throw the ball to everyone. Any one of my recievers can be my target on any given play.
The secret to winning in a pick-up style game is to have everyone play hard every play.
Last weekend, my team was down 5-2 in the first game, (we play to 10) and I was getting lit up on defense and had thrown a pick in the end zone. We switched to a zone defense (at my prompting) and the magic started to happen. Suddenly, the reciever who thought I had him in man coverage was streaking downfield and watching Patrick pick off passes. We rallied back and won 10-8. D Low, our heaviest player, who would have been overlooked with most other quarterbacks caught 6 touchdown passes, had a pick and a sack. Patrick, the best player on the field, had several interceptions, would have had a TON of recieving yards, one recieving touchdown and an interception return for a touchdown. I threw for 7 touchdowns and ran for two.
It was a fun time, and I look forward to my fantasy football league football game before the super bowl. It should be a great time.
Maybe sometime I'll reflect back on the GFL and profile some of our old players.
