A Rough Season

Justice and his team are having a rough football season, to say the least.  They have struggled from the very first game, and after this weekend they are a nasty 0-4.  Justice is not playing well, and it's really bothering him.  Actually, none of them are playing great, or they wouldn't be 0-4.  They had a coaching switch after the second game to try and get things back on track, but so far they still haven't picked up a whole lot of steam.  The boys are missing tackles right and left, fumbling the ball, not sticking with their blocks, and just overall not performing to the best of their abilities.   Justice is playing safety on defense, and isn't doing that well for the first time since he started football when he was seven.  He used to be a smash-mouth tackling machine, but has made a fraction of the tackles that he has made in previous seasons.  As running back on offense, he's had a few good runs, but nothing more than ten yards.  As the kicker, he's doing very well.  As wide receiver, he hasn't been open long enough to be able to catch a good pass, and that's been a huge struggle for our team.  If he could get open long enough to catch the ball, he's gone.  He's fast and it will be a touchdown every time.  He keeps saying, "Just wait till I get open".

He was wide open this past Saturday for the first time all season.  It was almost the last play of the game, and he dropped the ball.  

Poor little guy.  

He cried his eyes out.  He was visibly shaken and upset, and I felt so incredibly bad for the little guy.

Even the die-hard-kill-your-first-born-son-for-playing-bad parents felt bad for him.  One of the Dad's said "Oh look at the poor little feller, he feels so bad, no sense hollering at him and making him feel any worse".  Which was a really good thing, because if someone would have yelled at him after he was already crying I would have probably beat the tar out of them, and that would have been bad since I wasn't supposed to be at the game anyway.  Doctor's orders.  Joe and I had quite the argument about whether or not I was even going to the game, and I figured a fight would pretty much seal the deal that I'd never get to go again.  I've already been in one parent-fight this season, I'm not looking for another.

Joe is a loud coach.  After the dropped pass, I waited for the reaction.   And it was the best reaction ever.  It was one of those "Awwww moments" from the crowd.  I can't tell you how it warmed my heart to see the blustery old coach with his little boy under his arm holding him while he cried after the game was over.  Even though Joe is a loud old school guy, he is still the best Dad ever.