The Final Play

The sport experience that I remember most is that of the last play of he last football game I ever played. It was my senior year as we entered the 4th round of the playoffs. If we won this game we would go to State Championships the following week. The game began by going back and forth, touchdown for touchdown. It all came down to one last play. The score was 21-14 and we were behind a touchdown. 7 seconds were displayed on the clock and the ball was snapped. My opponent, a 300 lb steamroller, charged forward and I was able to divert his path away from the quarterback giving him as much time as I could.

I never saw the ball leave his hand but my opponent let up and retreated down field. This is when I saw the ball. It was spiraling through that dark night air with the glow of the bright halogen lights surrounding it, the steam from the breath of the audience as its background. I noticed where the ball was headed and for a moment I felt victorious. As the ball closed in on it’s target the opposing team rushed towards that spot. My teammate who was the target leaped into the corner of the end zone and clasped onto the ball.

As he was descending back to the ground an opposing player reached and stripped the ball at the last second and the catch was deemed incomplete. The opposing crowd erupted in a deafening roar, but to me everything was silent. It was over. Everything we practiced for all year and put all our sweat and blood into had ended. As our team dropped to our knees in defeat, all of our hometown fans had gotten to their feet and were applauding. Even though we had been defeated our die-hard fans were still congratulating us for our almost perfect season.