Billy and Me

So I started playing football in the third grade and was considered overweight at the time and was put on a team that was for older kids. I had to lose weight to play so I remember football being a struggle from the beginning. The team I was on had a good year the year before and they weren't looking for any dead weight nine year olds the hold them back. They were eleven and twelve year olds. I got banged around pretty good but there was another kid in the same boat as me and we were fast friends so I hung in there. His name was Billy and he and I spent a lot of time running to lose weight together. The worst was when the coach would send us early for a lap then send the rest of the team chasing us. If they caught us we were free game. Kill the new guys!!!! But, we persevered and were eventually rewarded with our ten plays a game. If anything happened to Billy and I that season we both were lighter and tougher and eventually accepted by the older kids we were forced to play with because of our size. I have found memories of Billy and I standing in line to weigh in before the games we had to weight 100lbs I think, we were both always close but our dads always would have something good for us to eat after the weigh in like Pizza or McDonald's. This was in the late 70's early 80's and our coaches were tough guys mostly working guys and veterans of some kind. I was lucky my dad was very involved but had the sense to always coach a year behind me which was cool. Nobody knew about CTE then and concussions were not on the radar as something that could harm you long term so it was here that my head trauma began. The funniest thing I remember about that season was me a Billy getting our ten plays together was usually after our team had a lead we were pretty good. We were playing an inner city team called Sherman Park and the kids were city kids that talked a lot of trash. Remember we were nine theses kids were eleven and twelve yrs old so they had a little more experience than us. I played guard and Billy was playing tackle (offensive) and a kid from the other team told Billy something about his mother on the line of scrimmage. Billy came back to the huddle crying. When the quarterback asked him what the kid said to him Billy told him he said " He F'd his mother" and he was crying cause he knew it was bad and he didn't know what it meant. Well the quarterback called a timeout explained to Billy how bad it was and on the next play that kid had a broken leg. Billy drove him off the field and into the bench of their sidelines. Hilarious!!!! That was how I cut my teeth on football playing with older stronger and faster guys. But, by the season was over I was hooked and couldn't wait to play again.