I have missed another week, I am getting lazy.
After the last game we are now 5-0, at the half-way point of the regular season. No-one is entirely sure how to play-off structure will work. The safest course of action would be to win the next five games and secure the division, possibly home-field advantage too. Optimism.
We are now in the second of three bye-weeks. Last weekend we reviewed some film of previous games. Coach said to find yourself on the video and analyse your own performance. Sometimes when I stand on the sideline my posture relaxes and I slouch. Sometimes I am also slow to put my helmet on when the offense head onto the field. I am trying to fix these problems during the week.
After the offensive film-study, the defense vacated the astro-turf and headed inside to review tape themselves. The offense were put through a light training session, which I was grateful for - my shoulder was still hurting from two weeks before, I aggravated it pulling the heavy bags up and down the turf, attempting to simulate a defensive-end. In addition to the tender shoulder, I had also sliced open my left middle finger on Wednesday at work. I had to miss the mid-week training session due to sitting in A&E, I was upset about that. Some paper stitches were applied and then various types of padding and tape, I am told to keep it dry and avoid wearing gloves so that the wound will heal quicker. Run of bad luck this year.
Days pass, Wednesday comes around. I change the dressing on my finger, it is making nice progress. It has been raining intermittently all day, around half-past six it subsides. The field is slick, dropped balls become slippery and harder to catch. I am lethargic due to eating a large amount of lasagna, not the wisest decision. I give the coach a lift home again. We talk about football. He says that my catching is improving, I agree it is better than when I started. He says that he is surprised I haven't had more playing time, I say the right thing - it's about the team winning. He says that he will have a word with the offensive coach, I say thank you. I hope there are no negative repercussions.
My shoulders crunch and crack in a startlingly loud fashion when I first move them in the morning. Their range of motion is slowly returning. I can hold weights in my right hand again. I can still push as much as I ever could. It is strange and annoying.
Sunday. I wake up and shut-off my alarm, I roll back over. I stir and look at the clock, it reads half past two. I panic. I scrabble for my glasses and check my clock radio, it reads half past nine. I am more inclined to believe that - it is set by radio waves, or some other magic. I head downstairs to install my contact-lens. I gather my gear from the washing-maiden, stuff the pads into their respective pockets in my lowers and pull them on. It is 'Fathers Day' but he is not yet moving when I depart. Turnout is poor - people are injured, some have booked holidays, others no-one knows. The sky is full of grey clouds, fortunately, they pass overhead without losing too much of their load. We do the usual warm-up routine and then break into our respective groups.
There are 5 receivers in attendance today. Coach calls me out in front of the offence and says it is my time to step-up, I am now fourth on the depth-chart. He calls me Mark. It is nice to have some confidence invested into me. I drop some easy passes when we are running routes on air. I don't get many passes thrown to much during the skeleton offense drills, we run some plays out of a trips-bunch which is different. The defense comes across after a while and we have a little scrimmage. I make three catches, two of them are deep passes that I broke free on, the third was on a short screen - I went the wrong way off the block and didn't get very far. I dropped one pass that I got my hands too, it was a short-out on the left. It was thrown behind me but that is no excuse. One pass thrown to me was intercepted, I slid inside on a fade and the quarterback threw outside. A cornerback cleaned my clock on one play. The pass was thrown to the other side of the field and I was caught ballwatching, next thing I was lying on the floor.
I was in for about 20 plays straight before practice was deemed over. As a warm-down Coach sends us to run two laps of the rugby pitch we practiced on - I set of third and returned third, we had opened up quite a gap over the rest of the pack. I get changed, pile my gear into my car and head home - I listen to Sri-Lankas innings in the final of the world Twenty20 world cup, they aren't doing that well.
