Hit in the Helmet

It was October 20, 2010 while the Buffalo Area high school football team was practicing at their turf field in New York. Among them was Drew Campbell, that’s me. I was the star running back for my high school football team; I never knew how much my life was going to change in the next couple of weeks.

Our football team was good, and I mean really good. At this point we were 5-1 with only one tough loss to our cross state rivals. My best friend, Jake Ferguson was our quarterback and everyone knew he was going to the NCAA college league because he’d been being scouted since he was in eighth grade. Unlike my mother and me, he and his mother were always close; they were best friends. As for my relationship with mother… it was not a very healthy one. It’s not that I didn’t do what I was told, it’s just she did these little things that really bugged me and I let them get to the surface too much; it seemed like something that would work itself out as I matured and grew up.

Jake and I had known each other since we were in fourth grade when he transferred to Buffalo High. We picked up girls and took them to drive-through theaters together, we did homework together, and we always seemed to have the same classes in school. This week, we were playing a team that was for sure the underdog. We were very highly favored to win, partially because we broke the 32-game win streak of the South Buffalo high school team with a 28-27 win that came with a game-winning drive that ended with a touchdown by yours truly. The week before the game was normal; wake up, inhale breakfast, go to school, flirt with girls in the hallway, get homework, fall asleep in study hall, and go home.

It was typical for a teenage boy in his senior year. Friday morning came and I thought I’d go into school a little early and hit the weight room and have time to shower before classes. I walked in the front doors and went upstairs to get my gym shorts and I spotted my friend Jake Ferguson at his locker doing the same as I was. “Ohh, look it’s the left water guard!” I yelled sarcastically.

He looked up and saw it was me and replied, “Check out the Buffalo High foot fairy!”

We both laughed tiredly and agreed to spot each other.

As I was putting weight on the bar for curls Jake came up behind me and said, “So, I’m thinking three touchdown passes tonight for myself and two rushing touchdowns for you; sound fair?” he asked in a jokingly serious tone.

“Only two touchdowns for me? Am I only going to play the first half?” I replied while chuckling.

“It’s all passing tonight, baby. The corners and safeties they’re bringing tonight are like the ones we faced in junior high.”

I sat down and started cranking out repetitions of 250 pounds on the bench press. Now, I don’t mean to brag, but I was a tank. My arms were the size of some person’s heads but the real muscle I was proud of was the most impressive six-pack I had.

“Do you know if Williams is going to be our wide-out tonight?” Jake asked while ripping his thighs with leg curls.

“I talked to him last night and he said he’s good to go, he got that brace his doctor prescribed him.” I replied with a strained voice.

“Good, because he’s going to be my main target tonight, he’ll burn the left corner till he’s skin turns pink.” Jake said proudly.

We pounded our muscles to the limit for the next 45 minutes and then decided it was time to get ready for class.

While I was in the shower I heard Jake yelling to me from the locker room “Hey! Drew! I’m going to head on over to Mr. Simpson’s room, I gotta get a practice test sheet off him! I’ll see you chemistry, okay?”

“Yeah man, I’ll catch you later!” I yelled over the pounding water.

I got out of the shower, dried off, and put my clean clothes on for the school day. As I was walking to my locker, the beauty herself, Jenna Crimson caught my eye.

I decided to make some conversation, so I snuck up behind her and said with a wink “Excuse me ma’am, but I’m going to have to ask you to stop being so dag gon’ cute, you could cause an accident.”

She blushed and replied “Oh my officer, you’ll have to forgive me. I promise it won’t happen again.”

I laughed and talked to her as we walked through the corridors. We talked about the game, our teachers, how things were going in life; I truly loved that girl, but somehow I still hadn’t asked to date me yet. I walked her to her class, and then set off for the chemistry lab to meet up with Jake. I sat down with not a moment to spare as the class bell rang.

“So how was your make out session with Jenna?” Jake asked sarcastically.

I lightly punched him on the arm and said “It was fun, man.”

Class began with the same old yammer from Mr. Makianni, nothing I hadn’t heard before. The period-ending bell rang and Jake and I went to our next class winking at every cute girl that came by. We repeated this process seven more times throughout the day until it came to an end. This was my least favorite part of the day, going home to my mother. I knew no matter how good of a day I had, I would always be unhappy to see my mother. We never got along, no matter what; it just never worked. I pulled into my drive way with my 2005 Chevy Comaro, and walked up the stairs quietly, hoping to avoid any conversation with mother. However, she always found me as I went into my room to watch television for a while before I had to go to the school to catch the bus to our game.

She came in and asked a simple question, “How was your day, Drew?” It was normal for a mother to ask that, but I didn’t really want to talk to her at any time.

“Fine” I said bluntly.

I had stumped here fairly quickly this time so she couldn’t think of anything to say except, “Oh, that’s good. Well, I’m going tanning at the salon so I’ll see you when you get home from your game. Good Luck!”

She really was a good mother; there was just something that irritated me about her.

“Thanks” I replied with minimal attention.

Time passed, I napped a little and before I knew it, it was time to go to the game. I pulled into the school parking lot and grabbed my equipment from the trunk and got on the bus. Jake was sitting in the back seat reserving a seat for me.

“How hyped are you?” he exclaimed as we started our trip to the game.

“I’m about ready to jump out of my skin, man. I can’t wait to hand this team the beating we’re gonna dish out.” Jake chuckled, satisfied with my statement.

We arrived at the school, changed into our pads and jerseys, said our pregame prayer and ran out onto the field with every bullet of fight ready to be fired at our opponents. We won the toss and got to return the opening kickoff. As usual, I powered through their first tacklers and made a few special teams guys miss, ran the kicker over and high-stepped to the end zone. Touchdown, 6-0.

We were still so jazzed up about the kickoff touchdown; we went for a two-point conversion and got it, 8-0. The trend didn’t change, we kept on hammering their defense with our high-flying offense and our defense stuffed their running back and picked off three passes, two of which we returned for scores. In the fourth quarter, we let up and the final score ended up being 41-10. With a 6-1 record we went into the locker room feeling like the biggest big-shots that history ever saw.

Our best wide-out, John Williams was jumping around in the locker room and did the old-school bowling pin celebration with our offensive linemen crew and they fell down like over-sized, sweaty bowling pins with football cleats.

“Whooo, baby! I’m calling a 7-1 finish with the highest scoring offense in Buffalo High school history!” He exclaimed.

Jake yelled to him, “Hey, we still have one more game. Don’t get too hyped yet.”

The locker room went silent and Jake yelled “Until we give the whooping to those South Buffalo wusses at our home field and shut them out for screwing up our perfect season!”

He got the response of “Hoo-ahhh!”

Another satisfactory speech from the future NFL quarterback. We all went home and celebrated over the weekend for our blow out win. Monday came and I went into school and found that Jake was not there. Probably still exhausted from the parties this weekend, I thought to myself. I called him later that night and he answered.

“Hey, Jake where were you today man? You feeling okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine, bro I’m just taking care of my mom, she’s really sick today and I didn’t want to leave her home alone.” He replied.

“All right, so are you going to be in school tomorrow?” I replied.

“Probably dude, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Jake said hurriedly.

“Okay, later man.” I said in farewell.

I woke up the next morning, and went through the same drill since Jake did not show up like he said he would. I got to football practice and as we came out of the locker room the coaches called a meeting.

“All right soldiers, there’s no easy way to say this. Jake Ferguson’s mother passed away this morning… a severe case of pneumonia got to her and she’s dead.” Said coach Shayler.

“Her funeral is this Thursday, and I expect to see every one of you in attendance.”

The field was silent as the whole team, including me stood in shock. “Practice dismissed for today, and no practice for the rest of the week so be ready for the game on Friday.”

While I was driving home, I never thought about what I was doing wrong before the death of my best friend’s mother. I always took my mother for granted; it could have been my mother who died and I never would have gotten the chance to tell her how much she meant to me. I promised myself I would change my ways and be as good of a son as she was a mother from now on. Thursday came, the day of the funeral and I arrived to find the whole football team there dressed in the same thing I was, a suit and tie. The preacher said his sermon and then asked if anyone had a few words to say, and Jake was the first one to stand up.

“Hello, I’m Jake Ferguson, Judy Ferguson’s son… I’d like to tell you a little bit about our life together, and the happy times instead of these dreadful ones.”

He continued to say “My mother… you could never catch her without a smile on her face. I never heard her say a negative thing about a single person. The way she looked at things was amazing to me, and how she knew things could always get worse than what they were. So she appreciated that things weren’t as bad as they could be, because they could always get better or worse. I have a friend in the audience tonight, and I’m not going to mention his name, but I have a message for him… Friend, I know how you treat your mother; you take her for granted and it’s no mystery to me or you. Look at what you have and appreciate it, because you could have been in my place and you could not have a mother anymore.”

He choked as he fought back tears. Jake continued furthermore, “Take that request and fill it, friend; do it as my mother’s last request. You know what my mother said to me the second before she died? My own mother said to me “Hey, at least you’ll see me when you die, buddy.” And then she breathed her last breath.”

Jake stopped for a few seconds to dry his tears. “One more thing, this is for the football team… let’s shut out those South Buffalo vermin for my mother!” He exclaimed as he threw his fist in the air.

The entire chapel rose up and clapped for him and the ceremony was over. The game time kick off came… the moment of truth was here.

Jake came over to me and said “I know I said that we should win for my mother, but return this kickoff for a score for your mother; got it?”

I nodded in reply and said, “I got this, I’m going untouched.”

I took my place on the field and the kickoff came to me. I accelerated forward and juked out the first defender and spun back to see a giant monster fly by me. My blockers had a good hold on the kickoff team’s force. I ran forward again with all my speed and ran through my blockers, it was like running with mortars dropping beside me. With only the kicker to beat, I stutter-stepped around him as he fell to the ground grabbing nothing but air, I did not celebrate as I ran into the end zone, I only handed the ball to the referee and ran over to the side line and hugged Jake like I’d never hugged anyone before.

The game continued, and we scored four more times and came to a 35-0 lead. We knew we would win, but we wanted a shutout for Jake’s mom. The South Buffalo offense was driving and we needed to make a stop. Our 20-yard line was the spot of the ball and the next thing that happened was amazing. Jake stopped our left cornerback from going out onto the field and Jake went out in his place. A pass play was next, and Jake grabbed up his man as the wide receiver ran his route; the throw was pin-point it was going right into the receiver’s hands but right before it landed in the cradle, all you could see was a different pair of hands go right in front of the ball and pull it down.

It was Jake; he had intercepted the pass in the end zone to preserve the shutout. He got up, threw the ball back to the quarterback and gave him a thumbs-down.

We all surrounded Jake as he stood there in tears and pointed to the sky and said “That was for you, mom!” in a choked voice and broke down in tears as we corralled him and took him to the locker room.

The season was over, John Williams had predicted it; we ended 7-1 with the highest scoring offense, averaging 35 points per game, and one less person taken for granted. I met my mother in the stands as she caught my attention by yelling my name.

“You did great, honey!” She said to me, but my reply threw her off.

“I’m sorry, mom.” I said on the verge of tears.

“Sorry for what?” She asked confused.

“For taking you for granted, for not showing you or telling you I love you. I’m sorry, mom.” I replied.

She hugged me and said “I love you too, Drew.”

That’s how my life turned around. What happened to all of us, you might wonder? Me, I went to College and North Western University; I started all four of my college years as running back. Jenna Crimson, my half-hearted high school sweet heart went to college with me. We dated and decided that I wasn’t going to go into the NFL draft, I’d stay home and be a father and go into the engineering business.

Jake, well you guessed it, he went to college and played for the Oregon Ducks, and he broke the record for most passing yards and touchdowns. He was the number one overall draft pick in the NFL and was picked by the New Orleans Saints, in his third year pro; he won a super bowl with them. He’s still playing and his talk of retirement is still unheard of.

As for my mother, she and I go to dinner every Saturday night and we’re closer than ever. Our lives are great and it’s all thanks to my best friend in high school and today, Jake Ferguson.