The Life Of A Football Player

Hi, My name is Kevin James. I am 17 years old, 6’3, and 205 pounds. I live in North East, Florida. I am a junior in high school but a senior in football. I go to Jackson Senior High School. I am in the photography club and on the High School Spartans football team. I like recording music. I love shoes therefore I am big sneaker collector.

One hot, sunny day on June 31, 2013 I was at football camp. I am on the varsity team and I am the starting middle linebacker and starting running back. I love my sport. Working out and lifting calms me down.  I have played football my whole life. One day I suddenly got a pinch down my leg.

“Coach Mike says Kevin to go get a drink.”

“OK coach I’ll be quick”

         After my quick water break I was back in practice. I heard a loud ding on the back of my helmet. I suddenly turned around it was another one of my teammates. Blake started to laugh and picked up a piece of dirt and threw it at my helmet again. I reacted quickly and threw a piece back. Blake was biracial, there for his mom was white and his dad was black. He was a senior; it was his last year playing football for high school like any other senior jock. He was a senior bully. He bullied the freshman’s, poured water on them, and threw footballs at them.  Blake was the free safety and the main wide receiver he weighed in at 186.5 lbs and was only 17 years old. He was one of the top players on our team. We had over 65 players on our team. With 12 seniors, 17 juniors and the rest were sophomores and freshmens. There is a varsity team and a junior varsity team. If you were an outstanding freshmen or sophomore you played varsity if you weren't so good and needed to improve you played junior varsity, but even now if you’re a senior you can still play junior varsity. You weren't allowed be lazy and you had to be committed. 

After practice was over I took off my helmet and shoulder pads, took off my cleats and then my pants. I took off my girdle and then grabbed my towel and soap. I headed into the shower and then washed up. When I came out and got dressed. I was then ready to go. I was leaving practice and I went to start my car and I smelled such a rancid stench. After two inhales I suddenly scattered around my car and I found a bag of busted eggs that had been sitting in my car all day in 94 degree weather. I could only imagine who did it. I walked around the car, picked up the bag, and threw it away. I looked around and behind a truck I seen four heads popping out. It was three juniors and one senior. The three juniors just happened to be Tyrone, Jake, and Alex. The senior was Blake. I should have known. I wanted to throw the bag at them, but when I attempted my defense coach was walking out the door on his way to his car. I didn't want to accidentally hit him and make it bust. I would have had to pay for that at practice by running. I drove home and I washed up. After, I headed out to grab something to eat. I ran up to McDonald's. I got a burger, fries and a large coke. I decided to go to the YMCA and workout for two hours. I washed up again after my workout and headed to pick up Sarah, my girlfriend, to catch a movie. We went to go see the new Kevin Hart movie “Ride Along.” My mom called me; she asked if after I dropped Sarah off if I would run to the store. I ran by the store and grabbed a couple things that she needed. I began to head home and I suddenly heard this loud noise. I don’t know where it came from. I hurried in my car and took the back roads back to my house. I hurried with the couple things I had and ran to the back door. My mom thought something was wrong but she thinks it was just the train, but I thought it was a gunshot. I just ate my dinner and went upstairs. I turned on my TV and powered on my Play station 4. Three hours later I decided it was time to get some sleep.

         When I woke up it was 6:13 a.m. I had to be up at 6:30 a.m., so I went back to bed for a couple of minutes. I got up took a shower, packed my clothes, and grabbed an orange and out the door I went. I only had to drive seven minutes to work. I work at game stop. I've been working here for eight months now. I like my job because I love to play video games on my free time. I get a 20 percent discount on new arrivals such as games or consoles, so pretty much anything in the store. I make good money. I make $10.56 an hour (last month I was employee of the month). I got off at 3:15 p.m. Then, I went to the mall and ran into footlocker to grab my new shoes that just released, The Gamma Blue Air Jordan 11’s. I pay $175 for all my shoes because I have a buddy, Mark, who works there and he lets me use his discount. Well, since I got the shoes I had to go down to Pac Sun and get a matching shirt and a nice pair of jeans. After spending about two hours at the mall walking around I decided to go grab another pair of shoes. I had 300 dollars left after buying both pair. I spent $215 on shoes in one day. It was a pretty good day for me. I've needing a hair cut for about 4 days now and today I decided to go and get one. I got a hair cut after waiting 1 hour it was 6:35 p.m. and I wanted to go workout at the YMCA. I ran down there for about a hour and a half. I left to head home after that, but as I was walking out my teammate Blake was walking out too. He decided it would be funny to hit me with a cold towel. But he had missed and I had turned around and punched him in the stomach. After he was bent over for about 2 minutes he stood up and apologized. I was driving on my way home and my dad calls me. I answer. He says that he has to go have surgery done tomorrow at noon. The only problem with that is I have football practice tomorrow from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. When I left for football practice the next morning my dad was walking out the door on his way to the hospital.

I called him and I said “Dad I hope everything goes well I love you!”

.           He said “I love you too, Kevin, have a good day at practice.”

         I got in my car and I got a text. I had to go pick up a sophomore on my way to football. After I picked him up we headed to practice. We had to watch film from Friday night’s game. After that we worked out till 1:30 p.m. Then, we went over our new plays. They’re going to be in the play book this week. I thought it was going to be fun this week running the wildcat which means I am going to be getting the ball the whole game. I’ll be throwing and running the ball. I decided to stay after with the starting offense for 10 minutes. We went over the plays and if we messed up my coach made us run a lap. We only messed up twice so the running wasn't that bad. After practice I went downstairs and worked on my bench to get it up to 200 pounds instead of 190 pounds.  I got a text from my mom saying that my dad’s surgery went good and she wanted me to pick up my brother and sister and bring them over to the hospital and then our grandma was going to take them out for ice cream. She said if they were bad while visiting our dad they wouldn't get any ice cream. I told them to be on their best behavior. Thomas and Kayla were good so grandma took them out for three hours. They went for ice cream and since they were good she told them they were going out somewhere else, but it was a surprise. They went to build a bear workshop.  Our Dad was able to come home 3 days after his surgery. I had a game on Friday and dad said he didn't know if he was going to be able to make it.

Today was game day, best day of the week. After warm ups I looked up in the stands where he would normally sit and I saw someone that looked like him but it wasn't. I sat back to get a drink and I heard someone call my named “Kevin, Kevin”. I turned around and it was my dad heading to the stands. It made my day even better. It was game day, we were running the wildcat and my dad was there. I couldn't of played a better game. I made three touchdowns and at the end of the game the score ended up being 21-0. My dad was so proud of me. After the game I headed to the locker room with the team. I washed up and packed my stuff. When I walked out my dad was standing there.

He said, “Son, I couldn't be any prouder of you. How about we go get something to eat?”

I replied, “Thanks dad. It means so much to me. I didn't think you were going to make it. I was kind of bummed, but when I turned around and it was you it made me so happy.”

We went to get something to eat at Eat n’ Park. Then, I told my dad I’d go back to his house and stay with him for the night. We talked about the bullies at practice and he told me not to worry about them just to focus on football, but he said if I have to then I have permission to hit someone. It would get me kicked off the team so I probably wouldn't do that. When I went back to practice we watched film from Friday night’s game and everyone was telling me how good I did even the kids that were picking on me. After that I never had a problem with them again.

I finished school and went to college to play football for Alabama. After college I was drafted to the NFL to play for the San Francisco 49ers. I married Sarah and had two kids, Anthony and Kayla. Now we have a happy family and I’m living my dream life!