Robofootball: Doublespin

It was the last regular season game of the year and Friday night, November 2, 2018, was a great one weather-wise, high 40’s, no rain, and a good solid field in Mt. Pleasant that had dried out much more than the Harrison field. It would not be so great for the Hornets who brought their 7-1 record in and would be assured a spot in the high school Division 6 playoffs no matter what the outcome. The Mt. Pleasant Bears had previously been a big Class A team and now were considered Division 2. The school was more than twice the size of Harrison from a student population standpoint. That statistical advantage or choice pool of players was naturally an overwhelming obstacle to overcome.

Due to scheduling conflicts, the game was sort of a last minute addition for both teams; in short, each needed a 9th opponent to finish the season given the lack of other teams within a bus hour’s drive within their immediate divisional class. The somewhat sparse geographical limitations of Michigan’s Central Lower Peninsula made equal division matchups virtually impossible. Harrison’s athletic director tried to avoid Mt. Pleasant after the shellacking the Hornets had suffered to them the previous year, but the other small towns as far southeast as Sanford and even north to Grayling were all booked up. Harrison was a good team in their own divisional class; therefore, schools in lower classes did not go out of their way to schedule them. On the flip side, the AD was not exactly thrilled about playing the Bears; nevertheless, they still needed to play that 9th game to complete the regular season. Mt. Pleasant had beaten them 37-10 and Jess had been beaten up badly too, suffering 5 sacks and double digit knockdowns.

Mt. Pleasant was also the home of Central Michigan University, a member of the Mid-American Conference or MAC. Often, the best players from Harrison might get a partial scholarship offer to a school smaller than CMU like Saginaw Valley State out of Saginaw or Northwood out of Midland, a rare one might make it to CMU. A very rare one indeed would be recruited by Michigan State or the University of Michigan, or perhaps even from outside the state. An offer from CMU would be a decent jackpot for a player, but U of M or MSU would be more like matching all of the numbers in the big game lottery including the power ball. Jess was a jackpot for sure, maybe even a lottery prize. CMU already had a full ride offer to present to him with the disclaimer that all schools were using now, that it would be null and void if the game of football was truly outlawed at the national level.

That was one reason he had to play. The scouts were out in full force again especially given that Mt. Pleasant’s record was also 7-1, only theirs came from stiffer competition. There were several players for the Bears that would be scouted. Another reason he would play was that he had been cleared by Dr. Shirka, an East Indian immigrant who had been doing her clinical shift at the ER last Friday evening when Jess had arrived. Dr. Shirka spoke accented English much like the customer service reps for most major computer support services who had long since subcontracted out such services for less than half the price of their American counter parts. Those in East India were sharp, more polite, and less sarcastic, but none of that really mattered when compared to the bottom line as the Verlucci’s would say. Dr. Shirka could sound a little garbled on the phone as she spoke quickly, but in person she was fun.

Carly had found it somewhat comical that at 4’11” tall, Dr. Shirka looked far up at Jess and scolded him for desperately wanting to play football again. She could not understand why someone would suffer bruises, abrasions, and a bump on the head, and still want more. She put him through the MRI machine, drew some blood, ran a few more tests, and even consulted with a neurologist once printed x-ray images of Jess’s brain were pinned up against fluorescent backlighting. The found nothing more than a little surface inflammation, but no significant swelling or fluid retention other than a slightly raised curved mound that they agreed was just a cut with a bruise, a slight concussion at worst. Jess did not boldly or purposefully lie about past headaches and dizziness, but he downplayed them more as a minor shake-up from a tackle or a knockdown here and there as just part of the game.

The doctors conferred, checked the boxes, finished off the paperwork, recommended rest and no physical activity for several days, and even advised Jess to take a few weeks off from football, but they did not really have enough to go on to outright ban such activity, and sent him home with a Tylenol 3 with Codeine prescription. Mike Robinson, Jess’s dad had been called and actually showed up, but was most irritated with being pulled out of a losing card game right when he was sure his luck was about to turn. He barely gave Carly a nod and signed off on the paperwork without reading a single word except where it said “Parent or Guardian Sign Here.” One of the forms was a legal document that paranoid less than reputable lawyers throw in with tons of fine print and disclaimers at an attempt to deny responsibility that some other lawyer would eventually pick apart when the trial came. This one attempted to absolve the hospital of any responsibility for what might happen on the field in the next 60 days which would be more than adequate to cover the rest of the football season including playoffs. Mike Robinson signed them all with a flourish, just to get the hell out of there.

If there was anything worse than waiting around a hospital or doctor’s office to first fill out the initial paperwork, wait to see a nurse, then wait interminably longer to see a doctor, then wait for a nurse to take one to the various testing rooms, whether it be an MRI or x-ray machine, then wait to see the doctor again; it was waiting for the follow-up paperwork to get to hell out. By that time, the mental drain on the average human was as bad as dealing with airport delays during a formidable blizzard, and the average human would have signed away their house, car, first born if anyone would take him or her, and whatever other liquid and non-liquid assets one might own. All in all, Jess wanted to play, his coached wanted him to play, and his dad didn’t care. Mike Robinson readily signed off on the hospital paperwork to absolve them of injury liability.

The Hornets won the toss, elected to receive, and a strong kick with a favorable Mt. Pleasant wind had them fielding the ball at their own 2-yard line when they were used to getting it at their 10 or 15 before plowing forward. Already the little things like stronger kicks, stronger and faster players, a bigger stadium, and a larger home crowd would soon take their toll. The return only made it to the 18 before the returner was nailed by 3 tacklers. Like the pro and college game, high school coaches studied film and used skits of it to teach their players on what to do, not what to do, and strategies to combat what the other team was doing.

To throw a wrinkle in the game, Coach Bruce decided to go with a no-huddle offense that they had practiced with here and there, but never implemented. Mt. Pleasant was big and fast and it seemed like they had a lot of guys like the star DE Jess had just faced last week against Coleman, the monster defensive tackle with Meredith, and the mean linebacker in the very first game against Farwell who had seemed to go well out of his way to take cheap shots both verbally and physically against Jess. It was different with Mt. Pleasant. At first, they did not seem equipped to handle the hurry up no huddle Hornet offense as Jess hit several passes in a row before the defense could get fully set. He was still knocked on his butt repeatedly. The defensive secondary had the most trouble adjusting which invariably left a receiver open for an instant or at least with a small cushion of a yard or two.

After moving the ball quickly and posting 5 straight first downs, Mt. Pleasant called a time out to regroup. Coach Bruce countered by calling more run plays when it appeared that the Bears brought in a nickel package with less linebackers in favor of more defensive backs. The Hornets made back-to-back 5 yard runs and the measurement revealed another first down by the nose of the ball. It put them in the Red Zone too at the Mt. Pleasant 18. The Bears ordered a blitz on the next play, Jess read it and his blockers held their own before the dam broke, but one linebacker punched through a hole in the line, much like a mouse or cat using their whiskers to properly judge the distance through a tight crack. The linebacker slid through just grazing his broad shoulders between 2 opposing players who were locked on to each other like giant elk bucks with stuck horns.

As was becoming more of an unconscious habit or quarterback instinct if you will, Jess spun a clockwise circle as the linebacker’s grasp slipped off with little more than air and a light breezy brush across Jess’s lower back. The linebackers lunge and momentum caught him off balance as he flew past Jess and seemed to tackle himself. Jess was not out of the woods as a late blitzing D-back from several yards in front of the line of scrimmage came charging forward at an extremely fast breakneck pace. To complete the double spin, Jess circled counterclockwise and the defensive back sailed right on by after leaving his feet for what was intended to be a sure sack in his mind. The back did a complete somersault and rolled back up in one momentous circuit just in time to see Jess fire a missile to an open receiver in the end zone. The Hornets hit the extra point to take a 7-0 early lead.

At times, coaches can get too tricky and gimmicky, even when they have a superior team, especially on the line or in the trenches so to speak. On the ensuing kickoff, Mt. Pleasant had two main receivers and the Bears tried a reverse handoff. The receiver who caught the ball started left as his blockers did likewise. The other receiver ran right behind the ball carrier as the Hornets were fooled into chasing the original player with the ball, sending their full team momentum in that direction. It wasn’t a bad call, it was just that the two receivers botched the handoff like a sweat-soaked slippery baton. The initial one with the ball waited a split second too long to underhand pitch the football as his fellow teammate streaked on by. He did it a little tentatively and slow as the ball bounced off the left hip of his comrade who was running full out. As a football will do because of its oblong shape, it shot off the player’s hip like a rubber bouncy ball on angled pavement. It hit the turf on its pointed end bouncing haphazardly away from both receivers. By the time they recovered, the Harrison players were all over it and came up with it after a mad scramble at the 15 yard line.

The Mt. Pleasant defense came out angry. They had been insulted and they were supposedly the strength of the team, a defense that barely gave up 200 yards and 13 points per game. With a TD and extra point, Harrison could eclipse that figure in the first quarter alone. A couple of tough runs however only netted the Hornets 2 yards, and then Jess was sandwiched savagely by a defensive end and guard on the next play, but managed to heave the ball out of the back of the end zone to avoid the sack. The Hornets made the field goal to take a surprising 10 point lead.

After that, it was all Bears. They put a big scoring drive together to end the first quarter down 10-7. The overwhelming pressure of the front four defensemen for Mt. Pleasant combined with a secondary who adapted to Harrison’s hurry-up attempts by chucking receivers at the line of scrimmage combined to disrupt Jess’ ability to complete any quick hitters like he had done on their first successful drive. By staying in the pocket longer, Jess was not only getting knocked down on virtually every play where he dropped back to pass or took a shotgun snap, but he couldn’t avoid an occasional sack either. A screen play netted them 18 yards, but an incomplete pass, a sack, and a 4 yard pass forced the Hornets to punt on their 1st possession of the 2nd quarter.

The Bears answered with another long relentless ground game that was getting them 6, 7, or even 8 yards a pop as the big 270 pound average offensive linemen bored holes like a diamond tip drill through soapstone. It was invariably two runs and a first down despite Harrison crowding up in the box with 8 or even 9 defenders. When the Bears did throw, the quarterback could have stopped for coffee for all the time he had. Midway through the 2nd quarter, the Bears were up 14-10 over the Hornets.

It didn’t get any better from there for Harrison, they were just too overmatched and nothing short of 6 or 7 turnovers in their favor would have made a difference. The Hornet run plays were stuffed like cabbage, maybe two yards at best, even when the Bear defense was playing for the pass. As usual, when Jess attempted a pass, he had to move out of the pocket, spin again and again, scramble, throw it away when no one was open, and even when he had a shot at an open man, there were big hands in his face to bat the ball down. Jess was thrown about like a rag doll between two angry girls who each claimed ownership. The first half would end with Harrison punting and Mt. Pleasant scoring another touchdown on yet a third time-consuming unstoppable drive. Jess sat for long sessions on the sidelines given the discrepancy in time of possession. He did not notice that the chin guard snap housing had finally broken off for good, neither did anyone else as he would not put his helmet back on until several minutes had elapsed in the 3rd quarter.

The Bears received the 2nd half kickoff and despite half time adjustments, there was simply no solution for Harrison, unless they could squeeze an extra couple of players on the field. The Hornets were overpowered physically on both sides of the ball. The Bears were superior at the core fundamentals of the game, namely blocking and tackling, and they had bigger and faster players to implement it. About all Harrison had was a better quarterback, but with no time to throw, and receivers rarely open, it was becoming a long day for Jess. When the Bears scored their 4th TD in a row that was 28 unanswered points. Down 28-10, Coach Bruce gave up on the run and went back to the hurry-up no huddle offense combined with the 2-minute no timeout drill. Jess ran out there, fumbled with his chin strap that wouldn’t work, and just gave up on it rather than call a timeout for such a minor issue.

Despite the overwhelming odds, Jess moved them down the field, pin-pointing passes between 2 and even 3 defenders repeatedly. He scrambled more and was still knocked down, only in the second half his helmet was much looser and even rolled off once. He was in the hurry-up, so there was no time to fiddle with such things. No one except Jess noticed, neither coaches nor refs saw the broken helmet. Since Jess was intensely concentrating an each and every play, he subconsciously ignored it. At the Mt. Pleasant 23 yard line, it was a crucial 3rd down and 7. The Hornets tried a halfback screen that only netted 4 yards. The 19 yard line was in the red Zone, but it would’ve been a 36-yard field goal attempt, similar to that of a 56-yarder by a pro, maximum distance so to speak. Down by 18 points, field goals would do them little good and Coach Bruce decided to go for all the marbles, a wide out corner throw to the end zone on 4th and 3.

Not anywhere near the level of the pros or Division 1 college football for that matter, the high school coaches still scouted their rivals, bought and reviewed film, and made half time adjustments as well. The defensive coordinator for Mt. Pleasant had naturally studied Jess, and was well aware of the infamous double spin maneuver that Jess had already used repeatedly in the first half. Heck, the papers and even local television stations had written about it and showed pictures and video clips of it too. To combat it, the defensive coordinator for the Bears drew up a makeshift plan on a nice new dry erase marker board. Harrison still had an antique chalkboard in their own home school locker room, the same one that gave teachers and coaches a higher rate of kidney stones from sniffing and ingesting all that calcium-based chalk dust for countless years. Unbeknownst to the teachers and coaches too, there was a slightly higher incidence of silicosis with those who had used them as well. The Bear coach only had to breathe a few non-toxic fumes from the dry erase markers as he drew up some X’s and O’s with a flourish.

“It’ll take 2 of you to pull this off. Now the first once has to induce the clockwise movement and will likely miss, that’s okay, but make the tackle if you can. The 2nd one has 2 options. You have to hit him at the end of his spin if you’re close enough, or go a full yard out of your way on the other side as if you’re going to miss him. Here, I’ll be the quarterback and show you,” he added after tossing the clipboard aside. “By going that extra yard, you’ll get him at the end of the spin. It goes against your natural instinct, but your mind has to will it to do otherwise, know what I mean?”

“Yeah coach,” “Sure coach,” “We get it coach,” and the like all echoed about.

“Well, go get him then! We’ll flash you the ‘99’ play at the right moment. Go! Now!”

At the 4th down and 3 at the Bear 19, the defensive coordinator flashed the ’99’ call to his full safety who quickly relayed it to his players. The safety served as the defensive play caller or quarterback on D. It was an all out blitz leaving man-to-man coverage and the defense banked on getting 2 players on Jess like white on rice. Jess was in the shotgun and the snap came low at his ankles. He bobbled it briefly, but the extra second proved to be costly as it disrupted the timing with his intended receiver. The Harrison line blew up, the tight ends collapsed, and Jess was assailed from all directions as he backed up several yards but couldn’t really go left or right. A linebacker shot up the middle and Jess went into his clockwise spin to avoid the hit. The defensive end beat the tackle around the corner and he came barreling at Jess; nevertheless, the coach’s scheme was still fresh in his mind and he moved a yard inward just as the coach had demonstrated. Jess plowed right into him with his counterclockwise maneuver.

The impact was devastating but the DE had not wrapped Jess up during the collision as he had come in with lowered shoulder instead. Jess had his head down some and took the blow right under the chin. His loosened helmet flew off as he was spun sideways but not down. As even the defensive coordinator could not have dreamed up, a 3rd defender, a defensive back, had broken around the opposite end and was barreling down on Jess right after the linebacker had passed between them. When the defensive end knocked Jess around, Jess’s head slumped down naturally after the helmet went flying off. The defensive back was only 5’10” tall and had his harms open and helmet leaning forward when he hit Jess at a full run. His helmet hit Jess square in the unprotected head despite the frantic whistles screeching to stop the play. There was an audible crack, and later there would be a dispute as to whether the crack was from the helmet of the defensive back or from Jess’ skull. Whatever the case, the play had happened so fast that it was later judged as no intentional fault of the defenders. They were just doing their job and even the best defenders running at full tilt, are impossible at stopping their own momentum in less than a second or two. Many a late hit or personal foul are simply unavoidable due to the laws of physics and inertia as laid down by Newton. The end result was that Jess’s world went black.

It happened so fast that there was no time for lights to flash before his eyes. No images of Carly or childhood or his mom. The only image left would be the one posted on You Tube for the world to see as someone happened to catch it on a camera video phone. Jess was taken away by stretcher and ambulance as Carly could only look on helplessly. With Jess gone, the Bears would win in a landslide 49-10. The Hornet season would last only one more game where they would be routed in the first round of the Division 6 playoffs without Jess. On the other hand, Jess was not dead, he would lapse into what would seem to be an unwakeable coma.

“Football is on trial. Because I believe in the game, I want to do all I can to save it. And so I called you all down here to see whether you can agree to abide by both the letter and spirit of the rules, for that will help.”

President Theodore Roosevelt, 1905