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Lance
Seeingfans begin to fill up the stadium made shit real.
Up until this point, everything about today’s playoff game had been incredibly routine, including the warmup work I was currently making my way through with our linebackers coach. But seeing how many people were already in their seats when the game wasn’t set to start for another hour and a half spoke to a different level of excitement that could only be explained by how important today’s matchup was even though I’d been trying my best not to get too in my head about it.
I mean, at the end of the day, it was still just football. And as far as fundamentals went, nothing about today would be different. But knowing how high the stakes were added an extra layer of pressure that was impossible to ignore completely, especially since a loss would mean our season was over with.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I wasdeterminednot to let that happen.
But as I’d been learning all season long, it wasn’t only up to me which was why I’d been making an effort all day to check-in with my teammates to make sure we were all on the same page.
Most guys were just excited to be here and ready to get going. And of course, there were a few who were acting like they were too cool to be fazed by any of this shit. But there was one person in particular who honestly had me concerned, Snoop’s generally quiet demeanor coming off a littletooquiet when I approached him on the field to ask, “Bro, you good?”
When he popped one of his AirPods out of his ear, I realized he hadn’t heard me, prompting me to repeat, “I said, you good?”
I was kind of expecting the ordinary,“Yeah, I’m good”that most people would give in this situation. But it was kind of refreshing to hear Snoop be completely honest when he moved closer towards me to answer, “I ain’t even ‘gon lie to you, Hawk. My ass is nervous as fuck.”
“It’s your first playoff start of your career. That’s to be expected,” I told him, something he seemed to appreciate as I gave him a pat on the shoulder and advised, “Just don’t get out there and shit on yourself, aight?”
Chuckling, Snoop shook his head as he assured me, “Nah, you ain’t gotta worry about that.” And since that was really all I needed to hear, I gave him a quick dap before I made my way back over to where the defense was warming up, not all that surprised when the first thing out of Gerald’s mouth was, “That nigga looks like he’s about to shit on himself.”
“He’s just a little nervous right now,” I explained. “He’ll be straight once he gets his first possession out of the way.”
Since we’d both been there before, it was easy for Gerald to nod and agree as I found myself distracted by the gorgeous woman who’d made her way down to the sidelines with a bunch of familiar faces in tow. And while I wasn’t surprised to see my parents in the number, Iwasa bit surprised to see both of hers; especially after that awkward ass condom situation back at Yani’s apartment last weekend.
Both parties had acted like it was a mystery when Yani first confronted them about it. But eventually, we learned that Mr. Hayes had been the one who’d drunkenly tried to risk it all, only to get laughed at by his ex-wife who initially hadn’t admitted to knowing anything because she didn’t want to embarrass him in front of his daughter.
All that changed once the truth was out though, the Original Mrs. Hayes roasting the hell out of her ex-husband for his failed attempt to get in her drawers. And since they’d apparently already shared a laugh about it themselves after he’d sobered up, Mr. Hayes was a good sport about being the butt of the joke; though it was kind of interesting that his current wife never even got mentioned at any point during that conversation.
“That’s none of my business though,”I thought as I approached who absolutelywasmy business, giving a quick greeting to all the parents before I pulled Yani into a hug while telling her, “You lookin’ realll football wife-ish today.”
“Had to come correct for the playoffs,” she insisted with a grin, pecking my lips with a kiss before she said, “This fresh haircut is about to turn your fine ass into a girl dad.”
“Times two, right?” I responded with a smirk that fell from my lips once I heard her mother repeat, “Times two? Briyana, you’re pregnant with twin girls?!”
That question set off a whole succession of others as my mother asked,“Who’s having twin girls?”and then her father asked,“My baby girl is pregnant?”And only because his mouth was already full of popcorn did my father not get a word in before Yani annoyedly asked, “Will y’all please relax?Nobodyis pregnant.”
“Yet,” I added on, that one word somehow making both of our parents excited while simultaneously making Yani mad as she whined, “See. Now why’d you have to go and throw a match on this?”
Since I could only imagine what kinds of questions she was about to be getting because of what I’d said, it was easy for me to laugh as I responded, “I’ll see you after the game, baby. Love you.”
“Mmmhmm. Love you too,” she groaned, playfully rolling her eyes as I pressed a kiss to her cheek before I made my way back to the field. And it wasn’t long after that my squad and I were headed into the locker room to get our gear on and get our minds right, the anticipation of what was to come literally making my body buzz with adrenaline until it was time for me to hit the field and do something with it.
Since we received the opening kickoff, it took a minute for me to get some action. But when I did, I was giving it everything I had, causing a lot of trouble for the relatively young quarterback out of Buffalo who had a strong arm but didn’t always do a good job of holding onto the ball which meant we were blitzing his ass every chance we got. And even though he’d made us pay with a few deep balls throughout the first half, our defensive scheme was working well overall, giving us a lot of confidence as we went into halftime up by a field goal.
The game was far from over though.
When Buffalo opened the third quarter with a huge kick return for a touchdown that gave them the lead, it was clear we still had a lot of work cut out for us. But with how much time was left on the clock, there certainly wasn’t a reason for us to panic; especially after Snoop hit Hunter in stride with a beautiful ass pass turned touchdown that put us back on top and swung the momentum in our favor going into the final quarter of the game.
With our defense having such a strong showing, Buffalo’s offense hadn’t been able to get a lot done against us in the second half thus far. But since this was a win or go home situation, I knew they weren’t going down without a fight, keeping me on my toes as I got a clear read on what they were about to do and called it out to my team who reacted perfectly to force a quick three-and-out.
At least, wethoughtit was going to be a three-and-out. But instead, their punter received the snap on fourth down and wildly took off sprinting, catching us off-guard in the worst way when he gained just enough yards to get his team the first. And because of that, our defensive unit was sent back out onto the field, forced to guard a long and slow drive that not only ate up a bunch of clock but also left us exhausted by the time the two-minute warning finally rolled around.
All we have to do is keep them out of the end zone.
That was my message to my guys on the sideline as we prepared for the final stretch of the game. But considering how well Buffalo had been moving the ball as of late, that wasn’t exactly an easy feat, making it no surprise when we quickly found ourselves in a third and goal situation that had the crowd rocking as we lined up for one of the most important plays of the game.
