I\u2019d like to take a moment to thank The Powers That Be for making me a sturdy person.<\/p>\n
I was playing soccer this afternoon and collided with someone. More specifically, my kneecap collided with his. You could hear the *CRACK*<\/b> from across the field (at least I assume so—given that I was involved in the accident, I only know it was loud). He fell to the turf. I stayed upright, watching the guy hold his knee and roll around in pain. He needed help getting off the field. I stood around and waited for the game to start up again.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not that<\/i> big—about 195 pounds—but I\u2019ve yet to run into or get kicked by someone on a soccer field and not jump right back up again. Conversely, I\u2019ve left several opposing players on the ground who\u2026 well, they didn\u2019t get right back up again. And I\u2019m not even a thug anymore. I\u2019m trying to develop a little finesse, learning how to maneuver and dribble the ball around people instead of barreling into them. If you flash back about a decade, I didn\u2019t bother with that crap—I played defense and I could rumble with the best of them.<\/p>\n
My favorite memory happened when I was about 16. We were playing in a tournament against the host team. They had a forward who\u2026 let\u2019s just say he didn\u2019t appreciate the art of defensive thuggery. As I kept pressuring him, he got more and more pissed off. It eventually came to a head when our arms got linked together at the elbow. Instead of letting go and running towards the ball, he tried pulling through my arm. Well, that was just plain silly—I kept my arm locked and pulled back. Neither of us let go and after a few more tugs, he spun around and punched me in the throat.<\/p>\n
Why is that my favorite memory? A couple reasons:<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t make me a bad person, does it? Enjoying the fact that I took advantage of his frustration? I mean, just because I was bumping him around doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s allowed to take a swing at me. Think about Star Wars—Greedo and Han Solo are facing off outside the bar, talking smack until Greedo whips out his gun and shoots first. Then the ref runs up and gives him a red card. Okay, maybe it didn\u2019t happen quite like that, but give a man a degree of poetic license here!<\/p>\n
But the reason I mention it is because I\u2019m becoming a little less \u201chands-on\u201d while playing soccer now, trying to dance around Greedo and keeping the gun in its holster. It\u2019s worked to a degree—I haven\u2019t been punched in the throat in over ten years—but sometimes people don\u2019t appreciate the effort I\u2019m making. Sometimes they play really aggressively and someone\u2019s going to get victimized. When that happens\u2026 sometimes you gotta cap \u2018em. Pun intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019d like to take a moment to thank The Powers That Be for making me a sturdy person. I was playing soccer this afternoon and collided with someone. More specifically, my kneecap collided with his. You could hear the *CRACK* from across the field (at least I assume so—given that I was involved in the … <\/p>\n