Outlaws Football

Poor Brian woke up this morning with the flu. We needed to be ready to go at 6:30 am for his football game, which was in Ventura, but he was running a fever and complaining of a severe stomach ache. So obviously we decided he needed to skip the game. Well Drew is the water boy so he was obligated to go (and he's the unofficial photographer). When he got to the coffee shop where we all meet to caravan to the out-of-town games, we found out that one of the other kids was in the hospital (terrible Halloween/Inflatable story, but he'll be okay) and that if Brian didn't show up, we'd have to forfeit the game. So . . . being the team player that he is, he got dressed and made the trek out to Ventura.

He had only expected to dress in his uniform to make it appear that we had a full team, but decided to go ahead and warm up. We told him to try and if he felt sick, he could sit out. Brian dug deep and somehow found the energy to play the whole game - we were really short - had only one extra boy to sub out for both offense and defense. I think the notion that the team was relying on him to play spurred him on.

Despite the fact he was sick, he had his best game ever. He had three tackles and two flat backs (Brandon says flat backs are good). He also got to run the ball twice - they try to let one defensemen run the ball at each game. And he did all this in the pouring rain. A storm had blown in before we left and the thunder was so loud that Ginger refused to go outside. I couldn't blame her. By the time we got to Ventura, the field was flooded and we mom's sat huddled under blankets and umbrellas. Although I had a huge umbrella and a water-resistant blanket, I was soaked.

But we won 38 - 8 and that's all that matters. Oh, by the way, last week's game cinched the PYFL South Central Conference Championship for our team. This was the last of the regular season games and next week starts the playoffs.

Watching the cheer leaders.