ANNUAL TACKLE FOOTBALL FRIENDLY

It's been a while since I've played football. My friend Sam plays host to an annual game of tackle football to kick off the start of the NFL. It's usually high schoolers and university kids that show up. So, in the spirit of being in denial of getting old (or older), I fished out my old cleats and mouthguard, hoping to recall some of the tackling techniques from the past lest I get schooled by the new school. Life is too complicated now so I tend to simplify all events into 3 guiding points that I can remember quickly. My approach to this "friendly" game was:

1. Don't get injured.
2. Don't get pwned.
3. Make it a good cross training exercise.

Because only 10 guys showed up, we decided not play tackle. Having cleats helped because the grass was pretty slippery and those who showed up with runners only discovered quickly that you can't cut quickly on this grass. Plus, at this stage in life, you start thinking about how expensive getting injured can be, in terms of time missed from work and impacts on other significant areas of life.

With the exception of Sam and I, everyone there was born from 1985 and upwards! We were definitely the old folgies there! So, I guess we had more motivation than others to preserve what shards of pride we had left that time has not eroded. Not a good thing if one wants to achieve the first directive successfully. But, man, it felt good when Sam gave me that 5 yard screen and I ran it in the length of the field after making 2 kids miss with some killer jukes!!

Despite having completed a 34 km run in the morning, all the sprinting back and forth was great in clearing the soreness from my legs. Definitely one of the more effective forms of recovery, ironically.