Still the baby

I rush home, change out of my work clothes and run 6 blocks to the field. There is a crowd standing around my wife already on the sidelines.
"Nice Socks..." is my greeting.
"I was in a hurry" I say trying to figure out whats happening on the Field.

I spot the baby immediatley, he's got blonde hair that is lighter than his tan skin, today he's Quarterback instead of Wide Receiver or Running Back. Our other Quarter Back hadd CCD. Offense and defense are both down in a 3 point stance and the only head I can see is my son's, who's calling out a count prior to having the ball hiked.

Flag Football is similar to regular football except each team gets 10 consecutive plays on offense each half. Even if they fumble, they still get the ball back for the next play, but they must start back at the 50 again. If they gain yardage they can start the next play from there until they score. Because the kids are young, they do not wear pads or tackle. The ball runner is stopped by pulling one of his flags off of his belt. Most of the kids are 6 or 7 and have picked up the concepts of positions, blocking and tackling.

The ball is hiked and it's complete pandemoniuim as 22 boys run at each other. The baby rolls left 10-15 yards trying to find an open receiver. Four boys from the other team are nearly on him as he decides to tuck the ball and run with it himself. The baby runs straight down the 50 yard line to the opposite end of the field leaving his pursuers far far behind. He reaches the opposite sideline and turns left towards the endzone. He kicks it into his top gear and sprints through the middle of 7 or 8 defenders who cant get near him. It plays out as if he were a teenager having fun with a bunch of kids.

When the baby hits the goal line he doesnt slow but continues to run in a large arc around the goalpost back onto the field. He runs all the way back to the 50.

My wife yells out "Run, Forrest, Run!" to the crowds amusement.

The next several plays are various hand-offs and passes that dont gain any yardage, until the baby does a repeat performance of his 50 yard run.

I dont applaud this time, I turn and take in my surroundings.

People I dont know are yelling his name. Mothers of other players are smiling at me. The coach of the older football team comes over to talk to me at halftime about how he cant wait for the baby next year. It's all very weird for me as a father. I went crazy the first few games like this, but they ALL turn out this way.

My sons have seen some success and much failure at sports and I've always been proud of their work ethic. To me it's important that they learn how to lose, because in life they will lose many many times. I cant relate to the baby now though, at least like this, he's something far better than I ever could be. My other sons see it too, they know he's something different.

It's time for us to play defense, and the baby is still in. The coaches rotate the entire roster, except him. My son line up as a linebacker on the far side. The ball snaps and the opposition wisely runs to the near side away from the baby.

My son busts through the blockers and sprints into the backfield pursuing the running back from behind. The running back has good blocking and turns the corner towards the goal line. I think it's an impossible gap to catch the runner, my son is fast but to overtake someone from the opposite end of the field seems undoable.

The baby is within a foot of the runner by the 35 yard line.

In my head I see him about to dive at the runner and grab his flag.

HE DOESNT DIVE OR PULL THE FLAG

He runs full speed PAST the running back to get in front of him, then turns around and runs BACKWARDS at the same speed that the running back is running forwards.

"PULL THE FLAG!!!!!!!!!" I scream, the crowd is nuts

He reaches out while running backwards in front of the runner and CAREFULLY grabs the flag from the runner at the 10 yard line. This exact senario happens 2 more times, backwards running and everything. In all he gets 8 tackles.

After the game I ask him why he didnt just dive at the kid and take the flag?
"I didnt want to knock him over" he says. People are fawning over him, and it's like he's a celebrity. He's not out of breath and barely sweating.

An hour later we're home and he's crying because he's afraid to go upstairs by himself. "Now that's something I understand" I think.......