Trip down memory lane 100 yard walk

Valentines Day holds many special memories for different people. For some, it is the first kiss. For others, it is the proposal or even the wedding. For me, it was the day of the GREATEST STREET FOOTBALL GAME IN HISTORY!!!
It was a game that makes legends, the kind parents will tell their kids about as a bedtime story. I remember it like yesterday. The year 1993, and the time was right after lunch. I remember that because we had just had hot dogs & pork-n-beans, and that was my ALL TIME FAVORITE LUNCH!!!

It was an unusually warm day, even for California, and all of the kids in the neighborhood were milling around, just being kids. A half-court basketball game was going on over on one side of the street, and on the other side, there was a double-dutch contest. Everyone was having fun, and everyone was just being kids.

Then Mukunda Young stepped out of his house, flipping a football in the air in a nonchalant way, looking around to see if anyone had noticed he had walked out of the house. No one did.

Nonplussed, Mukunda, wearing his Jerry Rice jersey, yelled out, "Hey, Derik! Go long!"

I ran, pumping my legs as hard as I could, looking over my shoulder to see if the ball was coming, hoping to make a spectacular catch that would impress everyone.

It didnt happen. I had forgotten the first rule of thumb in street football, that nine times out of 10, the person throwing the football had no arm strength whatsoever. Instead of making a graceful catch, I had to turn around and sprint back to pick up the underthrown ball.

Although I didnt catch the ball, I caught the majority of the kids attention, and they immediately wanted to play a game. We chose captains, then went about picking teams in the fairest possible way.

We had kids line up on the curb, and we picked them as we saw fit. Many people didnt get picked (we called it getting drafted) in the first five rounds, and they got mad and went home. The two kids who got picked last swore revenge on the other team for not picking them.

Mukundas team kicked off, which consisted of Mukunda telling his team to run, while he threw the ball as far as he could. A little kid named Ben caught the ball and began running. We all ran behind him, hoping he would pitch the ball back to one of us.

Ben ran five feet, tripped over his shoelace and fell to the pavement. The ball bounced out of his hands and into the other teams. Seven to nothing, Mukundas team.

We took an injury timeout while we debated if Ben was really hurt, or if he was just faking because he fell. After deciding he was indeed hurt, we decided to help him up the best way we knew how.

Mukunda yelled, "Aw, stop your whining, you big crybaby!" Another player on his team named Marcus said, "Yeah, stop crying. You barely fell. Look, the concrete isnt hurt, so why are you?"

Ben responded by punching Marcus in the lip. They fought for a second, while we debated about whether or not there are fumbles in street football.
After deciding there were, Mukundas team kicked off again. This time, a limping Ben caught the ball, and he downed it.

In the huddle, it was complete chaos. First, everyone wanted to be quarterback. We finally let Ben have it, since he couldnt run.
Then, everyone wanted to tell Ben simultaneously what route they were going to run.

And finally, I had to convince everyone they could not all go deep.

After that, the plays fell into place, and we huddled up. Ben yelled out shotgun, (which was weird, because he didnt back up after he said it) hiked the ball, and immediately got blitzed by Marcus, who was still mad about the fight.

Penalty flags were thrown by the official, who was also one of our many wide receivers. A rule was breached, which was that you cannot blitz without counting to seven alligators.

The penalty was overthrown, however, because it was found that they could blitz once per every four downs without having to count to seven alligators.
So Ben, bruised and battered, hiked the ball, and threw an interception.

Touchdown! Mukundas team led 14-0, which wasnt a good thing, because we only played first team to 49 wins.

Ben was benched, partly because of his poor performance, but mostly because his mother was mad at him because he did not wipe off the counters when he washed the dishes.

I became quarterback, which was fine with me, because I was getting tired of always running deep every play, and never getting the ball.

We ran the kick off back to the 50-yard line, which was a parked car. I hiked the ball and threw it to Robbie, the kid I picked last. He ran for a touchdown, and came out of the endzone talking junk to Mukunda.

Mukunda responded by punching Robbie in the nose. His nose started bleeding, and he had to go home.

Mukundas team won in the long run, 49-35. Sure, the score wasnt that close, but the score was not the reason that it was the greatest street football game ever anyway.

It was the greatest game ever because in the course of the game, there were seven fights, four interceptions and one parked car hit by a wide receiver, who came back to the huddle with a dazed look on his face, warning us they had a Buick on their team.

It was definitely childhood at its greatest. And as the teams filed off the street, we all knew that the day was one of the best ever.