During the fall I shoot a lot of football. I shoot high school on Friday nights, youth football during the day on Saturday and some college football on Saturday evenings. We don’t have a pro team near here, or I’d probably shoot that on Sundays.
By November I’m ready for a break. …But not too long of a break.
I got an email last week from the youth league (CFPO-PAL) I usually shoot in the fall. They invited me to come shoot a new six-man football league that they started this year.
Hesitantly I said yes, thinking, “am I really ready to start the football season madness again already?” I mean, I love shooting football, but they have around 70 teams playing every Saturday. I wasn’t sure if my break was long enough.
I got there Saturday afternoon and to my surprise, it was a completely different experience. The weather was pleasant and overcast, only one game was being played at a time, there was much less traffic; it was just a nicer situation all the way around.
The shooting was better too. In six-man football, the field is shorter (only 80 yards) and more narrow, so that put me closer to the action. All of the teams were brand new to the sport, so everyone was excited.
One team in particular was fun to watch. The Rams were brand new to CFPO-PAL and many of the players had never played football of any kind before. I heard questions like, “how many quarters are there?” and saw kids recover a fumble, then stand confused, not knowing what to do with the ball.
No matter how many mistakes were made, everyone was overjoyed to be there. I saw some of the best sportsmanship ever out of these 12 and under football players.
