Ringing

[Deamon]

He saw the play coming before the younger members of the team did. Knoxville had run the exact same play against them the year prior. They hadn't been prepared for it then. This time, however, things were different. Bret had been there when the play had first appeared and he knew what was about to happen. As such he barked out some orders to get the rookie players to move into better positions. Some of them looked at him in confusion but he merely gestured for them to move. They withdrew any complaints they may have had and obeyed his command, the linebackers shifted over and the snap was called.

The dull thud of bodies colliding with each other told Bret that the play had started, he watched as the quarterback stepped backwards—four steps, personally he would have opted to take three—and the halfback sprinted up to meet him and take the ball. In that time, while keeping his eyes on the play, Bret had moved up towards the line of scrimmage. He could see the hole opening up to allow the halfback the space to run, but it also created a funnel effect. The halfback had to run through the gap because the linebackers—a group of giants that included his brother—were already trying to break past the line of scrimmage and reach the quarterback. Their intentions were simple enough, hurt him badly.

Past him the cornerbacks had already been pulled up the field by the wide receivers, none of the four were going to play any further part in the proceedings of the next six seconds. It was too late for the quarterback to throw the ball and he was already committed to the run. As the ball was handed over Bret broke into a sprint.

He had been watching Knoxville's new halfback closely all game. Their old one, a senior by the name of Adrian Brown, had been a good player that he respected. He had left for college at the end of the last school year and Knoxville had been forced to promote from within their ranks. The new halfback wasn't half the player Brown was in Bret's opinion. He had figured out his timing already. As the halfback entered the gap in the line of scrimmage he was already closing in on him. By the time he was exiting Bret was there.

The halfback ducked his head down and brought his arms in close to his body in an attempt to protect the ball. Bret ducked his own head down but kept his shoulder up as he launched himself into the tackle. He heard the collision against his helmet and a grunt from his opponent before a ringing overtook his hearing and a flash of light lit up his vision. His own momentum was diverted by the impact and he spun around one-hundred and eighty degrees to land flat on his butt.

From his newly seated position he glanced across to the prone form next to him to see the halfback lying facedown in the grass and dirt of the pitch with one arm out to the side while the other was stuck under his body, he was clearly unconscious.

For his part Bret still had a ringing in his ears and lights dancing across his vision but he pushed himself up to his feet and unbuckled his helmet as he walked back to his position with the rest of the team, in the meantime play had been stopped and the refs had called a timeout so they had nothing to do but wait.

His own coaches came and asked if he was ok and he nodded telling them he was.

Only once everyone had gone back to being focused on what happened next in the game did he allow himself to smile at a job well done.