Remembering the football playing days

So today a Facebook friend posted a picture of the picture of our 1991 conference champion team in the trophy case at my old high school. That was my junior year in high school. We had a really good football team that year. I remember it like it was yesterday. It’s hard to believe it’s been 21 years. It’s nice to know we are still in the trophy case. My senior year playing football was a bit more disappointing. We were good, but we had a few key injuries and lost a couple of games so we didn’t win the conference. My last football game was in a playoff loss to a team that we use to always beat. To this day, not a day goes by without me thinking about it. I remember all of us bawling in the locker room. We weren’t crying because we lost. It was just a stupid game. We were crying because that was the last time most of us would be strapping that helmet on. We would never bash heads on the football field again. We would never be teammates again. Just typing that brings tears to my eyes. I don’t know what it is about playing football, but they were some special times. Seeing that picture makes me think that somewhere we are still teammates, still bashing heads, and having a great time on the field. It was 21 years ago, but feels like yesterday.

A lot has changed since then. They have a new high school, new football field, new football conference, and new mascot. It’s nothing like the “good ol’ days”, but these are the “good ol’ days” to the kids that weren’t even born yet when we were bawling our eyes out in that locker room. To them, that picture from 1991 could just as well be black and white. Ancient history. To me that picture means everything, it was just yesterday.