Turkey Bowl!

The only thing out of the ordinary this week was our ward's Turkey Bowl. The two elder's quorums played full-contact football against eachother for a couple hours Saturday afternoon, Rogers Hall against Shipp Hall. It had snowed the night before, so we had to pick a spot that had already been cleared out for some intermural games. The ground was really muddy.

I got there and we only had eleven people, while Shipp had almost twenty guys. Things weren't looking too good for us. We had some really athletic people on our team, but all of their guys were big and strong. I started out on our offensive line and I didn't do too horribly. At least not worse than I expected. What was funny was that we had a guy that was 5'4" on the line with me. Our center had never played football, along with most of the team. My roommate, Brian, was our quaterback. He did really well and got us a few touchdowns before he had to leave. We did really well defensively, too. They didn't score once the entire first half, but they found their secret weapon at the end of the half. They had one guy that was big and relatively fast. He steamrolled over peple, but could never make it to a touchdown.

In the second half, we didn't do so well. We didn't make many more touchdowns and they got a couple on us. But, we did have some really nice defensive plays. I began playing as a defensive lineman and did well. I could slip through their line pretty well. I got in on a sack, held up their running back at the line of scrimage, and even helped stop their steamroller a couple times. Eventually, their linemen began double-teaming me, and they were not small either. I couldn't get through in the last quarter, so I didn't do that much. Our guys kept getting hurt because we were so much smaller than them, so I eventually stayed in for defense and offense.

Offensively, the best thing I did was probably my kick return. They made it look like they were doing an onside kick, so the rest of my team was close to the kicker and I was the only man in the back. Suprisingly, he kicked it straight to me. I was so suprised when I caught it, that I forgot to run for a second. But, I eventually took off. We just did two-hand touch on kicks, so I didn't get that far. If not, I think I could have done pretty well. I just wish that I could have run with the ball more. I don't think I could have caught it, but if it was handed off, I think I could have made my way through and picked up some good yards.

I think that it was really good overall. I got to learn a little more about me and the guys I live with. I got to really learn their names and share a fun experience with them. Also, I learned that I love playing football! Even though I'm a little beat up, I would gladly play again soon.