Friday Night Light Miracle It was all quiet. It should be this way. The silence was erupted by the stats on the loud speaker. Eagles34 Lions 3 Rushing yards for the Eagles: 400 Lions: -3 yards Passing yards for the Eagles: 500 Lions: 60 of one pass to Jermaine Jones It was easy for me to say that I didn’t make any mistakes. “Actually I did something good,” I said to my friend at halftime. “I warmed the bench for you guys. That is my regular job here on this team.” Whenever coach puts me in he only calls running plays. He says that I am an amateur and that I haven’t developed as a quarterback yet. Tom Finn, the big defensive end was banging his head against the lockers. He was being recruited by Texas Tech and Alabama. He was the kind of guy who would never give up. Once he gave up 13 goals in soccer and never gave up. He was a big guy who could probably bench press 400 pounds. Mainly he knew really how to cut jokes. He could die for doing this. Just like anyone else in this locker room. And just have a second life. It was still silence. Dead silence. Now all of us were hoping for a miracle. Hoping that god would show us pity. Suddenly we heard on argument from the hallway. Coach Schwartz & someone else were trying to keep it quiet. All of a sudden all of us became quiet, even the big mouth, Mathew Tulloch. You always would get on my nerves and spit it out. “I told you this was your last season as the head coach of this team. You have done good job and I think I will have to kick you out of the head coaching job.” Probably the principle we thought. “I have been coaching this program for a long time. I am like a father to them now. Now counting this year it’s been 49 years. Please don’t let me go now. Not now.” Coach says pleadingly. “But you guys are losing in the finals and are stuck in a deep hole. A hole too deep to climb out of. Otherwise maybe.” We all heard it and we knew that we had to win this game for our city or community and our coach. That put more pressure on us. Our coach slowly came into the locker room with a blank and sad face. I’ve never seen him so sad. So upset. He didn’t show it on us. It was just that he was just so unusually quiet. Coach Schwartz knew we had all heard the conversation. He said “OK guys we are a team. We are a family, We need to stick up for your teammates. No matter what happens, don’t separate. We have come a long way so I don’t want to give up the chance of a national championship.” “OK, men let’s go” We were still quiet. Our coach was 86 years old and he is still going strong. We all slowly got up. “Come on we can do it. Let’s do it for coach. Let’s do it for our community, our school.” We ran through the tunnel hyped up. Our fans cheered but mostly erupted in boo’s. We started with the ball. I slowly walked to the bench. I wanted to play so badly but our starting quarterback was not injured. I saw Coach Schwartz walking toward me. “What are you doing? Go get on the field,” he said with a broad smile on his face. Tears ran from my eyes and on to my flexible wrap on my left hand, because of the sack in the preseason. I tried to get out at least a “thank you” but nothing came out. “Don’t worry. I won’t only call running plays.” he said with laughter. I ran on to the field. Charlie Best looked at me and said. “What are you doing?” “Coach’s call,” I said smiling under my face mask. I saw him look at me with envy. The field felt good under my cleats. It was ripped up, little brown patches lying around. The big eagle in the middle of the field was the passion for all those fans, not for me. The 21,000 seat stadium was full. Only a few of our fans have left. The yellow crossbars stood tall. And the band was playing the Eagle’s theme song “Victorious”. It made me made me mad. It ran a shock through my spine. I felt the power of football for the first time in a long time. The ref was jogging toward me. “So you are the new QB?” he asked, “Yes,” I said happily. The ref said something into his speaker. “Timothy Logan, the new QB for the Lions’” it said from the loud speaker. The crowd booed because they knew it was the end of their fun. I walked to the center of the field along with Jermaine Jones & Tom Finn the other captains for the coin toss. “Heads or tails? the ref asked me. “Heads!” I called out. The coin was flipped. It shimmered in the evening sun. It landed. We all huddled around it like we were one team. “Heads!” the ref called out. We chose to receive since the sun wasn’t a factor in this game. I jogged off the field waiting for the kick off. Out of the corned of my eye I could see Charlie Best was arguing with the coach. He threw his helmet down and stormed into the locker room. The kick was high and Jermaine took it from 7 yards deep and started sprinting. You couldn’t see his legs, his braids flying behind him. He passed the 30 to the 33 yard line and finally someone dragged him down by the fattest kid I’ve ever seen. I jogged to the field with Nate Johnson. “OK, man. No picks or sacks,” he said jokingly. I heard the play form my helmet. “Crossing Rout Deep.” I went into the huddle and called the play. I looked around making sure every one was in their place. “Hike!” I yelled. The ball rocketed toward me. It was nice. I rolled to the right. Jermaine was breaking away. I stepped and I let go. “Moon shot,” my dad would say. I spiraled toward him. I thought I threw it far, but Jermaine kept running. The ball was at the tip of his fingers and he hauled it in. He was at least 10 strides in front of his man. He was off and gone. TOUCHDOWN! 60 yard pass and a 7 yard run did it. We had to go for two to win. “Comeback cross.” Was that play. A cross to our big tight end Mike. The ball came. Right away their big Defensive End was chasing me. I tried to stay in the pocket. I rolled right I could see out of the corner of my eye, Charlie Johnson was wide open on the flat. I released the pass. Right away I knew it was perfect. Right into the hands of him, All of a sudden the score was 33-11. Every single drive was scored someway or another. And our defense held them. Just like that it was 33-30. Fourth quarter 1:03 remaining. Second down Eagles on our 3 yard line. I lined up as a DE. The ball was snapped when that guy hit me. It felt as if 1,000 bees stung me. I kept my feet moving. Suddenly the guy gave up. I have an open lane to the QB and he couldn’t see me. I ran and hit so hard. I though I broke a few of his bones. Third Down. Loss of 10 yards. Tom Finn patted me on the back. The first time in about 10 years I felt like I was a part of a team. The last time I felt like that was when my father and I played my older brother. That was before my dad died. Let’s not bother about that now. I need to get to work if I want to win this thing. The clock was running down and we only had one time out left. Again third down & goal and 13 yards to go. 40 Seconds left. “Hike!” He was looking for a pass. So I went to cover their receiver. He dropped back and looked, looked, he was looking for my man. He threw the ball way up. Perfect spiral! I jumped. It felt as if I was flying. I felt the ball tip of my hands. I looked back. He had it. I looked down, one toe the other toe was barely off. I looked to the ref. He raised his arms to signal a touchdown. “What?” I thought to myself. I jogged over to my coach. I saw the challenge flag fly from Coach Schwartz’s hand. “Yes” I thought to myself. “The Lions call a challenge.” The refs jogged to the newly built replay booth. The Eagles were celebrating. We were just waiting. It felt like hours until those refs came out of the booth. The head of the crew walked toward the center of the field. “The ruling on the field is reversed. The player did not have both his feet inbound. Lions will not be charged a timeout. We whooped and yelled. I haven’t been so happy in a long time. I jogged back onto the field. Fourth down. If they kicked the field goal then we could just score and win it. If they scored then it would be out of our reach. “Hike.” I rushed from the outside, no one covering me. This time the QB could see me because he was worried. I was chasing him. He ran toward the sideline. I almost was there. I put my hand out. He threw it. I just got a piece of it. And down it went. I pointed upward to thank god. My coach patted my back. I have to get back on the field. Thirteen seconds left. There was only time enough time for 2 plays. We are on the Eagles 13 yard line with 87 yards to go. “Wide Receiver Streaks” my favorite play, a long pass to Jermaine Jones. “Hike!” the ball came. I dropped back, I had time. I saw Jermaine break away and get open up the middle. I launched it. Perfect Spiral right to him. All of a sudden the Eagles Free safety jumps in the way. INTERSEPTION!! The crowd roared. He was running the other way full speed. The only person in his was me. I ran toward him. He already passed the 30. I ran and hit him so hard at his legs that he flipped in the air. The ball is flying out of his arms. The crowd went silent. I picked it up and ran. No time on the he clock. All on me. A big linebacker barreled on my legs. I expected it. I hurdled him easily. Only one defender left. He charged at me. I side stepped him. All green in front of me. Easy. 10, 5, TOUCHDOWN! We just won the states. My team crowded around me. A weirdo to a hero. I walked over to the sideline. They carried me on their shoulder. Charlie Best came over to me. He said, “Nice Job! You deserved it. I’m Sorry.” “Thanks.” Our coach retired that year. He was a wonderful man. Always positive. Always supportive. He would never give up on us. He is a football great. We love him. We always will. It’s been a legacy. Our coach is 86 years old and has coached for 49 years. One of the players who played 20 years ago is now coaching this program. The Lions won the next 7 championships. And it will go on for a long time. This is a school that will never be forgotten. This is a legacy that will last forever. . . . 5 Years later I met two guys Sonaal Verma and Vaishanv Siddapureddy. We played in college together. We were roommates together. We later went to become the Fab 3 of the NFL with Coach Schwartz’s younger brother Jim Schwartz as our coach. One great experience. One great legacy.