Broderick K

October 8, 2010

English 10 Period Five

Autobiographical Narrative

Final Draft

My Concussion

Many adults told me to play sports to keep me safe and out of trouble. Growing up my life was hard. I was always looked up to as the kid in my family who was going to make a difference. At the age of twelve was my first day playing on a football team, after that I told myself I will always play. My freshman year of football didn’t go the way I wanted it to, but then sophomore year came and this is where it all happened. I never knew that sports could be so dangerous.

It was the big game, everyone was pumped up and ready to play our ex football coach Bob Manning. Before the game, I had a bad feeling about getting hurt because there was a rumor going around about what Bob Manning wanted to do to our key-players. Down set hike, repeated on and on in my head. I kept having this vision as if something was going to happen. I didn’t let it get to me, because my team needed me to play hard. I was looking forward to a win after two losses. I was done losing and crying after all the games that we lost. The first quarter went the way I wanted it to. Offense was getting points on the board and the Dragon’s defense was a killer. In the first quarter it was fourteen to zero, and our team was happy and pumped still ready for the next quarter to come. After a good talk from our coaches we went into the second quarter ready without a question.

We walked into the second quarter with clear heads knowing that the game wasn’t over yet. We still needed to work hard for the winning game. Our running backs were running hard and getting ridiculous amounts of yards, but even with that we didn’t end up scoring. It was time to go back to defense and it seemed like our D was unstoppable. The Knights were setting up their Punt Team, “Down Set” and the center snapped the ball. The punter kicked it off but one of the Dragon players ended up blocking it. We picked the ball up and ran it to the three yard line. My coach was going to call a play that I didn’t agree with, so I asked him to do a run play up the middle. We snapped the ball, Josh handed it off to me. “BAM!” There was some good hits before I made a touchdown. It was time for defense, after a whole game without them not making one point. They ran it up the middle and I had missed my second tackle of the year. In which they happened to make a touchdown.

They kicked the ball off to us. I didn’t play in the kick return, do to the fact that my coach wanted to talk over defense with me. After a non scoring drive again on offense it was D time again. I was mad about them getting a T.D. The quarterback hiked the ball and I ran in head first and fell down. I felt pain go down from my head to my feet. I tried to walk but ended up in the other teams huddle. I didn’t know what I was doing. I felt dizzy and had the biggest headache of my life. I soon began to fall but got picked up by Coach Woods. They started to ask me all these questions like how old are you, do you know where you are, what team are you playing and what year was it. After a few times of that they tried to help me walk to the side line. I laid there for about ten to twenty minutes waiting for the E.R. to pick me up.

I could hear people in the background but it was faint. The game lights were brighter than ever and my head was pounding like someone kept hitting it. I was crying and I just wanted the pain to go away. I also knew that the game was going to be over for me. All the hard work that I put in that game was going down the drain. After that, it felt like it was all a dream for me, I didn’t remember what happened to me after that.

At first I didn’t really care about what can happen in football. I never thought I was going to be the one getting a concussion or anything like that. Afterwards I began to think about the risks that a sports player takes everyday. I realized that they step up to any sport they may play. I also realized that if you don’t know what you’re doing when you’re playing a sport, it could end up being a life changing issue that you might have to deal with. I still play football but I know now what I need to do to help me from getting another concussion.