“Great football weather this Sunday morning.”
–Allan “The Oracle” Milchman
If there is ever a Week where competitive play matters the least, it is Week 1. Not that competitive games are ever unimportant. They are always the most important, but unlike every other Week of Jewball, Week 1 might just be about something else (and lucky for us since the games were not close).
Week 1 is about renewal. Week 1 is about reunions. It is about clean slates, untapped potential, untold stories, unfulfilled destinies. It is about optimism. Where anything is possible. Where a kid named Brody and a kid named Pants, who we never heard of before, can grab the first two Jewballs. Where Mo, playing in his first game, now leads the league in scores. Where these three players become an integral and unalterable part of our story. A story which goes back to the early to mid 90s. Where rookies find their way amongst veterans and by the end of the game it feels like they have been here forever. Where the family grows – long live the Jewball family.
And we had plenty of that growth in Week 1. The perfect mix of youth, age, new faces, and incredible comebacks. Me, B-sh, and Rabin coming out for our 17th or 18th opening day together….and then old school vets like Meir, Munch, O, PJs, Singer and Mighty in the mix. New school Vets like Kut, Tom, and MK. Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshmen. 28 in all. 28! Has to be a record. All the generations blending for the game we call Jewball. As it should be. Here is to many more Week 1s!
As foretold by The Oracle, the weather Sunday was great. Sunshine and low 50s. Hardly any wind. LHS turf was open for the taking.
(We now go to the words of our Jewball poet laureate – Kut):
After the hype, anticipation and ultimate letdown of opening day, guys were itching to get out and play. Not wanting to tempt the football gods, Commissioner Jordan decided to forego any talk of a tournament and just allowed guys to sign up for the early or the late game. (Not Both, Ademar) Within 15 minutes, the 8am game was closed out. Took about 3 days for the 9:45 game to fill up. (what used to be a lazy man’s game with a late start has turned into early risers greeting the day.)
The teams looked decently matched on paper. Getting on the field it appeared as if one team was slightly more stacked than the other. Imagine lining up against Munch, O and Meir (Stein, not singer) they are big, fast and quite skilled. Kind of like Arya going against the Whitewalkers (Rooks should remember them from last year’s game, the one where Vets won!) I would love to tell you that they combined for 6 sacks, I’d love to tell you that they forced countless interceptions, I’d even like to tell you that they gave their QB plenty of time to throw many TD’s. Sadly, this was not the case. However, that was the case for the surprisingly dominant opposing line consisting of MK, Sam and Kut. Individually they may not have been as tough, skilled or dominant, but as a team, they were a force to be reckoned with.
The game started with Rabin throwing for Dark. Quick interception and Colors go up by 1. Rabin takes it again, nice running play behind the big 3 for 25 yards. Pressure coming in, throw is out and …..Interception number 2. Yaron, throwing for Colors takes over and quickly turns in another score. Rabin takes over again, not feeling too confident, and……3 and out, passing game is just not there and the D-line is creating heavy pressure. Yaron gets the ball again, feeling pressure on a 3rd and long, he throws one up and the wrong team comes down with it. (Will it be one those games?) Gronk takes over at QB, things are looking good, until they’re not. Interception #4 for the day. Yaron gets the ball back and throws a beauty of a pass way down field to Brody. TD! Dark gets the ball, new QB, one of the legends has returned, Meir Stein, hell of an arm and lots of passion. (Called pass interference is still under review) Couple of complete passes, ball moving down the field, things are looking up. 3rd and 2, no where to throw, Meir starts running to his left, about to pass the line and Kut, chasing from behind dives and grabs the flag for a sack and turnover on downs. (if I’m writing the recap, I can put myself in it) Yaron gets the ball again and launches a rocket downfield, jump ball to Singer who easily handles the catch and gets the TD. Game didn’t change much at that point, more turnovers for Dark, including a pick by Asa, more TD’s for Color. Gronk takes over QB, again and manages to put together a very nice drive, capped off with a TD pass to Vegh, finally Dark is on the scoreboard. Icing on the game was Mighty catching a quick pass and flying past the depleted and tired defense (Hi Goldberg, wanted to get you in the recap,) to run in another TD.
Final score of the game 7-1. Jewball goes to Brody for 2 picks and 2 TD’s.
Decent game, should’ve been better.
Shout out to Rabin who showed up to the game even though he was hosting an RCCS breakfast at 9:30. Good to see a lot of faces out there on the field, looking forward to many more.
(Back to Jordan)
Watching Game 1 come to a close was semi-depressing. If it wasn’t Week 1 and the high that goes along with it, it would have been very depressing. The losing team, lead by Rabin and Meir and Gronk was down by 6 scores and listless. After an exciting drive by Gronk (which should have been the type of game played by Dark all day) Mighty scores a late cheap one (and for those watching stats, it sucked to see!) and the Game 1 folks traipsed off the field.
The hope was that Game 2 would have more bite. And, with such a low bar, it did.
It was the reigning MVP Yaron against the 16 (SIXTEEN!) year old upstart Davy Pants, progeny of Eddie, brother of Ari. It takes a lot of guts to step into the ring with grown men and I give Pants all the credit in the world. But there is no way he could beat Yaron, who had just won 7-1 in the previous game. How could he outsling the gunslinger? But that’s why you play the game.
Pants starts his Jewball career with a 3 and out and Yaron and Colors take over, but not before a truly sad and scary moment as John goes down with a knee injury. Really tough to see. The guy is fire and explosive talent. If we all brought it like John, Jewball would be its best self. So…we wish him a speedy recovery. The 7 on 7 became a 6 on 6 with Colors rotating. Dark goes zone and it proves a tad porous. A methodical drive ends up with a Sam TD and Colors takes a 1-0 lead.
From the 5, Pants calls a reverse – Jordan to Mo. We like the gutsy call. And wouldn’t u know it….Mo breaks free…makes his way through the line, then the secondary, and then it’s a footrace. And Mo is some athlete. Tall (at least for Jewball ) and fast. Game is tied at 1s. And the Dark defense starts to lock it down, with honorable mention of MK and stellar flag pulling over the middle. Pick 6 by Pants. 90 yard screen and run to Jordan for a score. MK on the pitch and dive for more points. Before Yaron knew what hit him, he was in a 4-1 hole. Beast and Jordan started the presumptuous trash talk because, why not? Yaron is fun to beat up on and getting in his head couldn’t hurt. But Yaron is mentally tough. He and Tom start hooking up on TE roll out and eventually Danny is found in the endzone in a clever manipulation of the zone. 4-2 Dark. With some pressure, Dark goes 3 and out. And the game changes on the next drive. Maybe. Ari, who had been having a very rough game, including a dropped DIME from Yaron and a dropped easy pick that got tipped to Jordan and eventually wound up in the MK score, catches one on the sideline and does his bulldozer thing and gets in the endzone. Lead would have been cut to 1. But what’s that? A flag back at the line of scrimmage! Beast calls holding! Bring it back. Yaron regrouped and throws a TD pass to Danny but play isn’t made and the 2 score lead is maintained. Even worse, with a drive kept alive by a scrambling Pants, Jordan gets a TD thrown stat as he takes the handoff and finds Mo wide open in the endzone when the zone defender pops out to stop the run. 5-2. Yaron once again fights back and Danny busts one open for a score. At which point Yaron declares that he will win the game. But Pants stayed poised and put up 2 more scores with Beast on the TE roll out and a final hat trick to Mo. Yaron kept battling but the clock was against him. Two more points was all he could muster before the buzzer sounded. Pants gets a Jewball and a W in his debut! Jewball to Pants for the TD, Pick, and 4 thrown.