It’s football season! I love the fall for its milder weather and pinkish orange sunrises and sunsets, but I also love that it brings football season to us. I love watching football at any level. It can be Pop Warner ball. Maybe it’s a junior high ballgame. I really enjoy high school and college football. I love the game because of what it did for me as a boy and young man and I cherish the memories and friendships that I carry with me to this day.
Many years ago, I was a football player. You can’t look at me now and tell it, but I suited up on Friday nights under the lights. I loved being a part of something competitive and lining up with my teammate brothers to take on guys from another school who felt the same way I did. We fought for our teammates, our school, and our communities to see who would come out on top. Pure adrenaline. There’s no bottle or pill that can duplicate that high. Even to this day, when I walk into a high school or college stadium and smell the grass, see the boys warming up, and hear the crowd stirring, I get that feeling in my gut. My 88 year-old uncle describes the same feeling inside his soul. If you’ve ever suited up in full pads and stepped on a football field, you KNOW the feeling.
I was recently sitting outside enjoying a cooler fall evening and my mind wandered back to 1986. I was a 10th grade football player weighing in at 160 pounds. I never had a lot of size, but I tried to play hard and give it everything I had. I tried to use speed to avoid the direct shots and make up for the shortfall of size.
I found my 160-pound body in the middle of a slobber knocker. That’s middle Georgia language for our team was lined up head-to-head against their team. Tensions were thick and the stakes were high. My team was the Briarwood Bucs and their team was the Gatewood Gators. Gatewood featured one of the baddest dudes I ever played against. His name was Will O’Steen and he loved destroying opposing team ball carriers. Will made All-State and played college ball at Valdosta State University.
Will was around 6’1” and weighed in at 230 in high school, but he could move well. He was #61. You remember the numbers of a player like that. He played linebacker for Gatewood and always seemed to arrive at the scene in a bad mood. No matter what the situation or what the score was the guy kept coming after you. He would meet you at the line with force or relentlessly pursue you around the end of the line. If you ran to the left, there he was. If you ran to the right, there he was. His motor never stopped. Relentless pursuit.
We played Gatewood every season, so Will and I connected with one another many times. I would run the ball and he would separate the top half of my body from my legs. A nice dislocated shoulder or broken rib cage was all in a day’s work for Will. A good compound fracture and ambulance ride for opposing running backs was most likely on his bucket list. I envisioned that he drank pine tar and ate razor wire for breakfast. He was a great ballplayer that was tough as woodpecker lips.
This was a steamy October Friday night in Warren County, Georgia, in 1986. The game began to tilt in our favor and we took the lead. Then we took a two score lead. In the fourth quarter, we went up three scores, but that never stopped Will O’Steen. He kept coming after us like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator. Every hit was BAM. BOOM. CRACK! Both teams began to get a little chippy and a little trash talking began as you might imagine. On a particular play O’Steen cracked me hard and one of his teammates gave commentary.
“Yeeeahhh, give it to him Will. Rip his head off and dump in it!”
The competitive side of me took over and I hopped up fast.
“You ain’t rippin’ nothing!” I fired this back like I was Dick Butkus.
Will O’Steen just glared at me. He didn’t say a word. Imagine Michael Myers from the Halloween movies. Folks, it’s the quiet ones that you have to worry about.
A few moments later, Will O’Steen and I were involved in a head on collision on a kickoff. Will turned my helmet around sideways. The ear pad was hung under my nose and I was looking out of the ear hole. I had the metal taste of blood in my mouth.
I searched around for my head to reattach to my neck. Yes, he indeed had ripped off my head. For this pleasure, he offered me a hand to help me up. Mutual respect. I don’t remember taking his hand because I was too busy putting my head back on my neck.
Will O’Steen’s team was down on the scoreboard but he obviously had not given up his favorite hobby of chasing down opponents. Seek and destroy. He never quit coming after you. Relentless pursuit.
One of the reasons I love football is that there are so many similarities to life. There have been times in my life where I ran to the left or I ran to the right. There have been times when I was just running nowhere, but let me tell you about another Relentless Pursuer that never quits chasing us. He never quits coming after you. He never gives up on you. He chases you down when you least expect it and sometimes when you are expecting it. His name is Jesus and there’s nothing you can do to stop His pursuit. There’s nothing you have done that will turn Him away.
Are you tired of being tired? Are you tired of being angry or worrying? Tired of the empty feeling at the bottom of the empty bottle? Are you just tired of running? There’s no time like today to stop and let Him catch you. He won’t rip off your head, but he will grab hold of your heart and fill it with peace. Why don’t you offer your life to Him today?
