First game in Fourteen Years

It is going to be a big day. I have my first football game tonight in fourteen years! I am pretty excited about that. I got up realizing that I had not EMS calls so I went to my house to sleep for a little while longer. I was able to get about another four hours of sleep.

Before football I went to the IS office and tried to get some of the coroner's work out of the way. I had two cases this week and I need to get caught up. I stopped at my house and cleaned out my truck because I had a couple guys who were going to come with me to the game.

I headed to Moscow because we had to be there at two o'clock pm. We waited in the parking lot for everyone to show up. I had three other guys besides me in the truck. We cruised a long. I would pass people up and the guys in the truck would laugh and make Hemi references like in the commercials. It was fun. We got to the field after about two hours of driving. We first went to the field and walked it a little bit.

We were playing the Walla Walla Stars. They play their home games in a town outside of Walla Walla called Waitsburg. We were playing at a high school field. The locker rooms were about four blocks from the field. After we walked around a little while we went to the locker room and changed. I had to put on knee braces as well as everything else so it took me a while to get ready.

I drove to the field and had a truck and bed full of guys from the team. We got on the field and walked around a little more and started to stretch and warm up. Then we got together as a team and stretched. We did a team prayer. It was going to be a few guys at first and as people saw them they would join in, before we knew it half the team was there for it.

Finally it was game time. We started out strong, but guys were playing both ways and they were getting really tired. You could see it in their play. They were getting beat. We were down twenty-four to six at the end of the first half. We went out in the third quarter. We had guys only playing one way. We scored three touchdowns and took a lead. But as the time was closing on the fourth quarter they scored again and sealed the deal. I had a chance to get in on two plays. It was so cool being out there. I remember the coach said "Anderson, get ready, you are going in on the next series." I had immediate butterflies. It was my first time playing in fourteen years. I was defense tackle on the right side. I fired off the ball getting ready to beat my guy. Then I saw him drop to the ground. Too late! I was on the ground and they played pig pile on me. I was stuck there trying to get up. They were doing what they could to keep me down. It worked. My next play I worked my ass off to shake the blocker. He was pretty good. Then I came out. The defensive tackles were playing two downs at a time then switching.

That was my semi-pro debut.

After the game we changed and got ready to go. The team manager wanted a ride home so I was taking him and the three guys I came with. So we had five in the truck. Our team owner, Jerry, could not find a ride. I kept telling him to get in with us. He was looking for other options. Most everyone on the team went to a restaurant in town that stayed open late to feed us all you can eat pizza and lasagna. We got there and I had a lot. We were there for about an hour. Then it was time to go. Jerry still did not have a ride. I kept telling him to pile in my truck. Finally he did. We had five linemen in my truck and the team manger. There was about half a ton of players in my truck. It was a fun ride home.

We were listening to music, singing along, and chatting about the game and other things. They wanted to have some beer as we were driving. I did not like that idea. Finally I decided that I didn't care. We stopped and got some beer. I let them drink and I drove. We sang to the music and got back to Moscow at about two o'clock in the morning. I dropped everyone off and headed to Pullman.

I went to Ryan's apartment for a little while and talked with him and I also spoke with Russell on the phone. I was so tired I decided I was going to leave and go home. I drove as quickly as I could because I was so tired. I got home and crawled into bed at about three o'clock am.