It's Not Easy To Be Me

The title is from Five For Fighting's song "Superman (It's Not Easy)". It's a short story I wrote about the demeanor of an NFL quarterback during a post-game interview after they've just lost a game.

     Listening to a quarterback analyze his loss is hard. His voice is flat and lifeless and the way each sentence comes out sounds like he's choked up and near tears. Every word he speaks is laced with pure disappointment. Not at the team, but solely with himself. His breathing is raspy and shallow, but physical exhaustion is hardly the issue. It's the mental strain that's beating him up mercilessly, cleverly hidden from everyone but himself, yet still very much real.

     But watching him is like receiving a series of sharp blows to the abdomen. When he first approaches the microphone, his movements are awkward and hesitant, like he has no idea where he is or why he's there. Covered in a blanketing, somber daze, he's slow to situate himself behind the podium and finally turn his attention to the sea of hungry reporters, all eagerly waiting to bury him in senseless questions. When they impatiently press him for an answer, he blinks slowly as though he's at a stupefied loss for words. His entire team is now depending on him to cautiously retain some pride for them. That weighs heavily on his mind as he stumbles through a weak reply that raises his teammates higher while putting himself down and totally avoiding the question at hand.

     It's the world’s way of kicking him while he's down. Every play of every possession is outlined clearly in his mind. Pointed questions about his failures are only pouring salt on open wounds and tearing him down even farther. This is the very same quarterback that you just saw standing tall on the football field ; roughly barking out plays and perfectly lofting the football into the air time after time, never giving up or admitting defeat. Never letting the thought of losing penetrate his game mentality. The broken man standing behind the podium and mumbling into the microphone thrust into his face is only a sad memory of what once was. A pitiful shadow of his former self. His broad, powerful shoulders are slumped and his usually steady hands are shaking like leaves in a stiff wind.

     When you take a closer look at his face, it’s almost too much to bear. His cheeks are pale, as though the energy and adrenaline coursing through his veins simply drained from him the moment the game was lost. His entire face is devoid of life itself and missing that spark of determination that glowed there earlier in the day. His eyelids are often pressed firmly shut in an attempt to block out the agony and restrain his raw emotion. His eyes themselves are thickly glazed over and rimmed faintly with red, confirming that he's moved on from battling the opposing team and now he's only fighting tears.But once the media stops watching his every move, it will only be a matter of time before he forfeits that futile struggle and lets the tears fall as they wish.

     When he turns to leave, his expression can only be read that all he wants now is to just go home.

     Even if you hate that given quarterback, it's at that moment that you wish you could give him the world, or at least the win.

Author's Note

(This is my revised version of what I wrote before. I tried to fix up some parts and add more in. But the general idea is still the same.)

Ignore grammar problems, don't use this to try and diss a certain quarterback you don't like, leave football opinions out of it

Just to note: This is not portraying quarterbacks as crybabies/sissies/weak/lame... etc.
The quarterbacks I had in mind when writing this are tough guys, and what I wrote is only partly based off of real life. Some of it is my own extrapolation. But what I really wanted everyone to know was that the point was not to describe quarterbacks in a derogatory way. It was to show that stuff gets to them too, and they are affected by it. So before anyone gets it in their brain that I'm hating on a certain quarterback, I'm really not.

Reviews

[The Perfectionist]

As difficult as it is to ignore grammar issues, I shall endeavor to do so. Here goes...

...Dang, I got nothing.

No, no, I kid. I'm actually a big fan of this story. I like when people deviate from avenues that might be considered safe or normal, and this one definitely does that. Society puts athletes on ridiculous pedestals (the price for the millions we pay them, I suppose), and the media must seem like nothing short than a flock of harpies even to the most even-tempered professional. The quarterback is the leader of the football team, and as you point out, bears the brunt of a loss just as the captain of a sinking ship bears a responsibility to his crew. Thank you for bringing this difficult situation to light with this story.

[Hi]

Yay, you fixed the version. I love your story, it's very descriptive and I hope to be able to write like you.

[Hi]

You are good, but i am confused about the format because it looks like a poem. Yet, it is a story... Anyways, i can picture your details when you wrote this and it contains i lot of it. Not bad...

[Different Wings]

this is really well done! it's mysterious, yet you can feel the pain and want... continue with these!

[Vigil Dreamer]

A very interesting piece, I don't know much about American Football but it gives great depth into the minds of players of all sports and other activites which are similar, overall I really like it :) keep up the good work

[Elizabeth Marie]

O right the football thing... i read a bit of it and was like o great a football thing lol :D

[Keating]

This is the best bit of writing that I have read in a long time. I completely agree with the description of the specific quarterback and I believe that any quarterback would love to get his teams offensive line all over the media. all and all 5 stars!
P.S the stealer rock! :)