A Platypus is What's Leftover

                 Out of the 65 kids who came out for freshman football, only about 25 made sense.  You know, the boys who ran faster, jumped higher, smiled wider, talked cooler, got voted most likely to succeed, spoke Latin, and had three testicles.  The ones leftover from the Neanderthals.  The ones with surplus testosterone. 

The others, not so much.  Football is a difficult sport.  You practice 4 days for every 1 day you play.  You push your body past its physical limits, then place it in front of an opponent to have the stuffing removed.  You ask your brain to run at red line for ten weeks straight, and you ignore the injuries and aches.  There's really no reason to play football if you don't start, or see game time.  It's like 'Running with the Bulls' in their holding pen, after the rodeo has ended.

• Why play a sport that requires one  hundred hours of being used as a tackling dummy, and no 'stat' to prove you were good at it?
• Why play a sport that doesn't guarantee game time regardless of the sacrifice, or effort?
• Why play a sport where you're the underdog to everyone you line up against, and you know you'll never touch the ball, or hear your name announced? 
• Why play a sport you don't have any physical aptitude for?

I don't know.  I've struggled with those questions for years.  Every season brings a small, misguided group of boys to the sideline, where they stand for ten weeks.  They jump at any opportunity to be knocked around on Scout 'O' or Scout 'D', without ever really getting better.  They volunteer to stay late without expectations of being rewarded.  They don't ask to be put in when you're three scores ahead, and you're looking right at them.  Instead, they smile and say "I'm okay Coach.  I understand".

Why accept the discarded features of 'real' creatures to make a composite you call your own?  Why take the ducks bill, and the beaver tail, and the webbed feet, and the overgrown claws, and reptilian egg laying, and claim it's who you are?  What the hell's a platypus, anyway?

What do you understand?

And how can it be okay?

Maybe you understand that we're not created equal, despite the claim of our Constitution.

Maybe you understand that you don't have to be a star to have fun at this.

Maybe you understand that you're not real fast or real tough, and you don't need to be, if you're going to be a Neurologist.

Maybe you understand that even little, less talented bodies are fun to play in.

Maybe you understand that just being here with the guys, is pretty cool.

Maybe you understand it's not my fault that I can't see you, because you see me, perfectly.

Maybe you understand there's another position you play off the field, and you're all-county in it.

Maybe you understand that the only measurement of ability is the one you use to measure your own,

 against what it was when you started.

Maybe that's why it's okay.

And at least your not a platypus.