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+---- Thread: *Red Devil Bowl (/showthread.php?tid=19304)
*Red Devil Bowl - Exilizer - 02-21-2020
What follows is a lengthy but thrilling first hand account of the final day of college football for Derred “The Red Devil” de Ville, Linebacker prospect from London, UK.
Part I - Early Arrival
“Today’s the day!", I was thinking to myself, thoughts racing through my head as I was emerging from the long tunnel into the vast, empty stadium, and I was here even earlier than usual. The grass pitch was still slightly damp, the morning dew glistening in the rays of the first sunshine, promising a beautiful spring day. It was going to be perfect weather for playoff football, neither too hot nor too cold, not a single cloud in the sky and I could feel almost no breeze from the slight wind that was slowly sweeping through the stadium. History was to be made here today, one way or another, win or lose.
After what happened last year, I had wanted to be the first to arrive to have time to think and prepare, and so I had left my flat at the crack of dawn. At this time of the day, the city had still felt like a ghost town, the underground completely deserted as I got on the first Bakerloo line train of the day towards Wembley Stadium.
When I arrived, the night porter was just finishing up his shift and he waved me through the gate and into the vast catacombs below the stadium. I hopped onto one of the provided golf carts and opened it up to full throttle. There was no one around after all, so I had to make the most of it while I still could. Here beneath the ground, endless miles of tunnels, some as wide as roads were laid out to provide access to all the infrastructure needed for our world-class facilities and after nearly 5 years at King’s College London with the Regents football team, I knew them better than the architect himself.
I slowed down and got off at the home team’s player tunnel, leaving my bag behind near the entrance to the locker rooms and decided to walk the rest of the way through the tunnel onto the pitch. Before getting to work in the gym, I wanted to get into the right mindset, something coach constantly kept going on about. At least in my case, he was preaching to the converted. I valued few things as much as a good night’s sleep and a clear mind. And despite what lay ahead, and the daemons of last year’s disappointment never far away, I had slept remarkably well and felt fresh and ready to go.
As I was standing there, I was taking in the sight of row after row of pristine, red-colored seats stretching towards the roof at a seemingly impossibly steep angle and lined up in a satisfying 360 degree curve around the stadium. As I stopped my mind from wandering, I began to focus on the task at hand.
Last year, we had gotten so close, literally inches from clinching the Queen’s Bowl for the first time in team history. But football is a game of inches, and my good friend John, our WR, had been tackled just shy of the goal line in the dying seconds of the game. With no timeouts left, that had been our last shot to win the title. Instead, we lost 31-34, and as is often the case in sports, our achievements throughout the season and getting to the Queen’s Bowl had suddenly meant nothing at all to anyone anymore. “Losers are forgotten while winners will always be remembered”, is something Coach would often say, a saying that is stuck in my head.
This year though, we had shown our critics that last year’s playoff run had not just been a lucky fluke. We had been dominating our division and much of the league, entering the playoffs as the number two seed, second only to our local rivals, the London Beefeaters. They were the only team to have beaten us all season, and today, we would face them again in the ultimate showdown. Personally, I had had a great season in my last year before graduation. I was a force to be reckoned with at the linebacker position, setting league and franchise records all over the place in most tracked categories and carving my “Red Devil” nickname into the history books. Our defense had only allowed an average of 10 points per game, no small thanks to my exploits.
But all of this would mean nothing whatsoever, without the icing on the cake, clinching the Queen’s Bowl, our equivalent of the Ultimus as at the time, there was no professional franchise in London. Growing up where I had, on the streets of London, not many things mattered, but one thing that mattered above all was family and community and I wanted to earn a ring for them as much as myself.
Standing there pondering all this, one thing became crystal clear to me. I may call this place my home, but today I had the chance to make it my kingdom and give everyone purpose. Today was about more than just winning, today was about cementing my legacy. Today really was the day.
Part II - Final Preparations
I retraced my steps, retrieved my bag and headed towards our locker room. Despite having spent a good 30 minutes pondering my legacy, there was not a soul in sight. I got changed into my workout gear and headed towards the doors of the gym. Even early in the morning, it slightly smelled of sweat, testament to the dedication of each and every one of us, each and every day of the week. Today was game day, so instead of a heavy workout, some light cardio was in order. As I was completing the final laps on the bike, the place slowly started to fill up with the faces of my teammates and my coaches. I finished up, got showered and changed again and told coach Peters that I would head to the LB film room.
This room was my home within my home, and I had spent countless hours in here over the years, poring over every little detail of film that I could watch. They had even added a mattress in here for freaks like me that would watch film until there was no tube home any more. Our kitchen was well stocked so sometimes it was easier to just stay the night.
I didn’t typically just watch film from the UK college league, I set my sights on something higher, watching real pros playing the beautiful game in the big time leagues of the DSFL and NSFL. My dream was to play there one day, but not many from abroad had ever made it far in the leagues across the big pond. If I wanted to be one of the best, I had to know how to play like one of the best.
Today though, I wanted to go over a few more clips of the Beefeaters season. Being the perfectionist that I am, despite many hours in the film room this past week, there was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind. I just wanted to double check, to make sure I hadn’t missed anything that could give me the slightest advantage on the field today.
I had never been religious, but if there was one thing I did do religiously, it was watching game tape.
I started with their QB, Gordon Brown, and felt the hatred rising in me, seeing his smug face carving apart various defenses, just as he had sliced through us earlier this year. He appeared to have no weaknesses and very few tendencies to exploit. I did however want to look at one thing, and there it was, a small detail I had previously missed. In key downs, late on the game, he would tend to try and throw to his TE over the middle, getting rid of the ball as quickly as possible, especially if the defense had just blitzed him. “Okay, I can work with this” I thought to myself and made a mental note to try and take advantage of this minor pattern in tonight’s game.
Next up, I just wanted to check out that left tackle they have, and double check the best way to speed rush him. He didn’t seem as agile as a tackle should be, I believe he converted from being a center, so beating him with some speed and fancy moves seemed to be a great option. I had speed and a nasty spin move in my arsenal, so I felt confident that I could try that at least once.
Also I watched a bit of film on their running back, a big powerful bruiser, with one major weakness, lack of speed. Again, I was hoping I would get an opportunity to use my superior speed against him in the open field.
At last I felt I had done enough, and I didn’t want to mentally exhaust myself before the game. Instead, I headed to one of the team’s nap pods to get some more rest and relaxation before lunch. Clear mind and all that. After a solid two hours of sleep, it was finally time for the team lunch in our excellent canteen which always prepared nice but healthy and nutritious food. It was great to be among my teammates, but I could feel the tension in the room. Nobody wanted a repeat of last year, and anticipation as well as apprehension was rising.
Now that we had a couple of hours of time for ourselves, I decided to go and see my family, who I knew would be waiting at a coffee shop near the stadium. Like I said, family and community are the most important things in my life other than football, and seeing them for a bit this lunch time gave me all the strength I needed to go into the big game with a truckload of confidence and self-belief and the feeling that someone would be there for me, no matter what.
Part III - Game Time
I don't remember much else about the afternoon, it mostly went by in a flurry of team meetings, interviews and press conferences that I was required to attend with Coach as one of the team captains alongside my QB. All of a sudden, the clock had struck 6:00pm and it was time to suit up for warmups, with kickoff only an hour and a half away. After some stretching we were running our typical warmup drills and with about 30 minutes to kickoff we went back into the locker room. Coach asked me to address the team as this would be my final game for the Regents and maybe my final football game. I gave a rousing speech, drawing inspiration from my thoughts earlier in the day, and everybody wanted to go get that ring.
I was the last to emerge from the tunnel, an honor typically reserved for our QB, but today was a special day. The first thing I noticed was how the atmosphere in the stadium had completely changed compared to this morning. Then I could have heard a pin drop, now, an aeroplane engine would be drowned out by the noise our fans were making. This was incredible, I never had seen anything like this, not even last year. Five minutes before the kickoff, it was time for the national anthem “God save the Queen”, the whole stadium on their feet to sing along gave me goosebumps. Then it was time for the coin toss, the Beefeaters won and deferred.
After the kick-off, the first quarter started slow and with a couple of 3&outs on either side. Both teams were clearly showing some nerves early on and didn’t want to make the first mistake. For us on defense though, this was already a success, because the last thing we had wanted was to fall behind early. As long as we kept this game close and keep their QB under control, we would have a shot at the title.
Our defense was playing well, and I was just getting warmed up with a couple of nice stifling tackles. I wanted to establish dominance early on. On our 3rd drive, we finally got our first first down and were able to get into field goal range. Our kicker converted and with about 5 mins left in the first quarter, we were 3-0 up. This gave the defense a bit more confidence and I was lined up as a will-linebacker on their next offensive play.
That audible, I’d seen it on tape, this was going to be a run to the weak side. Perfect. I lined up a bit poorly on purpose, as to make sure that they would really go that way with their big power back. And they did that just that, and suddenly their powerback was running in space. Thankfully speed was not his biggest attribute and I was able to chase him down with a good angle of pursuit, punched the ball loose and forced a turnover. The stadium was roaring, this was the big momentum change the team needed to get going and I was soaking up the atmosphere of our fans going mental because of my play.
Now we had possession in their red zone, instant field goal range but our QB couldn’t find any target in the end-zone, so we simply added another FG to close out the quarter 6-0. At least our kicker was clutch, but I was getting frustrated. We had held them to no score and all we had to show for it was two measly field goals.
Q2:
Predictably, we got punished for our inability to turn opportunity into points, pretty much as soon as the second quarter started. On first down, they had a nice run up the inside for a gain of 8 yards. On 2nd down, I was lined up outside, and had a clear path to the QB for a big time sack, bringing up 3rd&9.
I was fired up, the defense was fired up, the fans were fired up, and boom, we got what we deserved for feeling too good about ourselves and taking the eye off the ball on the very next play. We were lined up man to man and their receiver, Austin Towers, put a nasty double move on our cornerback and burned us with a 74-yard touchdown on a deep bomb from Brown, and just like that, we were behind on a score of Regents 6-7 Beefeaters, with barely a couple of minutes played in the 2nd quarter.
What a disaster and things only went downhill from there. On the next offensive drive, our quarterback threw an interception, which Towers subsequently turned into another touchdown for the Beefeaters, making the score 6-14 with about 6 mins left in the half. Just as we were hitting a gear on offense, the snap went a bit high, and the QB & RB botched the handover, resulting in a fumble recovered by our opponents. At this point, their RB, Doug McTroug started to really force himself onto the narrative, accounting for 60 of his team’s next 70 yards, including a beautiful power run out of the goal line formation for another touchdown, dragging several of us with him into the endzone.
At 6-21, I was beginning to feel my dreams slipping away from me, those big ambitions I had voiced on this very pitch just this morning. What a fool I had been to believe that this would be any different from our regular season matchup. We couldn’t stop them and our offense was incapable of scoring a touchdown. I was trying to reign my emotions back in “Get a grip man!”, I told myself, “it’s only over when you believe it’s over”. As one of the leaders on the team, I had to give the others hope as we headed into the locker room for half time, so I kept my head held high, despite the loud and vicious boos from the stands.
Score at halftime: Regents 6 - 21 Beefeaters
Q3:
Coach gave us a roasting at half time, lighting a fire under our arses and rightfully so, we had completely crumbled like a cookie in the 2nd quarter. If we wanted any chance of salvaging this game, we had to come out of the gates firing on all cylinders. And most importantly of all, no more mistakes, no more turnovers and no more excuses. I took our QB to one side and told him that I trusted him to turn the offense around, promising I would take over the game on defense.
The Beefeaters got the ball to start the 2nd half, so I was the first one of us that had to make good on our promises and I was raring to go. On the 2nd play of the drive, I put a swim move on the tackle and managed to take down QB Brown for a massive loss of 15 yards. This is when the first “Red Devil” chants started in the stands, that I somehow heard as clear as a bell. That extra motivation from our home crowd, was all I needed to really crank the motor up to eleven. The next few plays I was everywhere the ball was, sometimes even before the ball got there. I wanted in on every tackle that I could get my hands on. Their offense started to struggle, and on a key 3rd down as they were on the fringe of field goal range, I managed to strip the ball from their power back for a second time today.
I picked up the fumble and was immediately tackled but I got up and ran across the whole field to our QB, handing him the ball: “Your turn buddy!”. What followed was a majestic, up-tempo drive from our QB, beautifully executed, passing with clinical precision. Clearly he had just as much skin in the game as the rest of us and finally found the trust in himself again. At 13-21 this was a one possession game, and we were firmly back in it.
We managed to force a punt on the next drive, and I added a few tackles to my statline, bringing my total up to 10 for the game, including a couple of key tackles for loss, slowing down their running game, and this sequence of play pretty much wrapped up the 3rd quarter.
Q4:
At this point everyone in the stadium knew that this was anybody’s game for the taking. With a well called and methodical drive we took nearly 10 minutes off the clock and got into field goal range. On 4th&2, Coach decided to go for it all and called a fake field goal, and our kicker threw a beautiful pass to a wide open TE in the end zone, much to the delight of our fans. With the score at 19-21, there was only one option here, go for 2 to square things up. With a heroic effort from our offensive line, our RB was able to just about push the ball across the line, this time there would be no being short by a few inches.
The game was tied and there was a little over five minutes left in the game, and the Beefeaters were back in the driving seat. It was time for one more defensive stand, one more game changing moment. Unfortunately, we were starting to get tired on defense, after a long day at the office and over time, the Beefeaters were able to just about drive near field goal range. A 2nd&6 coming up with just under a minute left on the clock, our coach called a pretty much all out blitz on defense. I lined up over the tackle that I had studied earlier in the day and decided now was the time to try the spin move after faking a power rush similar to the ones I had employed earlier in the game. It worked a treat, and I brought the QB down for my 3rd sack of the day, forcing a 3rd and long for them to get in field goal range.
I had the QB right where I wanted him, scared and intimidated, just before the biggest play of the game. “The devil’s coming for you”, I yelled across the line of scrimmage, and I could see the fear in his eyes and at that point, I simply knew that he would try to force the ball over the middle to his trusty big man TE. I faked a blitz, baiting the throw, managed to undercut it and the next thing I remember is running the ball in the opposite direction, all the way into the endzone as the digits hit 0:00. The game was over with a score of 27-21 due to a crucial pick six by me, Derred de Ville. The stadium erupted as over 60,000 fans screamed in unison “Red Devil for MVP, Red Devil for MVP, Red Devil for MVP! ”.
Part IV - The Aftermath:
At that moment I learned the meaning of the term “out of body experience”, it almost felt like I was watching myself in a dream-like trance. For a while I felt calm and almost serene, despite the magnitude of this momentous occasion. After what felt like an eternity, but in reality was only a few seconds, I see the confirmation on the big screen.
[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Queen’s Bowl MVP: Derred de Ville - LB - 24 [/div]
Someone told me later that this was the first time ever a defensive player had been given this honor. The fans had started to flood the pitch and security was having a hard time to keep everyone under control as preparations for the medal trophy ceremony began. I vaguely remember hoisting the trophy into the sky and showing off my MVP medal with all the confetti making it hard to see even a short distance.
As the team was celebrating in the locker room, little did I know that the biggest surprise of the day was yet to come, as my phone started to ring. Someone from the NSFL head office was on the line “Congrats on the win, I was hoping you would have a few moments to talk about our international players programme? I got a scouting report here that suggests you have above average speed and strength for your position, but could do with some work on your agility and endurance. If you fly over early enough, the league can help you get started with some proper training conducted by our rookie mentors prior to the DSFL Draft.”
At first I thought that this was a prank call, but Coach came out of his office and gave me an encouraging thumbs-up. I was shell shocked, and didn’t know what to say for a few seconds, before finally replying, “Thank you, I would be honored to participate, please let me know how to go ahead with the programme.”. The voice on the other end of the call told me to take my time to celebrate and that somebody would be in touch over the next couple of days.
This is where my NSFL journey started, on the day that this iteration of the Queen’s Bowl got the name “Red Devil Bowl”. As we approach the DSFL draft, I promise to whatever team drafts me, that I will bring the same passion, dedication and resilience to them.I showed on that day that I can bounce back from failures and be stronger for it. I am looking for a team with a strong knit culture and community and look forward to answering any scouting questions in my upcoming press conference later this weekend.
Code:
3994 words*Red Devil Bowl - siddhus - 02-21-2020
damn, nice backstory, writing 4000 words is unreal and that bank account is lighting up :eyes:
*Red Devil Bowl - Jay_Doctor - 02-22-2020
The next great author has arrived. Hell of a write up!!