Wes wiped his sweating hands on a towel hanging from the front of his belt and casually strode up to the line. His eyes scanned the defensive layout, immediately picking out the formation they were using and the likely scenarios. His mind, used to combat and honed for looking ahead, picked out the possible blitzers and the fact they were in zone defense. He nodded to himself, considered the play the Head Coach of Barnes Academy had called and then put his hands under center. "BLUE THIRTY TWO! BLUE THIRTY TWO!" Those were meaningless words designed to draw the attention of the defense and his center linemen. Some times they told his players which play was being run or where someone needed to shift but most of the time they were meaningless.
Wes caught sight of a defender shifting to the left and realized he had made a mistake in his read. "VENGEANCE! VENGEANCE! NEBRASKA!" This time the words held meaning, they audibled out of the existing play call and shifted it from a run up the middle to a pass play that sent his two right side receivers through the middle of the defense on slant routes and his far left receiver on a go-route. "HUT! HIKE!" The sound of pads slamming into pads as the ball left the center's hands and he took control. Wes moved backwards in a three step drop, his eyes had already identified his first receiver as covered, the second was also covered...but the third...There was a blitzer breaking through the right guard, throw now or roll out left. No, the left tackle was being pushed back, throw or get sacked.
Wes took a step forward and put all his strength into the throw. The ball flew through the air and Wes was lifted from the ground by a defender and slammed into the turf. Both Wes and the defender moved from one another and turned their eyes downfield. The defender, confident that he had managed to harass Wes into a bad call decided a little trash talk was in order. "Bats still suck." The Barnes Academy Bats had been a terrible football team for decades until Wes got there and provided them with what college scouts referred to as a "five star quarterback." He was already getting offers from across the country for free rides at major universities. Secretly he had already chosen Alabama. He would graduate in a few short weeks and begin a career he hoped would take him to the NFL.
Wes smiled when he heard the crowd explode into cheers and saw the scoreboard add another six points to the Bats' already impressive score of 32. He looked at the now dejected defender and rose to his feet. He leaned over and offered the kid his hand. "Another half second and you would have had me." He complimented, ignoring the trash talk from earlier.
"How the hell do you release the ball so fast man?" The defender asked.
"Just a gift." He shrugged. And I can read defenses because of my experience in combat...it's funny how things can go hand in hand like that. The ability to predict an opponent's moves in combat can be applied to football when you think about it. Wes looked at the sidelines, his coach was signalling to him that next time they got the ball the JV squad would be going in. Game over.
(Short but hopefully sweet. I just had an idea of what to do with the character outside of his Time Force duties.)
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