The Highlight of Matt Cross' Sports Career

Growing up it seemed like all of us were told we are special. We were told that we were smart and talented, artistic creative and athletic. Whe just needed to work hard and we could do anything. If I came home with a bad report card I was always told it was because I didn’t work hard enough or I didn’t try hard enough. If I didn’t win a little league game I was told I could win next time if I just worked harder. I was told to work hard, yet we got trophies and ribbons just for participating. There were those extremely athletic kids that were always good and got the first place ribbon, you know who he or she was, it is different at every school in every town. Then there were the rest of us, who weren’t good enough but they didn’t want to discourage us or tell us we were no good so we got the participation ribbon. How sad is that.”Hey kid thanks for having your parents sign you up for this activity, and thanks for standing there, you did so well at that, here is a ribbon. Thanks for that , I think that has some how affected my work ethic as an adult, I just expect to stand there and if you stand there long enough someone will give you a ribbon or a paycheck. Sometimes we just aren’t that special. Sometimes we are just plain bad at something. Sometimes we don’t ever reach that potential.
I was a huge kid. Not sure exactly the measurements at birth but for the first 12 years of my life I was ALWAYS bigger than the other kids. Everyone would always say “ wow wait till that kid plays football!” I would hear people tell my Dad “I wouldn’t want your grocery bill!”. “What an athlete that kid is gonna be!” “ He is huge!”. So yeah It was drilled into me, you are big, you will like sports, you will eat a lot of food. I was never really an aggressive or competitive kid. I was always pretty sensitive. I was scared of the dark, I didn’t like rough housing, I didn’t want to wrestle, I pretty much avoided anything with adrenaline!
I was a sensitive kid that didn’t like adrenaline but I loved Disneyland. Disneyland was the symbol of magic and imagination to me as a kid and I was always in awe of it. I think a lot of kids like it for the rides and excitement but I loved it for the imagination and creativity which explains a lot now. I like looking at the castle and the minature villages in storybook land ride and going on all the dark rides like peter pan and mr. Toads wild ride but I dreaded the thought of a ROLLER COASTER. To some people the Matterhorn was the symbol of Disneyland, to me it was child hood hell! I would never never go on a roller coaster. My Dad once convinced me to go on Thunder Mountain and said if I didn’t like it I could punch him in the stomach (What? I should have held out for a free toy or something!) I went on and at the end of that horrific experience I punched my Dad as hard as I could. I didn’t want to be flung around and dropped at high speed or in the dark, or through some loop. I just wanted to sit and watch and take in the magic. That made pirates of the Carribean so hard for me. I loved the pirates, but to get to that part of the ride there were to HUGE drops (I have gone as an adult and realize how pathetic those drops really are) but once I got through it I knew I would see the crazy drunken, spazmatic animatronics that made the pirate world come alive to me. I loved it but I am pretty sure the original lyrics to the pirate song talk about pilage and rape, and you were supposed to take a wench. Nice Walt nice! The point being I was not into adrenaline and physical stimulus. I was a delicate sensitive creative flower, living in a world of imagination, kind of a wuss packed into the body of a lineman.
I liked other kids but didn’t want to compete, I just wanted to be the center of attention. I like talking and socializing and being liked by other kids. I loved when people laughed at what I did. I was conditioned though, I was told I was born to play sports because I was big, my Dad played sports, other boys played sport, other boys loved sports, I was about to discover my potential as an athlete.
I can sum up the high point of my sports career right here. I was 11 years old, I was playing in a youth flag football league. Flag football was for all the kids whose Mom’s thought tackle was too dangerous but Dad really wanted you to play football, or where you put your sensitive kid to try it out before he broke an arm in junior tackle football. You had a belt with two Velcro flags stuck to them and you weren’t really supposed to have any contact. Instead of tackling you would run up and pull the flag off. Seemed simple enough. Surprise I wasn’t the quarter back, nope line man. I know hard to believe. I don’t think there was a kid on my team who’s head came past my shoulder. I remember asking when I was going to get the ball and the coach saying,”Matt you don’t really need to worry about the ball, unless you see someone with it then pull there flag.” Now lineman may have been fun if I were playing tackle football. All kids like to be rough and tumble knock each other around right? but this is a non-contact safe version of football, so basically you take the big chubby kid tell him to stand there so kids will bounce off of you as they run and try and take the flag. I was a glorified pinball bumper, an obstacle for the other kids to run around and through. So this was my exciting introduction to competitive sports. My favorite part was snack at half time. I knew I was getting orange slices and a small plastic bottle of purple juice ,anyone who played kids sports knows the plastic bottle with purple juice, I am not sure I have ever seen it in the store. I don’t even think it had a flavor except some sugary bastardized grape flavor. It is the tiny grenade bottle of juice made with cheap plastic and every kid sucked it down like it was the antidote to some poison that they had recently ingested, because of the round lid it always left a purple half circle on your face like a crazy clown on acid. And because of the toxicity of the drink and the rough plastic edeges it almost always gave you cold sore like abrasions on the side of your mouth. It is probably the major source of cancer in the people of my generation.
So the highligt of my sports career happened this same season. I was on the Vikings. I was playing a defensive line position, guard tackle, nose guard, ultimate warrior, who cares ( I now despise sports , sorry men). Any way I broke through the line of offensive linemen (which was fairly easy because at 11 years old I was 5’5 and about 175 lbs) the quarter back got scared and threw the ball straight up in the air. When it came down it landed in my hands. I didn’t know what the hell to do with it. We never covered this scenario! I wasn’t supposed to touch the ball, or worry about the ball. I was just supposed to be the bumper to slow down the other team. I looked to the side line and my coach was jumping up and down waving his arms yelling “run Matt RUN!” I looked to the other side and my Dad was doing the same thing. I ran as fast and as straight as I could. I closed my eyes hard waiting to feel my flag get pulled from my belt but it didn’t. I made it to the endzone and scored a touch down! I was so stoked my team all jumped on me patting me on the back. I was on top of the world. All I really cared about was if Jennifer Jarrett (a Chearleader for one of the teams on the field) saw me! It was at that point that I knew I wanted to be the center of attention and that I would do just about anything to get noticed by girls. I loved this! everyone praising me. I was the man of the hour, the hero to our little team. I wanted more of this glory! I mean come on who wouldn’t! Unfortunately that was the hightlight of my athletic carreer. It pretty much went down hill from there. And no , Jennifer did not notice me
Years later my brother would replicate that very same play except in a high school game, playing legitimate tackle football! It was really cool and really exciting high school football and of course after it happened I tried to relive some of my glory! “ Hey remember when I was a 11 and I did that yeah I know exactly how Steve feels!” I know pretty sad and pathetic, but I love being the center of attention and I tried to tag onto Steve’s moment. Sorry Steve you were way more impressive!