The Greatest High School Football Player Who Never Was

This is the story of the greatest high school football player who never was.

One late summer morning, the high school football team was having try-outs.  Just as the tryouts were ending and everybody was leaving, the coach noticed a new kid walking up, sort of hesitantly.  The kid apologized for being late, but said he had just moved into town and didn’t know what time the tryouts were.  He asked if he could still try out.  The coach asked him if he had ever played before.  The kid said he had, a little. 

Even though the coach really wanted to leave, he decided to give the kid a chance.  With everybody else gone, the coach said he would give the kid a tryout himself.  When the coach timed the kid on the 40-yard dash, the kid was so fast, the coach thought his watch was broken.  The kid kicked field goals from 50 yards out and threw passes that hit the target 40 yards away.  He was the best player the coach had ever seen.  The coach knew, with this kid on the team, they could beat anybody.

After thinking about it, though, the coach decided the kid was so good, that he would not play him right away.  Instead, he would wait and bring the kid in just at the right time to win a big game.  He also knew he needed to keep the kid a secret.  So instead of having the kid practice with the team, the coach practiced with him separately.  And when the game came, the kid sat by himself at the far end of the bench, waiting for the coach to put him in.

Well, the kid’s freshman year, there never was a time for that to happen.  Either the team was winning big, so they didn’t need him, or they were so far behind that the kid wouldn’t make a difference.  When the kid asked the coach when he was going to play, the coach told him, don’t worry.  I’m saying you for the biggest, most important spot, and then you’ll win it all for us.

Except there was never a game like that the next year, either, or year after that.  The kid wound up sitting at the far end of the bench, just waiting, and never getting into a game, for three years. 

Finally, it was the kid’s senior year.  The kid kept practicing – and waiting.  Surely, the coach would finally let him play this year, the kid thought.  But once again, the games were never close.  The one difference this year was that the team was winning all of its games.  They won the conference championship.  And they won the games in the playoffs for the state championship, until they were in the championship game.

The championship game was close, but the coach still waited, trying to figure out just the right time to put the kid in to win the game – and the state championship.  Finally, it was the fourth quarter.  The team was down by two points, but they had the ball.  There was time left for one last play.  The coach wasn’t sure whether he should have the kid throw a pass for a touchdown or kick a 50-yard field goal, but it didn’t matter.  The kid could do either one.  And the team would win the championship.

So, finally, after almost four full years, the coach looked down to the end of the bench where the kid had been patiently sitting for four years and pointed at the kid.  The coach told him now was the time.  Go into the game and win it.  Except the kid looked up at the coach, with tears in the eyes, and said, “I can’t go, coach, my foot’s asleep.”
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Note: I have a recollection of reading a story like this a long time ago, but I don’t remember when or where.  To the extent this is somebody else’s idea, I apologize for not crediting them.