The Free Football Shirt

They say the best things in life are free, and if saying has any truth to it then apparently some of the best things in life are t-shirts.  Over the years I have acquired dozens of them from the athletic teams I have been on but none have lasted quite as long as one.  I received it the summer before my junior year of high school during football camp.  It was a simple white shirt that had “Lansdale Catholic Football 2007” plastered on the front with a football on it and  I would go on to wear it as an undershirt underneath my pads during football games.

My team did incredibly well that year making it all the way to the state semi-finals in playoffs, marking the last time it would do well before the program's eventual decline.  I wish I could say I had a hand in helping the team get their but in reality I was just a second string lineman who only saw varsity playing time when we were dominating another team.  As our season went on our practices would become longer and grew to be a greater chore then they already were with the cold weather beginning to set in.  During these difficult practices I would play on scout squad offense since I was second string.  Our job was to mimic the plays of the week’s upcoming opponents for the first string playing defense.  It was during this time when I would try my hardest in order to acquire a starting position, even though it was a fool’s errand seeing how the starter was literally nearly double my weight and still managed to be faster than me.  Even so I still tried my hardest and while I never did get a chance to start that season the coach saw my effort and I was able to become a starter the next season.

All throughout this painstaking effort I was wearing that same shirt most of the time underneath my pads.  I still have it but it is nearly unrecognizable today.  It’s now an off white color due to the years of dirt, sweat, and the occasional blood that have been on it and it is completely worn out.  The sleeves are cut off, not because of these massive pythons I call arms but because it was a necessity as they were stained yellow from sweat.  I rarely wear the thing now for obvious reasons, but every once in a while I will wear it when doing yard work and remember that season when my team went far and my hard work paid off.