The fucking reverse

You can hardly believe it. The scenes that Tom played for you play over and over again in front of your inner eye. The images are superimposed on reality and everything suddenly makes sense.

You see a player running away from you to the inside. "Something is leaving, something is coming back!" Echoes a voice in your head. That's what your old coach had always drilled into you. Your defensive end tries to run after the QB and make the play. He's taken the bait! It shoots through your head. Without realizing it, you take a few steps inside, narrowing the gap between you and the O-line. Everything moves away from you and something in you already wants to turn off and go on an intercept course deep in your territory. But Tom's images resemble reality and like a wallhack in one of those PC games you see your target coming towards you. You notice how you suddenly feel alone. Out of the corner of your eye, you see how your cornerbacks disappear to the inside. But suddenly the noise of the spectators, the snorting of the players, and the sounds of the collisions disappear. As if in slow motion, you suddenly see a player emerge from the tangle of people. The running back on the reverse route just passes the defensive end, who is chasing the QB. Then the handoff happens. Everything inside you flinches and you explode forward. Just four quick steps to the collision. It shakes your body and that of the running back. You feel your arms wrap around the running back's body and with a fifth step, you lift him out and throw him to the ground.

As you hit the ground, suddenly it all comes crashing back down on you. The noise, the feeling of pressure, and the sounds of the collision. You hear the air being **** out of the running back's lungs. Then there's a whistle.

As the tangle clears and your teammates help you back to your feet, you realize you just made your first tackle in college. Cornerbacks run up and hit you on the helmet and pad. You cheer. You bend to the sideline. Nick Saben shakes his head and you immediately realize it wasn't about your play. Startled, you see that there would have been no player behind you until the end zone. Then you realize that you are behind the LOS. Your first tackle was a tackle for -1 yard.

"What a hit! His descendants are still feeling it!" exclaims Sean McDonough while the slow motion of the play is running. "I couldn't agree more, but more importantly. He made the tackle. You just did." Todd Blackledge draws two yellow dashes on the tablet, showing the running back's possible path to the end zone. "No Alabama player would have been able to get to him anymore. You're lucky this kid didn't bite like everybody else."

The next plays don't go through your site and the running back took some time to recover from the hit. The opponent tries to pull the defense apart. Your coach wants to increase the pressure and allows you to blitz. It's the first running back on the field again. The Thightend is on your side and 3 Receivers on the other.