J.D.K. (PART TWO)

Jeff, my son, and myself were given one day of fame in sports. His was in football and mine was in bowling.

This is Jeff’s FOOTBALL STORY!

When Jeff was eleven years old, he had been playing football, not “Touch Football” but “Tackle Football”. He wasn’t fast enough afoot to be put on the offensive team, so he was put on the defensive side. His coach didn’t allow him to play first or second string but once in a while, he played third string. The coach, like most, tried to give all the kids an opportunity to play.

I moved to Coral Springs Florida in 1994, right near my son who lived in Boca Raton and I was taking him for visits on weekends when the big Thanksgiving Game was to take place on Thursday, November 28th, 1996.

His team from classy Boca Raton, Florida was to play the champions of last year, Cooper City, a group of super talented youngsters who were hoping to reach the National Football League someday.

My son was given the chance to start at “Middle Linebacker”. This position is the most important defensive position on the field.

The score was relatively close for the first three quarters and in the middle of the final quarter, Jeff saw the fastest boy on their team and broken through the right side of the line and was high-stepping down the field. He reached the twenty yard line when Jeff, out of nowhere, submarined him and pushed him out of bounds. Jeff was terrific but he was actually “hidden” and that became his greatest moment ever.

The team erupted with a loud cheer and the Boca Side of the field became uproarious with screams and cheers.

This upset was about to happen because of Jeff’s big play. The team used Jeff’s last minute tackle to become a game-changing moment and the team went on to win the game by two touchdowns.

The greatest part of the game was that Jeff won the ‘Most Valuable Player’ Trophy (it was as tall as Jeffrey, himself)

THAT WAS JEFFREY’S GREATEST DAY IN SPORTS!