The Fisher Flag Football Championship
While the softball game we played versus the second years was mainly for networking and getting to know our fellow MBAs, the Fisher 1st Year Flag Football Championship was all about pride.
After playing soccer intramurals with two different teams due to roster size limitations, we again had to split the Fisher first years who wanted to play intramural flag football into two teams, the Fisher Scarlet and Fisher Gray teams. I captained one team and another first year who organized most of this captained the other. We drafted all the students who wanted to play onto one of our two teams in snake-draft fashion (we missed out on having an NFL Draft-style stage to do this in the lounge).
My team went for speed (and missed taking the fastest player) and the other went for size and players who looked like they could play actual tackle football.
There was a three game season and after rain outs and rescheduling, our two teams were scheduled to meet in an epic clash across from Fisher Commons, at Fred Beekman Park, in the 2nd of the three games. You just needed to win one of the three games to make the playoffs.
The Scarlet team was absolutely jobbed out of a win in their first week after the refs completely mishandled the most basic rules of the league. The Gray team got absolutely pounded by law students, one of whom was a former BYU quarterback (yeah well I passed the NY State bar so I'm better than those law students anyway. Jerks). So a playoff spot was on the line in the Fisher v. Fisher game.
I can't speak for the Scarlet team, but our Gray team had an hour and half long practice before the game at the ARC at OSU and got all of our formations and routes down. We figured out who was going to play what position and how to best exploit the rules for the game. We figured out which one receiver to focus our defense on. Real business school thinkin' right here.
There wasn't much action in the first half aside from turnovers and me getting decked by a girl (this happens a lot when I play sports. Usually by the same girl). A couple of interceptions almost got returned for scores, but nobody was able to get through there and the defenses consistently stopped the offenses after the turnovers. Things finally heated up, however, on the last play of the first half when the opposing QB dropped back to pass and threw an incompletion. But of course ya boy committed roughing the passer and they got another play.
What happened then was bogus to say the least. The other team's best receiver CLEARLY stepped out of bounds multiple times but the refs missed every one and they scored on the last play of the first half on a play that started with zero seconds on the clock. They missed the conversion but went up 6-0 at the half.
The Gray team scored on a QB scramble to tie the game and would score another touchdown to go up 13-6. The Scarlet team got a few chances but couldn't even it up. They ended up with one more drive to attempt to tie the game.
On the last play, with only a few seconds left, their quarterback threw a desperation heave to the flag and somehow completed it and made the score 13-12 with no time on the clock. They had to complete the one point conversion to be able to get the game to be a tie and likely send both teams to the playoffs pending final standings.
But the Scarlet team got too cute. On an end around to the Copedaddy, Ben Prater, fellow author on this blog, dove and took off the Copedaddy's flag and ended the game 13-12. The bench exploded onto the field and nearly tackled Mr. Prater.
We got a bunch of MBAs to come out and watch and played a hell of a close game. Everyone who played had fun and everyone on the sidelines was getting into it. Even the class Grandpa (<3 you B-Rad).
My Gray team made the playoffs and the Scarlet team missed by a point and a referee mess up. And it turns out, we may be playing the second year Fisher team if we can win our first playoff game. My god.
(All photos copyright Teryn Wessel Photography, 2014)