It was roughly 3 minutes into the process when I realized, in the words of Gob Bluth, I had made a huge mistake. In fact, I guess technically tryouts hadn’t started yet when I decided I had no business being on a football field. Yet, in the name of professional responsibility, I finished the warm-up lap and the rest of the tryout. I mean, I can no longer move my legs, but I did my job.
For my Freelance Magazine Writing Class, we were assigned a personal experience story. This is one of those pieces where a journalist goes through something and then writes about what happened, the characters they met, and how they felt about the process. My story is about trying out for the Iowa Crush, the women’s professional football team. They follow almost every rule of the NFL…including the tackling.
Full disclosure, as much as I like sports, I am no athlete. In fact, prior to today’s tryout, the last time I actually sprinted may have been related to elementary school track and field day (unless you count rushing to the kitchen for snacks during TV commercial breaks). So running drills with very talented athletes was a bit rough. Needless to say, I was the decided underdog of the tryout group to put it kindly. To put it not so kindly, I was just kind of bad.
Yet, that was kind of the point. As much as I was regretting the process while trying to run backwards in a w formation, it was a great experience for me. Journalism at Drake pushes you out of your comfort zone, to be better at your job and better as a person. So while my football skills may still need some work, I got to do something completely new today with a really cool group of ladies. And once my muscles start functioning again, I’m going to be grateful for that experience.
Abbey @ Drake 