Woy
RIP West
Finale (Part 2)
"Daddy, watch me throw through the tire!"
"That's great Sean Joseph. Keep that up and you could play for the Titans someday. Maybe you can be like Vince!"
"I run faster than Vince...watch!"
I chuckled as my four-year old son dropped the ball and started sprinting towards a big tree in our backyard, then slowly panting back as he exhausted all his energy. Then as I lifted him up in my arms, I heard a voice from inside.
"Ethan, come here for a minute!"
I sat Sean Joseph down and told him I'd be right back, then walked into the house where my wife was holding an object in her hand.
"Hun, I'm pregnant."
I sat there with a look of shock, because it wasn't something we planned at all. I always saw myself just having one kid and I obviously already had that with Sean Joseph. I didn't know what to say.
"Babe, how could this happen?" I asked, searching for a reason. She pointed at my wallet on the table and I shrugged my shoulders, still confused.
"You kept it in your wallet, huh?"
"What are you...oh," I stopped myself, finally realizing what she meant. "Yeah. You think that it..."
"Of course it did. There's really no other explanation."
I continued to sit there, trying to find the words to say, but nothing was coming to mind. My mind was racing in a whole bunch of different directions and it was starting to give me a headache from thinking about it so much.
"Well what do you want to do?" I finally blurted out in a concerned tone. "Think we can raise another kid?"
"Yeah I believe so," she said. "I just don't want to...you know, relive the past."
"Yeah, I agree. I'm not making the same mistake, Rebecca."
...
"Congratulations Ethan, here's your son. Do you two have a name picked out for him?"
"Yeah. Welcome to the world, Brandon Lee Woy."
...
"The Jets defeat the Titans, 30-23, and will be going to the Super Bowl!"
"That's it! Cincinnati finally reaches the Super Bowl for the first time since 1989 by beating the Tennessee Titans, 14-13!"
"Four seed San Diego takes down the number one seed Tennessee, 24-21, and will deny the Titans from the Super Bowl once again!"
After making the AFC championship in my rookie season, I surely believed that we were going to be in the Super Bowl within the next three years. However, the next three seasons were full of anguish and heartbreak as we reached the same title game and fell short every single time. We were dubbed the new-era Buffalo Bills by some sports column writers and our fans were getting restless, wondering if we would ever deliver them a Super Bowl.
I put myself among the league's elite at receiver over those three seasons, improving upon all my statistics and reaching the 100 catch mark in year four of my career. Vince was proving himself to be a top five quarterback in the league and although Chris reached his prime after my second season, his downfall wasn't as bad as much anticipated, because he was still putting up 1300 yard seasons. The defense was starting to get older but we brought some fresh meat into it with the first round selection of Ryan Markey, a former teammate at Syracuse. His explosiveness was unmatched and his strength commanded double teams at all times. Still, with all these pieces, it really gave us little cap room so we needed to win a championship now before the money issue broke up the team.
...
"The kick is up...it's good! The Titans are going to Super Bowl LII!"
Finally we got over the hump in year five. All of my receiving totals mostly dropped, but I hauled in 18 touchdowns and that statistic right there gave me enough votes to bring home my first NFL MVP award. Dallas would be the host to one of the best Super Bowls in history, between the 13-3 Tennessee Titans and the 14-2 Atlanta Falcons.
Matt Ryan, who was dubbed my many as the best quarterback in the NFL, really started off hot and threw two touchdowns in the first quarter. We on the other hand, came out flat, falling victim to three-and-out after three-and-out. It was 24-0 at halftime and our fans again were feeling the same despair that they felt when we fell in the AFC title game over and over.
However, the second half restored our confidence, as a 98 yard kick return touchdown by Marc 'White Lightning' Mariani shifted the entire momentum around. Jason McCourty picked off a pass just three plays after and Vince found Damian Williams for a score, cutting the deficit to just 10 points. A field goal by Atlanta upped it to 13 as the third quarter ended on that note.
At this point I had just three catches and the Falcons were doing a solid job of shadowing me at all times, taking me away from making something big happen. Then their defense bent a little too much as I made a beautiful move on a route, separating myself from the corner, before hauling in a 45 yard touchdown on a simple fly pattern. Back-to-back field goals confirmed the fact that this was not a defensive struggle, then with just 36 seconds remaining, we were facing a fourth down and goal from the eight-yard line when...
"Young from under center, he takes the snap...pumps left, has a little crease open on the right and he'll take it! Touchdown Titans, Superman Vince does it again! Shades of USC/Texas in 2006!"
An extra point would give our franchise our first Super Bowl win in history, but no one would expect what would have happened next.
"Mike Kafka to hold for Bironas...this is for the lead and the win folks. Here's the snap, Kafka bobbles it! He picks it up and scrambles to his right, trying to make something happen! He throws it to the corner of the end zone...where there's an open receiver in Craig Stevens, I don't believe it! The Titans convert and take a two-point lead!"
The biggest fear we could have in that situation turned into an extra insurance point as our back-up quarterback Mike Kafka found third-string tight end Craig Stevens for the two-point conversion. Atlanta tried three Hail Marys and failed on each one, then the confetti dropped and the champagne started popping as we won Super Bowl LII.
Vince won MVP and was handed the keys to his brand new 2018 Corvette, while I held my son in my arms as the confetti continued to fall from the rafters. I finally felt that I reached the pinnacle of my life and that nothing would top it.
