Coming Out to Play by Robbie Rogers & Eric Marcus

Author:Robbie Rogers & Eric Marcus [Rogers, Robbie & Marcus, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sports & Recreation, Sports, Gay Studies, Biography & Autobiography, Soccer
ISBN: 9780698168053
Google: SFh9AwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2014-11-25T21:19:49+00:00

Just before the ref blew the whistle to start the game, I was standing in the field’s center circle by myself and very consciously looked around me to take it all in—just like I did at the Olympics—to appreciate how cool it was to be there and to have this chance of a lifetime. There were nearly twenty thousand people in the stands and the fact that it was a rainy day didn’t dampen their excitement; you could feel it crackling in the air. Then the whistle blew and the fans roared to life. We started really well—we were aggressive, we kept the ball, and our team had a few good chances to score. You want the opposing team to be on the defensive, and they were.

About twelve minutes into the game the other team had the ball and one of their players was dribbling around the half-line toward our goal. I wanted to end the play to slow things down, so I chased him with the intention of tackling him and getting the ref to call a foul. That’s not something you do every time, but it’s one tactic to stop the ball, which gives everyone on your team the opportunity to get behind it. So I tackled him a little bit and fell down with him, and sure enough the ref called a foul.

As soon as I went down I felt like I’d sprained my ankle and thought, Oh, shit. Debut, I get a concussion. My first start, I sprain my ankle. But I told myself that I’d be fine, that I’d get up and continue to play. So I tried jogging it off for ten seconds, but this was a really bad sprain—on a one-to-ten pain scale, this was an eight. There was no way I could finish the game, and when I limped off the field the fans stood to applaud. The coach was very kind and said, “You had a great start and it’s just really unlucky to have another injury.” In that moment I felt more cursed than unlucky.

It turned out to be a lot worse than just a sprain. I was still on the MRI bed when the technician came in and said, “Don’t get up. You have a fracture, and if you put any weight on it you could snap the bone.” I was shocked and sad and disappointed, because this meant I was done for the season.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.