Jacob
The following Thursday, I played the first preseason game of the year. It wasn’t with the team I’d been training with but rather with second and third stringers, but this was where I was supposed to prove myself. I was aware of the pressures.
I was fitter than I thought I would be after my break from the game. Football is a lot of short bursts of running followed by a lot of standing around, and I made it through without barely even getting winded.
Sure, my lungs burned the way they did in training, and I had a feeling I needed to put in a lot more time on the treadmill, but I was getting there. I was a f*****g beast compared to some of the more seasoned men on the team who took their status for granted and eased off on their training.
I was different, always working out in the g
