first blog

My overall thought of the book was it was terrific. The events were strong and really made you think. I don’t think I would have been able to do what Louie did at the football game. At the football game though Louie’s thoughts were triggered by feelings and though Louie might have not know every word he was saying I believe he meant every word. For even before the big game Louie was having trouble dealing with what Coach Lednecky was telling the boys. I would have to I mean if I was Louie I’d be thinking, I didn’t come here to play dirty. I joined football to play clean and fair the way it’s suppose to be. When Louie was first going to try to get back on the football team I thought okay he’s just wants to get on with his life that’s fine, but when the Coach started naming off what he want Louie to do I was proud of Louie’s response. Lednecky wanted Louie to do the following: apologize to the team in the meeting before the practice today, write an apology to the school that will be published in the school newspaper, run a timed mile every practice for two weeks, and he would have to start back on third string(Crutcher 90). Louie just said “Naw, I don’t think so. It’s not even worth it. Not even close.” Jasper, the principal just wants this to be taken care of so he asks Louie what does he think is a fair ruling. Louie then states his opinion “Well, first, I’m not willing to start back on third string. And I can’t see starting every practice with a timed mile. Maybe for track, but not football. Then I think Coach Lednecky should submit a written apology to Washington to the Daily Statesman down in Boise. And maybe during the meeting he scheduled for me today, he could apologize to the team for teaching us dirty football. And we could start the whole thing off by having him apologize to you right now for not telling the truth about what happened”(Crutcher 91). This comment made Jasper mad for he and Coach are close, but all I was thinking was you go Louie. One of the players one his team calls him a wussy, the cross between a wimp and another word that’s not appropriate for a school setting or any setting for that matter. Anyway Louie believes that he can be a wussy at most times in his life, which is not true, but at this point in his life he was no wussy and even he knew that. I was so proud that Louie didn’t care about football enough to do the things that Lednecky wanted him to do. Even well Coach was saying them I had a lump in my throat hoping Louie had enough guts and self-respect to realize when something wasn’t worth it. Later Louie goes for a drive and he wines up in Salmon River, the town that played them the day he stood up for Washington. Washington is the guy his team took out during their dirty playing. So while in Salmon River he decides to just stop and get a bite to eat. He walks into the restaurant and there sitting at a table is Washington. He’s fine laughing and joking with his buddies and that’s when Louie thinks was it really worth it. He started thinking I stood up for this guy now I’m off the football team and may have damage my reputation a little and him he’s only going to be out for a week, maybe a little more maybe a little less, but he will heal and when he does he’ll be right out playing on that field again just as good as before. It made what he did seem like nothing like it wasn’t important. Washington probably won’t even remember what he did. That thought hurt and the sad part is it may be true. Louie risked so much for a guy he didn’t know Louie will never step on that field again and Washington may be back on that field inn a week tops. It made you question Louie’s decision about saying anything in the first place even though it was the right thing to do. It was depressing thinking Louie did this tremendous thing and then thinking it might not even matter to the one he did it for. While leaving the restaurant he ran into a girl that used to attend his school. She ended up convincing Louie to stay and chat with her awhile. Later on in their conversation they started to talk about Washington and she asked if Louie would like to meet him for some reason Louie didn’t want to. This is one event that still puzzles me for you think he would want to meet him, but then I think about how Louie is worried that he did the wrong thing and that he made a mistake and I can see why he might not want to meet him. Looking back on all that happened with football from the Salmon River game to the scene in the restaurant I believe Louie made the right choice no matter who appreciates it.