kid in the green sweatpants, beware!

i told a story at women's camp last night that was quite embarassing. when i got home matt asked me what family secrets i had shared and i told him that i had only shared one. unfortunately, it turns out that i had not yet met matt when this event occurred. that's right, my embarrassing story took place with the guy i dated before i met matt. oops. anyway, long story short, i should just keep my mouth shut.
coop's first flag football game was today. matt and i were really nervous because soccer was such a nightmare. we were worried that he would whine and cry and want to sit out and eat snacks. so we were shocked when he got so into it. there were eight 4 and 5 year olds on his team. they practiced for 20 minutes and then started the game. two dads coached and matt helped when he needed to. at the start of the game the qb handed off to coop and he lowered his head and plowed through the defensive line. it was great. matt and i just looked at each other, dumbfounded. coop stopped when they pulled his flag about 10 yds down the field. i honestly got a little choked up. he turned around, smiled at us like he'd done it a thousand times, and jogged back to the line. a couple of plays later he broke through the defense and was headed for 6. and then he turned around and started running the wrong way. the coach had matt stand at the back of the end zone and then told coop to run straight for him. later in the game i thought matt was going to come unglued with excitement when coop grabbed another kid's flag.
there was one kid on the other team who kept wrapping coop up. their team was all about blocking for the quarterback. anyway, this kid in green sweats wouldn't leave coop alone. he chased him down the field a few times and pulled coop's flag after the play had stopped. coop just looked at him like he was dense. and then it happened. green sweatpants kid was the qb. coop broke through the line and full on tackled him. when coop hustled back down to his huddle his coach high-fived him. i called him over and told him not to tackle, but when i looked up, his coach was shaking his head at me and clapping for coop. to be honest, green sweatpants kid deserved it. but i had to act like i was appalled. the rest of the game passed with little fanfare. matt and i talked the whole way home about how great coop had done. and matt was giddy. he kept telling coop how much fun he had watching him. and i finally got it; i finally understood why my dad used to get choked up telling me how much he enjoyed watching me play. i understood why he never missed a game and why he told everyone he knew what a great player i was. i am just so proud of how well he did and what a good sport he was (minus the tackle). and i can't wait for next week.