Then he sat up slowly. “Goddamn, I’m going to hurt tomorrow. But right now, I feel great. Let’s go play some football!”

I fished his pads out of the corner of the ambulance. “You’re crazy, you know that? You definitely hit your head.”

After we got him suited up, he jumped down from the ambulance. With a last salute to me, he jogged along the sidelines to rejoin his team and finish his adventure.

I brought up my camera and snapped a picture.