[08.29.04]
Written by: Bob Pinter

For the Love of the Game, Part 12
Championship: An Unlikely Hero

[08.29.04] (Somewhere in Hawaii) -- It all looked familiar. The visor on the helmet. The dreadlocks. The Number 34 on his back as he streaked down the field....

He was back.

And until this moment, no one seemed to be happy about it.

"What do you think?" Brett Favre asked.

"Let him play," Ahman Green replied.

"I don't know," said Donald Driver. "We've been getting along fine without him."

Little did the Green Bay Fudgepackers know that Driver's statement might have come back to haunt them, had the team not agreed to let Mike McKenzie play with them in their last game of the summer.

McKenzie, who had been in a contract dispute with Fudgepacker management, was absent from the PWFFL's summer picnic--until that moment. He pulled up in a rental car just as Green Bay was about to take the field against Timbuktu.

"Hey guys," he said cheerfully. "It's over. I'm done. I'll be ready to play with you the first game of the season."

And while his presence was met with a few grumbles, the Fudgepackers agreed to let him play; if for nothing else, the love of the game.

It was something that Brett Favre and Kurt Warner had grown up with all their lives; something that got Ahman Green and Michael Pittman up every Sunday morning. But while the love may have been there, the results weren't, as the two teams struggled to a 3-3 tie after one quarter of play.

Costly mistakes kept the score even. Favre threw a bullet pass into the end zone for wide receiver Az-Zahir Hakim, who looked to have made a spectacular touchdown catch. But almost as if it had been cut and spliced from a film, two Buccanneer defenders met Hakim from both sides, causing him to drop the ball.

Ryan Longwell would come on to make the field goal.

Martin Gramatica would have to do the same for Timbuktu, after Fudgepackers defensive end Grady Jackson sacked Warner on third down and goal.

Thus began the second quarter, and Favre continued to struggle. The moment he would show a sign of being superhuman, something would bring him back to earth.

On second and 10 early on, Favre was forced out of the pocket by Bucs lineman Warren Sapp. Barely avoiding a sack, Favre quickly spun around and out of Sapp's grasp, then appeared to throw blindly downfield in the direction of receiver Andre Davis.

Davis was right there, but so was John Lynch. The safety drilled the young receiver, giving Favre an incomplete.

Things then went from bad to worse, when on third down, linebacker Derrick Brooks pulled a Favre pass out of thin air.

"Time to break it open!" he yelled as he high-stepped 63 yards in the other direction, giving Timbuktu its first touchdown.

The Pack would get one more shot before halftime. Favre meticulously drove his team downfield, first with a 25-yard strike to Driver, then with a short pass to Davis.

And on second down and 3, Favre finally came up big. Rifling an 18-yard strike, Hakim cradled it like a father holding a child from the edge of a cliff.

Touchdown.

Hakim's teammates ran into the endzone toward him, but it was Hakim who waved them off.

"Guys, guys!" he cried. "Our boy's hurt!"

Favre was slow to get up, wincing in pain. He was holding his right hand against his thigh.

"Someone get him some ice!" Hakim yelled.

McKenzie and backup quarterback Quincy Carter fetched a cooler of ice and water for Favre to rest his hand. At this point, many of the players were wondering why no one thought to bring trainers.

"What do you think?" Green asked his quarterback.

"You think I want to play like this all season?" Favre said sarcastically. "My man'll finish this up."

Carter nodded. He had only played once before today--one play while Favre sat on the sidelines to catch his breath in the first game. But he was ready.

The Fudgepackers got the ball back after halftime, and the Bucs' defense had fire in its eyes.

"One-one-thousand-two-one-thousand-three-one-thousand-four-one-thousand-five-o ne-thousand-GO!" chanted Sapp as he found Carter for a sack on the first play of the half.

Carter, a bit stunned, looked up. "You want to try that again?" he asked.

"Just call it," Sapp jawed back.

And Carter did. Dropping back to his own 45 yard line, the reserve threw a floater about 30 yards into Green's outstretched hands.

"Catch me if you can, boys!" Green yelled as he took off, leaving the Bucs' secondary standing, stunned. The Fudgepackers had taken the lead.

But Warner was not done. He had thrown for at least 200 yards in each of his last two games in this summer tournament. And he felt he had one more drive left in him. Warner closed out the third quarter with a 9-yard screen pass to Jimmy Smith., to get Timbuktu to the 13 yard line. It would be Warner's sixth straight pass, to his third different receiver on the drive.

Four yards away from paydirt, Warner surveyed the huddle.

"One more time?" runningback Michael Pittman asked aloud.

"Nah," Warner replied. "Let's shove this one where it counts."

And the Buccanneers completely fooled the Fudgepacker defense with a four-yard draw play to Pittman.

Tie score.

And now it was Carter's turn. Like two heavyweights in the final round of a championship fight, Green Bay's quarterback came back at Warner, if nothing else, for his teammate Favre, watching from the sidelines, his face in a grim mask.

But in a moment of almost sheer inspiration, Carter floated a pass above the Buccanneer secondary to Hakim, who scampered past midfield to the Timbuktu 33. Carter then got closer, firing strikes to Green and tight end Bubba Franks, to get the Pack to the 5.

"You think they think I'm gonna run it in?" Green smiled.

"Probably," Carter smiled back.

So he threw, one more time, to tight end Shannon Sharpe, the sure thing, the touchdown machine for the Fudgepackers all day.

And Carter became the unlikely hero.

"Still time, still time!" Warner barked. "Let's pick them apart, play our game. We can still win this thing!"

Pittman listened, and caught a pair of short drops from his quarterback. Then, it was Freddie Jones on a 20-yard pass. The Buccanneers were 35 yards away from the end zone.

Kalamazoo Vikings wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson continued to keep time. "One minute, guys!" he yelled.

And Warner took one more step toward summer immortality. Eluding Jackson on the next play, he threw on the run to Jimmy Smith, a wobbly, sidearm pass that none of the Fudgepackers thought he could make.

10 yards away. And 30 seconds left.

"One more time," Warner whispered. "I want everyone looking for the big one. Eyes up!"

And suddenly, everything became calm. Warner dropped back, quietly studying the field. McCardell was looking for the score, but was covered. Smith, eyes on his quarterback, couldn't get open either. Warner shifted his glance. There was Troy Brown, his safety valve, his unsung hero, in the endzone. He cocked his arm. He threw.

And quietly, McKenzie appeared. And the noise came back. And the calmness emptied.

And the cancer, the snake of the clubhouse, this late-comer Mike McKenzie delivered the Fudgepackers all the bragging rights they would need for the rest of the summer.

96 yards. Touchdown. The final note.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" roared the group, many players falling down in disbelief. The worst team of the PWFFL last year had come back to beat all comers. Never mind the regular season, this WAS the season as far as the Green Bay players were concerned.

But they had all done it. Every one of them. Put their love for the game on the line to see who would be the hardest team to reckon with come fall. And as the players began to leave, one by one, in their rented cars and SUVs, for the nearest airport, they wondered; amid the coming weeks of protection lists, trades, the draft, and training camp, what the 2004 PWFFL season would bring...