A couple of weeks into my sophomore year of high school football, we went to the actual football field to practice special teams. I was assigned to the scout team kick off unit. We lined up and kicked off to the varsity kick return unit.

My position was right next to the kicker. As the return man caught the ball he ran to his right and I kept my eyes on him and closed in ready to make the tackle. Suddenly I was hit, but never saw who hit me and was knocked unconscious. When I came too, a senior was standing over me slapping me in the face saying, “Are you okay?”

I said to the senior, “Where’d you come from?” The senior answered, “I clipped you.” I said, “Why’d you do that?” He answered, “Coach said we had to knock down our assigned guy to block or we wouldn’t be starting Friday night, so screw you sophomore!”

I learned several things that day in practice:

1. There ain’t no referees at practice, so anything goes.
2. Keep your head on a swivel looking around and don’t focus exclusively on the ball carrier.
3. Sophomores were nothing but fresh meat for the varsity to chew up.

My feelings about getting even with this player were always confined to the football practice field during scrimmages. Some of our football players never felt that way. They wanted to get even immediately and then we had wrestling matches or fist fights at practice.

I knew an underclassman that waited four or five years and then found the guy he hated at football practice at the bar, challenged him to a fight and then beat the crap out of the guy.

Here is what the Bible has to say about revenge.

Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

For a young guy full of testosterone this one is hard to live by, but the God of the universe is telling us the best way to live. Which of course we ignore most of the time and do it our own way.