game 7 vs. blue - clinched the 1 seed!

 We beat the mighty AS (blue team) 26-0 tonight. I had 2 touchdowns, and Moro had 2 as well. Was actually a game to clinch the 1 seed which was awesome. 

We were up 20-0 with the ball and a few seconds left, and I remembered that on Friday they asked them to change the standings because they should have been in first ahead of us due to scoring one more point, even though obviously whoever won this game would be first. I told the team that in the huddle, that we were going to run up the score, and caught a touchdown. Was awesome. 

Finally I was able to take myself out of the game in the second half once it was over. 

We were 6 players, Dov had a few catches which was cool. 

game 6 a forfeit

This sucked. Came out all the way to beir shemesh and then found out the other team can't play due to injuries. Would have been nice to know before.

game 5 - struggles but grit for the w

My roughest game so far on a personal level. 

Game was good, I had a deep interception at safety but someone stepped on my ankle right after. Should be fine.

Dropped a couple balls I normally catch. But came through on a butt and go for the game winning td. That felt good.

We realized only after the game what our strategy should have been. When they were taking me man and very deep. Just take the 8 yards every play that they give me. Will implement next week.

Game 4 - first L

 Losing sucks. Does not feel good. 

We couldn't get a stop for our lives. First drive, they went down and scored. Then we did our down out and up, where I beat Avi S. for the long TD. Felt great. 

Then they scored, I missed what would have been a very tough interception.

They took a 19-6 lead into halftime. We went down and score a touchdown, with our butt-and-up play, where I fake button hook to draw the safety up and then blow past him, First time we tried that in a game. Thought of it while running routes by myself the week before the season.

Then they scored a touchdown where they just beat our guy deep.

We finally made a stop with a sick interception by Ari, and promptly drove down the field to score with 1:45 to go, another touchdown to me on a rainbow pattern where I slid after crossing the field. 

We got a 2 point conversion to Dani, making it 26-20.

We got the ball back, with a chance to go take the lead, but Moro was overthrown by a few inches and QB1 didn't see me wide open in the end zone.

But then we gave up a first down and it was over.

There were so many garbage illegal contact penalties, where a player caught the ball and ran, but there was a defender there. And more flags in that game than in the other ones combined. Meaning a lot of yelling at the refs - don't love that. But the commish does, he said that shows people care.

I didn't think I'd have 10 Touchdowns in the first 4 games, but I also thought I'd have more than 2 interceptions. So definitely need to do better there. Also I don't care that much about personal stats if we lose. I had 3 tds but needed 4. 

This adds fuel to the fire, I don't want any more Sundays like this. Good luck league. 

Erez Crossing Reopening

A few months ago, I got to lead a barbecue for our brave soldiers in Erez Crossing, a terminal and an army base that Hamas blew up and invaded in the early minutes of October 7th. We had injuries, hostages kidnapped, and murders on that base.

After the barbecue, the soldiers were nice enough to give us a tour of the terminal and base. The terminal was used for 15,000 Palestinians to come into Israel every day, for medical treatment and work. Some of the residents of the Kibbutzim nearby that were massacred actually drove these Palestinians to the hospitals for treatment. These "innocent" Palestinians were so grateful to these peace-loving Israelis, that they gave maps to Hamas, which showed how many people lived in which houses, who was armed, names and job titles of the residents. 

I stood there among the broken ceilings and shattered glass of a once beautiful terminal, full of hope and peace, surrounded by obvious evidence of smashing, gunshots, and bombs. I thought to myself about how symbolic it is that Hamas blew through the biggest terminal that was meant to be helpful to the Palestinians, who they simply do not care about. How it is the literal Mashal of biting off the hand that feeds you(r people). And how I hoped that the terminal was never opened again, or at least until some serious changes on their side. Never could I have imagined that it would reopen, so soon, with the reason being that we need to help their side.

And so, when I saw the news yesterday that Erez Crossing has been reopened to send humanitarian aid through, that felt like a poke in the eye, in all of our eyes. The humanitarian aid (which shouldn't be going at all until AT LEAST all 134 of our hostages are back), should not be going through there. How can we be giving them any reward directly from one of the places they blew through on their mission to hunt, kill, kidnap, rape, and mutilate us?

Where are the consequences of their actions? Why are our leaders behaving so weakly towards these terrorists and terrorist supporters? Something needs to change, quickly. 

(Note: Something has needed to change for a while - see the fact that the Gazans are now at the beach while our Northern residents are still refugees, but this news tidbit set me off because of the symbolism and because of my personal experience there.)