80 yard run Essay Example for Free

80 yard run Essay 80 yard run BY tmille30 The main character of the short story, The Eighty Yard Run is Christian Darling. Everything in life cannot be handed to anyone on a silver platter and Christian finds this out the hard way. He is a man who thinks he is a famous football player but soon finds out he is not as good as he thinks. He was an athlete but not a gifted one, he spent the most of his career blocking for someone else better. Louise is Christians wife and she treats him like gold and spoils him with many gifts. Christian Darlings haracter completely changes throughout this short story as he goes from riches to rags. A mans football career is never remembered by what he does at practice. It might be remembered for a day but never a lifetime. Football is Judged by what you do on the field when a war between two teams is at hand. Christian did not have many long runs in his life while playing running back. I think this is why an eighty-yard run was so important to him at practice. He was trying to make his legacy in life more about football rather than something else better than that. Football is not all that people make it out to be, yes if you are great you may get the fame and fortune but the chance of that happening are slim to none. Football is a sport that is terrible on the body no matter what the age of person playing is. All is does is beat your body every single day but that is why some people love it. Football was all Christian knew and he makes it out to be that it is the only thing he loved in life. He wanted to be running the ball every down rather than blocking and wants to be making the big plays rather than going unnoticed. What he does not realize is the fact that football is a team sport and not everyone gets the glory. Linemen block every single play and they have no glory that comes from I but they still do their Job. The real glory of football is walking off the field after every game knowing you did all you could do to help your team win. That is the true meaning of football and Christian is not smart enough to realize that, he is Just blinded by spotlight. Christian wants to be remembered as a great football player but at the end of the short story they are at a game and people o not even know who he is let alone even if they have heard of Christian Darling. Christian is a very well liked man by all, Just from his football standpoint. It seems like everyone loves football players Just because of the lone fact they are popular. Louise loved him for who he really was; they got married after they both graduated college. He is very spoiled and does not seem to do anything on his own, everything seems to be given to him in life and in most cases it is nota good thing. It seems Darling is only with Louise for all that she gives him and does for him. I think this because once he was out of money and her fathers company gave them debt up to their heads he began to constantly drink and lost his mind. This would make Louise extremely unhappy and Christian is lucky he did not lose the only thing that has stayed with him for the majority of his life. Football is a sport that you cannot play your whole life because of how hard the game has to be played and Darling does not realize this. Louise is a woman that will always be there for him unlike football. Christian needs to wake up and realize that he needs to treat Louise with respect and love her like he hould. It is not her fault football is no longer in his life or the fact her fathers you have to make the best of them rather than crumble under all the pressure and just give up. Everything was fine when Louise was wealthy and good buy him gifts all the time. This Just shows that Darling does not truly care about anyone but himself. A relationship is not about gifts or money; it is about being truly happy with your significant other for who they are. In conclusion Christian Darling is a man who starts at the top with a loving wife, lots of money, and a football career but lets life rag him down when life get tough. He drastically changes as a person when he has to make the transition from football player to a man that has to work an everyday Job. Darling stays at home and drinks his life away and lives in shame while his wife goes out and works for all the money she can to try and pay the debt off. This character just goes to show us that no matter how easy life seems, anything can change for the worse at anytime and you must be ready. You must make the best out of it rather than sit back and feel sorry for yourself or let someone else do everything for you.