We were down by 4 point going into the 2 minute warning in the 4th quarter on their 45 yard line. I could tell some players on the team were getting urgent, nervous, and scared. Peyton Manning had always been my biggest rival and he had a 24-20 lead over me. I had to win this game.

“Alright boys, we are going to have to work back into this game one play at a time.” I yelled to the whole team.

Coach Belichick ran towards me, “Alright Tom, here’s what we are going to do coming out of the 2 minute warning. We are going to run a play-action with Aaron out of the backfield to try and have the Defensive backs come up farther. Look for Gronkowski deep up the middle.” He yelled over the roar of the crowd.

The refs blew their whistles for both teams to return to the field. So we all grabbed and threw on our helmets, tossed our water bottles onto the benches, and ran onto the field and we lined up on the line of scrimmage.

The roar of the crowd was almost deafening, but I ignored the loud crowd and focused on the task ahead. I was staring down the defense. I checked down for the blitz, they weren’t showing blitz. I checked the coverage on my receivers, man coverage just the way I liked it. I gave me tight end Rob Gronkowski “the look” and he automatically knew that I was going to throw the ball to him the whole way.

“Blue 42, Blue 42” I yelled.

“Hut, hut, HIKE!” I screamed.

The lineman yelled and grunted as they ran and slammed into one another. Their helmets cracking into each other’s like baseball players hitting homeruns. The wide receivers fought furiously off the line with the defensive backs trying to fight to get open.

There was one mismatch I noticed from the very beginning. My big, fast, athletic tight-end was matched up with the slow linebacker. I knew from the start that this is going to be a huge play.

I dropped back 3 steps faked the hand off to Aaron, which made the defensive backs jump forward thinking it was a run play. The corners and safeties were distracted on my 3 receivers, which left Gronkowski with the linebacker. He was waving his hands through the air knowing he could easily beat the linebacker.

I wind my arm back and tossed the ball through the air. It felt like the moment was in slow motion, the ball moving slowly through the air. Then the ball reached its peak point and started to drop.

“Come on, come on, come one” I thought to myself.

You could hear a pen drop in that stadium, there might have been a loss in oxygen from everyone holding their breaths waiting for the play to unfold. I felt my heart thumping like it was in my throat.

I could tell that the ball was a bit overthrown. Gronkowski put his hands out and dove for the ball. I was it land in his hands perfectly. A huge sigh of relief came over me, but the game was still not over yet. We landed at about the 10 yard line and the clock was still ticking.

I looked up at the clock there was 1:30 left in the game and we were only 10 yards from stealing the game. I hurried everyone back onto the line to spike the ball to stop the clock. The team got back into the huddle and I called the play.

“Alright boys, we are going to do a draw play handing the ball off the Ridley, you guys all know what to do. Push the line back and leave gaps for Ridley to run through.” I told the huddle.

We got into formation once again. I looked down the defense and did my normal routine check. Something wasn’t right; they had an extra man on their line. That only means one thing, they are running a blitz and we are running the ball. A blitz is the counter to a run and usually always stops it.

“Oh crap I thought to myself, I need to quickly change the play before the play clock goes down.”

There was one problem, there was only 5 seconds left on the play clock, not close to enough time to change the play. So we were going to have to run it and hope for the best.

“Red 9, Red 9, HIKE! I yelled quickly.

My center snapped me the ball and I handed the ball off to Ridley. He grabbed the ball firmly and tucked it away. He ran up the middle between the tackles, a nice hole opened up for him to run through. He got to about the 5 yard line and got hit by one of the linebackers, but get on fighting for extra yards and made it to the 3 yard line before he finally got brought down.

I hurried up everybody to the line and spiked the ball to stop the clock. There was 1:10 left in the game. Plenty of time left to win this game.

“Nice run Steven, keep up the good work and we will win this game. We are going to run the same play, but opposite. Ready, Break.”

We broke out of the huddle and hurried to the line, to try and catch the defense off guard. They were ready for us though. I hiked the ball and got the snap from the center and handed off the ball to Ridley just like last time. He ran up between the tackles again, but the linebacker read the play and plugged up the hole instantly meeting Ridley and bringing him down for a 1 yard loss.

We hurried to the line because the clock was still running, it was at 50 seconds left in the game and I called a pass play and everybody got into their positions. I hiked the ball and the center snapped to high and it went over my head. It was a live ball up for grabs. I turned around and the ball was rolling around, I panicked and slipped trying to grab the ball. I felt helpless because I couldn’t reach the ball in time. Time was still running off the clock. It wasn’t looking good for us. There was a big pile up on the ball, and they were all fighting for it.

The refs came running in and trying to pull the big men off of the pile. The crowd was quiet and I was to. All the other teams’ hands were pointing their way thinking they had the ball, and our team had no life in them. This wasn’t looking good.

Then all of a sudden our team started freaking out pointing our way saying WE had the ball. Life roared back into the crowd and the ref pointed our way and I thought the stadium was going to collapse it was so loud, but there was still a task ahead. Everything was going our way and we were going to win this game. There were no field goals now; it had to be punched into the end zone. I looked up at the game clock, 30 seconds left in the game. It was 4th down and this was for the game.

We got into our positions and got into formation. I called out a pass play and had to go to the end zone with this pass. I hiked the ball and received the snap right on the money this time. My line was holding up and I had all day to pass, but none of my receivers could get open. I saw my favorite target running from right to left in the end zone and I knew if I was going to make this pass it would be now.

I zipped the ball through several defenders and the ball went right into his hands, and the ball was CAUGHT! The refs signaled for the touchdown and the stadium was going crazy and our whole sideline was jumping on each other and yelling and screaming. I ran to Gronkowski and jumped on him with joy.

We ran to the sidelines jumping with excitement, but there was still 15 seconds left in the game. We kicked the ball off and they took the touchback so they didn’t have to risk fumbling and losing the ball. We sat on sidelines waiting for the end result of the game.

Peyton Manning came out onto the field to try and take the lead once again. He hiked the ball and drops back into the pocket letting his receivers get down field, he cocks him arm back and tosses the ball downfield towards his receivers. They were hoping for a miracle because the odds were against them now. All the receivers and defensive backs were bunched together and all jumped for the ball, and it fell incomplete. There were sighs of relief over everybody on our sidelines. There was 2 seconds left in the game, they had one last attempt. He hikes the ball and drops back one more time, waiting for his receivers to get into the end zone. He zips the ball through the air again and the receivers and defensive backs all jump into the air one last time to fight for the ball.

The ball goes into the bunch and disappears. Then it comes rolling out of the crowd. It’s incomplete! The whole stadium going absolutely nuts, except for the other team. They are hurrying to shake our hands and get out of there.

I run up to Peyton and shake his hand.

“Good game Peyton your always my toughest competition.” I said to him.

“Yup see you the next time, hopefully we can come out with the win.” He said laughing.

That’s how my rivalry with Peyton Manning has always been, and it will continue to be that competitive until the very ends of our careers.