Day 28 - Twin Story

Twin Story
Matthew Ryan Fischer

Sanford and Niles Braddick were footballers.  They both had the extreme talent, luck and drive to make it to the professional world of sports.  Brothers playing football isn’t rare.  Twin brothers playing and making it that far is certainly less common, but it has happened. 

Sanford and Niles had intentionally played different positions, Sanford a wide receive on offense and Niles a safety on defense.  There was great competition between them in life but also great love and admiration.  This was true as well on the field.  They never fought for the same role, but by playing different sides of the game, they could compete and try to lay claim as the most influential to team success.  Both wanted to win games.  Both wanted to win because their squads made it happen.

As children, Sanford and Niles liked to change clothes in the restroom while the other kids played during recess.  Then, they would assume their brother's identity and spend the rest of the day sitting in the other one’s seat and acting as the brother.  Their haircuts were the same, their voices were the same, and at the time, they were both similarly skilled in school.  Very few friends or teachers ever suspected or realized.  Their test scores certainly didn’t give them away.

Sanford and Niles took to football instantly.  They were gifted and had the right intensity.  The game itself with its physical and mental skill and precision appealed to their competitive natures.  In practice both took great pleasure in lining up and attacking the other one.  Their practices were more intense that some other people’s games. 

As young men, Sanford and Niles made a point of defining themselves by having completely opposite styles.  Hair cuts, clothes, favorite films and bands – all were different.  They were happy to be a twin, and happy to share the football field, but they wanted their own identities, their own successes, their own failures.  Once on a dare, they didn’t speak to the other for ten days, except during football practice.  It was a very lonely time, but they had wanted to see if they could do it.

They had played on the same teams as children, in high school, in college, but not in the NFL.  Sanford was an incredible talent and was drafted early by a lesser team.  Niles, while being a quality player, was most definitely not a star in the making, and was drafted lower, but had the good fortune of being drafted by a better franchise.  Both were lucky enough to have their careers last longer than the average.  Both were unlucky in the fact that they were in different conferences and they only played against each other on rare occasions.  They would have loved to be in the same division and face off at least twice a year, and even though they both changed teams during their careers, they never had the luck to be part of a heated rivalry.

As young adults, Sanford and Niles had many adventures together.  No matter what, they always found a week or two to spend together as a private vacation.  In college they took trips and tours and saw the world.  Soon they were returning as volunteers and guides.  When they loved something they learned everything there was to learn about it and made themselves into experts.

When they were thirty-one, Niles’ team made it to the championship.  Sanford was his biggest fan and cheerleader.  Both knew careers were short and thirty-one can be old for a player on either side of the ball.  Trips to championship games are few and far between and this might be the only time either one of them ever had the opportunity.

Sanford and Niles always wanted to test the other and see who was better at just about anything – including who was best as the other.  As children they had taken each others' tests and competed for the best report card.  As young men they had traded part time jobs to find out who the best employee was.  Both ended up with raises.  Once, during a womanizing era of their youth, they had both tried to date the same woman.  That was one of their only disasters.

During the championship game Niles played the best game of his career.  Niles was a decent safety, and could cover well in zone and one-on-one defensive sets, but he was not known for big plays and never had the catching ability that his brother possessed as a wide receiver.  During the game Niles had two interceptions, one in the first half, and one in the second.  The second was returned for a touchdown.  He won the MVP award.  No one was happier for him than Sanford.  Both retired soon enough and that one game went down as the best moment of either of their careers.  Neither would play for another championship.

Niles didn’t talk a lot before or after the game.  He met with his family early in the day and spoke of his hopes and dreams and how much he loved his family and the game of football.  Later he was unusually quiet during the game, but extremely focused on making his dreams come true.  Some would say he rose above his ability that day, made the most of mistakes and quarterback miscues.  Some athletes do that.  Some play their best when all the chips are down and the spotlight is on them.  No one would ever say Niles didn’t do just that.  Sanford especially would speak often in interviews about his brother and just how proud he was of how Niles had been able to play that day.  Both would say in interviews how sad they were that they hadn’t both won championships or been on the same team that day. 

When asked about his second interception that day, when asked why he fought so hard to break tackles and gain extra yards and finally score, when asked why, with the game well in hand, he took it upon himself to make such a big play, Niles would simply smile and say “I guess I still had something left to prove.”