Superbowl Player Spotlight

It was time. The big game was just a mere several hours away. An annual event that rivaled Christmas or the fourth of July, at least in the McCarron household. Football was in their veins, competition the blood that flowed through them. Every year all members had chosen a couple teams to be “their” teams for the season, a fun game with an annual draft. But this year things had been taken up a notch. With the introduction of Call It, the McCarron family could add another year long competitive ranking aside from their home brewed contest and fantasy football. 

Mark was leading his family, having won 6 contests during the regular season, and advancing in the playoffs to knock off his second oldest son, his step daughter, and his youngest son in the first three rounds. 

See, the McCarron household took Call It to a whole other level, playing private contests among each other every week, with the final rankings of each week giving them a running total of points (10 points for first, 8 for second and so forth, with anyone falling out of the top 5 receiving no points for that week). In the playoffs, they branched into 1v1 private contests, in single elimination games- win your contest and advance – lose, and your season is over. 

Lucky for the McCarrons, they had a large family, and a family who was absolutely crazy about football. 

This year’s superbowl had everything on the line for Mark. He and his eldest son were the only ones left standing in their Call It season. Furthermore, Mark had the Chiefs as his pick to win it all at the start of the season, while his son, coincidentally, had the 49ers. Mark had already won the family fantasy football season, which meant that this game could be the first time a member of the McCarron family won all three annual contests (no one had won the two contests before Call It was introduced, either). For Mark, this was about the bragging rights, the crown that likely would be near impossible to topple in the future. 

The big game began, and Mark’s son got off to a hot start, accurately predicting the early Niner’s takeaways. In a large hole early, Mark didn’t panic. As the first half started to wind down, the Chiefs received the ball with around 4 minutes remaining.

Chiefs/FG/75

As the Chiefs entered hurry up, they drove the field, kicking- and making- the field goal with just 20 seconds left on the clock. By this point in the season, Mark was an expert, and quickly submitted his all in time expired prediction as well. His son did the same. 

The half time score was 10-3 Niners, the Call It score was in favor of his son, by almost 100 points. While neither was ideal, that final drive brought both games- and Mark’s tricrown goal- a little closer together. 

After a half time show where the family ranked it relative to the previous half time shows (spoiler, it didn’t do that well) the third quarter started- and ended with all chiefs. 10 unanswered points made the score 13-10 Chiefs, and Mark had also closed the gap with his son.

Momentum- Mark.

The fourth quarter turned into a battle, for both contests. A back and forth affair that saw Mark make a potentially fatal blunder as time expired. Taking the Chiefs to punch it in and finish the game, they could only manage a field goal, and Mark fell 150 points behind his son. The game, however, went into overtime. 

Mark managed to keep the score close, and after the Niner’s field goal (a drive that left Mark sweating and his son on the edge of his seat) Mahomes finally delivered. Almost as time expired in the 5th quarter, Mark was all in on touchdown while his son predicted a 6th quarter. 

No one that day would have thought there could be a happier person in the world than Patrick Mahomes, who donned his second consecutive ring in as many years. But believe it or not, there was one man in central Iowa named Mark who would beg to differ.