It has been several years since I played the game of soccer or as some will say football.  My buddy Larry who is an avid soccer player told me over the weekend that two of the guys that play on his soccer team were 3d modelers. He said that they were also brothers and very well connected in Hollywood with access to key people at some of the top production studios.

So I decided to go with him to see if I could get an introduction to these two fellas.

I dusted up my old soccer shoes, dressed in my best sports attire and met up with Larry at 5.45 pm on Tuesday evening. He introduced me to all his team members including John and Gary the two 3d artist brothers. At 6pm prompt the soccer game began. This was supposed to be an amateur local team league made up of older guys in their early 30s to mid 40s. However, these guys all seemed very competitive! They argued, lied, shouted and screamed at each other in a desperate act to out do each other on the field.

At the end of the first half of the game, none of the teams had scored a goal. I was by that time getting restless, kind off tired from standing on the side lines for 45 minutes. Just then, one of Larry’s team members had to leave and suddenly I was asked if I would like to replace him as there was no other substitute available. I said “YES! You sure bet” very excited to get the opportunity to play soccer/football again after all this years.

As the 2nd half began, I was in mid field position and found myself running back and forth the field. Within 5 minutes of running up and down the place I was kinda out of breath and wanted to take a break. But of course I couldn’t as the game still had 40 minutes left to go. So I devised a strategic plan to reduce my energy expedition by limiting my movements but without appearing to do so.  This was an old trick I learnt from back in the days.

Suddenly, I received a great ball pass and then made a quick dash towards the goal post. I was moving so fast with the ball that I was upon the goal keeper very quickly. He rushed out of the post towards me but I dribbled him nicely and then it was just me facing an empty goal post. I thought to myself “this is my time to shine and impress the two connected 3d modelers on my team.”  So I squared up and took a shot at the open goal sure that I could not miss. Then…as if in a terrible dream, I watched in horror as the ball flew over the goal post.

I could not believe it… that I had just blown a perfect opportunity to score a goal and put my team ahead. One of the 3d modelers, Gary was livid with frustration at my goal miss. He began yelling at me calling me all sorts of names. “I can’t believe it dude, you had an empty goal post and you missed!” I tried to explain to him that I had not played for quite a while and that was why my shot was off. But he would not let up with his yelling and cursing. Now, I did not want to get into an argument with him as I was hoping to network with him and his brother and hopefully get hooked up with some custom 3d modeling jobs. So I sucked up the insults and continued playing determined to prove them wrong by scoring a goal.

But as the game continued, I discovered how rusty I truly was with the game of soccer.  I missed several passes, missed shots and fell down several times. I was overall playing very badly. I was also quite concerned about tackling anyone too aggressively as I could not afford to have any kind of leg injuries. Since, I no longer had any health insurance coverage.

Suddenly again I received another excellent pass from the 3d modeler named John. On my left was Gary yelling “ball, ball” and then on my right John too was yelling for me to pass the ball back to him so he could perhaps score a goal.  However, I felt I was best positioned to take the shot at goal. So instead of passing the ball to either of the brothers, John or Gary, I took a shot at the goal.

Again in horror I watched the ball fly over the goal post. As soon as I missed the goal, I knew I was in trouble. John and Gary were so angry with me and were both yelling at me for not passing the ball and blowing another excellent opportunity to score a goal.  Again, I said I was sorry and just rusty. But they continued. They seemed like two passionate or rather two fanatical soccer players. Always, yelling and shouting and arguing with the opposing team members and now they were just directing their frustration towards me.

So I told them to go screw themselves and walked off the field. After the game was over, a few of the opposing team members came over to me saying they appreciated me standing up to John and Gary.  But as I got into my car to drive home, I realized that there was not going to be any 3d modeling job referrals or gigs coming from either John or Gary.  But at least, I had gotten in my exercise for the week.

About Me: My name is Jon Max. I am a 3D Model Artist.  I have decided to document my life. One week at a time and share it with you. It is reality TV but on a blog. You will get the truth, no sugar coating of events instead raw and unedited. It’s my life baby!