Hello and welcome to the Drabblecast, episode 470.

The Drabblecast is an audio fiction magazine that brings strange stories by strange authors to strange listeners,

such as yourself. I'm your host, Norm Sherman. This week on the show, sportsball,

Drabblecast style. We bring you Personal Best by Michael Bettendorf. Michael's a writer from the Midwestern

U.S. His most recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Horror Tea,

The Razor, The Martian Magazine, and elsewhere.

He works in a high school library in Lincoln, Nebraska,

a place he believes is too strange to be a flyover state.

This story is the Jabalcast original,

and it's read to you by the amazing Renee Chamberlis.

So without further ado,

we bring you,

Personal Best by Michael Betendorf.

Personal Best by Michael Betendorf.

Personal best by Michael Betendorf.

It's hard to see eye to eye with your parents when they're always looking down at you.

I cannot help that I am young, or that I'm small, or that I don't want to play football.

It's how I am, who I am, and I will never be good enough.

I don't hate football. Honest, I like it.

But I like numbers more.

And if I had my way, I'd sit on the sidelines and worry about the numbers.

But mom and dad say I won't win a national title by worrying about past completions and yards per carry. and I certainly won't get a Super Bowl ring either.

...