To: finhusdon[at]hotmail. com
Cc: puckzilla[at]gmail. com; changfamily[at]hotmail. com; a-abrams[at]edwards. com; samevans42[at]yahoo. com
From: bradellis[at]gmail. com
Subject: Football
Hello (again, for some of you!)
I hope everything is going well where all of you are, and that you're all okay.
I was just emailing, as you probably know by now, about the book. There's a little something I've wanted to explore, and I need you all to help me out if you possibly can. What I'm wondering is not only about New Directions, but about the football team as well; I want to know what it was like having to balance both, as well as deal with the different labels that came with being associated with each clique.
Thank you,
Brad
(Also, Finn, you might want to think about getting a new email account, as I'm sure I'm not the only one to have noticed you've spelt both of your names wrong. Just an idea there)
To: bradellis[at]gmail. com
From: changfamily[at]hotmail. com
Subject: RE: Football
Hello!
Sorry this will only be a short email right now – I've just got home from a dance trip and I need some sleep, seeing as it will only be a few weeks before I'm getting none at all!
Anyway, as you probably know, I was a football player first. I'd always had a love of sports – basketball, baseball, football. And then I was a bedroom dancer. Everything I did was in front of the mirror, alone, where no one would catch me, the music invisible.
Therefore, when the three of us – Matt, Puck and I – came up with the idea of joining the club after our triumphant Single Ladies routine, I knew I couldn't sing that well, but maybe I could dance. Maybe I could come out of my shell a little. There were loads of reasons why I felt I shouldn't do it, but something made me. And I don't regret it.
It was hard to balance, as I think you can tell. Not only are you looking at two opposing labels, bridging two groups in which you feel outcast in both, but also trying to avoid the prejudices associated with each. But my love of dance stopped me from quitting. As you can see, I think I'd say that the dance conquered the football in the end - just look at where I am now!
I'm sorry that this is all I can give you now, but I really do need some sleep.
Also, one more question – what names have you given me and Tina for the book? We're merely interested to know.
Hope to speak to you soon,
Mike
To: bradellis[at]gmail. com
From: puckzilla[at]gmail. com
Subject: RE: Football
Good to hear from you again, dude!
First of all, with this story, let me give you a little secret: I joined Mr Schue's singing guy group first, just before I joined Glee club. You wanna know why? For the MILFs. What better way to get some new chicks than by impressing them with my smooth moves? So Finn got me into that, and then after the whole lady dance drama, me and Matt and Mike decided to join up for good. I reckon it worked. The ladies loved me, and I showed them some great loving in return!
Also, football was sort of going downhill by that time, anyway. Coach Tanaka was killing us! You know how bad we were back then! Pulling us apart instead of bringing us together. I mean, at least with the Beast (how do you spell her name, anyway?) she made an effort to get us together again. I think all the crap with the Glee club made a divide in the team – on one side, you got me, Finn, Artie, Mike, Sam, the crowd, then you got those asshats Dave and Azimio and their guys.
I still love the game though. Me and Artie went to watch a game a few weekends back, though we did get a bit of a surprise. I mean, if anyone was going to make it to the pros, I would have thought it would have been me, or at least Finn, not that douche Karofsky. But there you have it.
So yeah, I can't say it was the worst decision I ever made, to do both. Not all of it was great, being associated with the loserdom of Glee club, but I liked both. Football made you popular and gave you admirers. Glee club gave you friends. The only people who I've stayed in touch with since graduation have really been only those from New D, and mainly those from the team. I might talk to Rachel or something occasionally, but the only people I've actually kept up with are Artie, Mike (although I think he and Tina have managed to keep contact with everyone), Finn and Sam- at least, before he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. You heard anything from him?
But you get what I mean. In Football, there was nothing like that. Everyone loved you, and you hated everyone else. You'd toss dweebs into dumpsters, hand out patriotic wedgies right, left and center. You were cool, which meant everyone else sucked. Glee club changed all that. I realised you guys were all awesome too. And nicer. But if you asked me to choose which one I preferred, I couldn't tell you that. I'd never be able to choose between them, so doing both was for the best.
I think that's it.
See you soon,
Puck
To: puckzilla[at]gmail. com
Cc: changfamily[at]hotmail. com
From: bradellis[at]gmail. com
Subject: RE: Football
Hello there, both of you!
It was great to hear from you. What you had to say was really interesting, and has given me some great things to write about, so thank you!
Mike – The names I have given you and Tina are Jack and Katie respectively. I hope those are okay!
Puck – I got a message from Sam giving his consent to the project, but otherwise, nothing. However, this is the first thing I've emailed him about, as I'm still writing about your first year in the club, although this is just a general email, which I felt he needed to be a part of. When he responded to me, he said he didn't get on the internet much, so maybe there's your answer?
Anyway, thank you both for your emails, and Mike, best of luck for you and Tina!
Brad
To:bradellis[at]gmail. com
From: finhusdon[at]hotmail. com
Subject: RE: Football
Hey Brad,
It's good to hear from you. Maybe now I can have an excuse to get away from Burt at the tire shop, so I can actually email something to you.
And yeah, I know my email address is wrong, but once I'd got it up, I didn't want to make a new one. And when Puck made it with me, he didn't tell me I'd typed it in wrong. Probably on purpose, now I think about it. So I kept this one, to make it easier.
Anyway, football and Glee club.
I'll have to say, as much as I loved everyone in glee, I'll have to say that my first passion was always football. Football made you someone. Do you think Quinn, or anyone else, would have noticed me, or liked me, or anything, if I wasn't quarterback? While I enjoyed glee a lot, I felt good about myself on the football team. Not that I didn't in glee, but everyone else made you feel bad about yourself because you were in glee.
I guess it was better when Puck and the others joined. I didn't feel so outsided. Is that a word? My computer says it isn't, but I'm going to leave it there anyway.
If I could, I would always try and do both. Again, football was my first passion, my strongest fire, but that didn't mean I didn't care about Rachel, or Mr Schue, or any of the others. So I tried not to let anyone down. It was better when Beest (how do you spell her name?) came. She was better, didn't make everything clash. Though I think Coach Tanaka was just trying to get back at Mr Schue for something over Miss Pillsbury. I tried to work around it all if I could, and I think I managed.
Sorry, it's hard to know what to say, and I have to go now and help Burt out again.
Finn
To: bradellis[at]gmail. com
From: a-abrams[at]edwards. com
Subject: RE: Football
Hey, Brad!
Great to hear from you! Hope everything's going okay.
(This will have to be a quick one, as I'm doing this at work and probably shouldn't be, so I'll do it as best as I can even though I don't have long)
I don't really know what compelled me to try and join the football team in the first place. It's mad right? A paraplegic football player? But I did. I wanted to be cool, popular, liked. Especially by Tina, at the time. Then Brittany later. Anyway, I wanted to be like Mike Chang. I wanted to win Tina back, and how else to do that than to be on the football team?
I reckon it's all about acceptance; you get other people to like you by doing something cool, and therefore you can accept yourself, and maybe the girl you're after might just like you too. Well, as you know, it didn't work out. But I adored Brittany, while we were together, at least. And I think she liked me too, whether being on the team had anything to do with it or not.
Anyway, Finn said that I could be like a human battering ram on the team. And it was cool, for the most part. I enjoyed it. But I liked glee more. Maybe that's why I was never given immunity from all the loser baptisms. I can't say that I didn't care, because I did, a lot. I just didn't show it.
What I think sums up my feelings the most is the time when we all tried to confront Karofsky about Kurt. All the guys in glee (not counting Finn, of course), we all stood up to him, and even though he knocked us down – I swear I had bruises on my back from where he pushed Mike into me for weeks – we came back stronger. And no one defended him. It just showed how close we were as a group, and I loved that feeling.
Now I think I should probably get back to work. Lots of number crunching to do!
Artie
To: finhusdon[at]hotmail. com
Cc: a-abrams[at]edwards. com; samevans42[at]yahoo. com
From: bradellis[at]gmail. com
Subject: RE: Football
Thank you, Finn and Artie, for your replies!
Sam, I understand you may not have been able to get online to see the emails, so there is no need to reply. Don't worry about it.
Speak to you all again soon,
Brad
Finally I have my computer and my plans back, so here's an update!
Thank you to all who have been reading this so far!
Just as a warning ahead of time - I'm going on holiday next week for a week, so there'll be no updates in that time. However, I hope to give two, or maybe three updates before I go, and I'll keep writing in my notebooks while I'm away so I have things to update with once I get back!