When "Red Rover, Red Rover" Goes Horribly Wrong

A typical youth group night with the exception that the guys are separated from the girls for this specific lesson. So I am outside with the other adults and the guys from the youth group where they can turn the most mundane of games into a potentially dangerous adventure. Such is the way with guys.

Anyway, there we are, trying to find ways of amusing ourselves when we decide to use a long piece of rope for tug-of-war. Once I landed on my back on the pavement, and once I had some skin shredded off the back of my hand from the rope burn (not to mention my fingers were numb for about 10 minutes). But all in all, things were going well.

Then we decided to get silly and play Red Rover. Now if you are somehow unfamiliar with this child's game it is just a fun game with a little rhyme in it. Two teams line up across from each other and the members lock hands. Then the "captain" of one team says "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Billy right over" (or Mary or Tommy or Jenny or whoever). Then that person leaves their team and runs directly at the line of the other team in an attempt to break the hand-hold of two people. If they succeed in getting through, then they go back to their team and take one of the broken line with them. If they don't succeed they join that team.

And so it goes. There are variations but I think you get the idea.

Now when we were kids, we would haul butt over to the other side in an attempt to slam our way past. But we were small then. Now when you have 14-17 year old guys playing, you have more mass. Physics starts to become a concern.

So there they were. One team to my right standing in the open grass. The other team to my left, standing in the open grass about 16 feet from a brick wall. I bet you can see where this is going.

The challenge was on. Guys like a challenge and typically play with enthusiasm when physical violence is involved -- they have a saying in youth group that "its all fun and games until someone gets hurt, then its hilarious". So they played a while and then one of the other guys who is already out of youth group but was at church decided to play.

By this time there was enough testosterone in the air to paint the parking lot with it.

So the newcomer gets called over and he runs straight at the line and goes for a stronger pair instead of an easier target. And he runs right into their interlocked hands which fling open at his mighty rushing force. Now remember that wall that was 16 feet away? It was still there and a speeding teenager can cover 16 feet faster than they wished.

Yep, he smacked head first into the brick wall. He literally ran into a brick wall. We all heard the thud when he hit. And then he rebounded back and down to the ground he went. Ouch is an understatement. Now I have to admit, I ran into a masonry wall before and when I did, I ended up with 16 stitches. So I know it hurts.

So there he lay, the hapless victim of "Red Rover". Everyone rushed over to see the damage. One minor scrape on the chin, a small cut on the cheek, a large swollen and cut bump above one eye, and and umistakable brick imprint over his eyebrow. Despite the circumstances, he was doing quite well. He was hurt to be sure, but alert and able to answer questions. It did take a while to get up though.

He did hurt his wrist as well as he tried to stop himself. In the end, he went to the hospital to have the wrist looked at. That is when they decided to put in 3 stitches above the eye, set the right broken wrist in a cast, and set the left broken arm in a cast up to the elbow.

Is there a point to this story? No. It is just a description of what happens when "Red Rover" goes horribly wrong.

Our final advice to our friend was to tell everyone who asks "you should see the other guy!"


Copyright 2006, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)