The football game may be my favorite Kevedd moment(at least in the top five) and let me explain to you why.
Lots and lots of friendly interactions is a given tickler of my interests, but what I really really really like is that while Kevin is the captain and no doubt the best player, he does not do much himself in the game. As it has been pointed out, Kevin spends the game doing one thing; running around and tossing the ball at Edd.
Now Kevin knows Edd is not really all that with sports. He himself has seen Edd trying to throw a football and commented how bad Edd was, and yet he gives the ball constantly to him. In what way is that something a captain of the team would think is a good tactic?
Not to forget that Rolf was at the game too, and he is definitely more athletic than Edd and even if he may not understand the game fully,he would have still had a better chance of bringing victory. Still Kevin did not pass to him, to his best friend.
Instead what Kevin does is he keeps his eyes on Edd from the start on. When the other team comes out, his immediate reaction is to offer a kind word to Edd, telling him: “They don’t look so tough. I bet even you could sack that quarterback, Double Dweeb.” even if Kevin must know no such thing would ever happen. And then he even offers back pat to Edd, which is just.. guhgk.
Then once the game starts Kevin starts doing that ball tossing thing, which I already covered as not being smart at all. But while he does that, he also keeps verbally pushing Edd to the game with lines like “Quit slacking” and “Keep your eye on the ball” and “Get up, get up, move it, hustle, today!” Kevin uses time and energy to keep Edd in the game, while we have Jonny running around with Plank and Rolf who just stood there for the most part. Not to forget Eddy, who was not even on the field. Kevin didn’t force any of them to keep playing, like he did with Edd.
Kevin did tell the whole group as a whole to focus twice, but he also told Edd to focus one on one. So Kevin gave more effort to pushing Edd alone, and why would he do that?
I’ll tell you why. Kevin was offering reinforcement for Edd’s self-esteem.
He pressured Edd to be a part of the game, so if they would win, Edd would feel he was part of the accomplishment. I still need to stress my point once more here; Kevin is the Jock of the group, he is incredibly athletic and talented at every sport. I am sure he could have owned the game playing alone and just using the other kids as bait for the offense of the other team. But he did not.
Kevin was throwing himself off his own game to give Edd the chance to shine, and there is no way I could see this situation as anything other than that. Thank you and goodbye.
