The scoreboard says "0.00." The scoreboard says "15–14," and everything else is "00.00.00.000." Boundaries break, the white line separating fans from players, the field overcome by jumping purple and silver. On the other end, soldiers melting back into boys. Weeping boys in gold and blue, thirty wins’ worth of tears unleashed. Rattles abandoned. Hugging and swaying. "I love you." "I love you." "I love you." The moms holding their broken baby boys.

Voices pile on top of one another, like people who just witnessed a plane crash or any other incalculable human tragedy. Parents, coaches, 12- and 13-year-old boys who do not like what it feels like to be turning into men. What happened? What just happened?

"Reece got a concussion."

"You don’t know that. You don’t just go saying that."

"They never think Pennsylvania brings down good teams. That’s why they made the bad call. Because we’re from Pennsylvania."

"Reece blamed the entire thing on himself. He was crying to me saying, ’Cole, it’s my fault.’ I was telling him no, it’s not."

"He was just dehydrated. He’s not used to playing in all this heat."

"He didn’t know what the plays were. He couldn’t remember what day it was."

"If he’s worried about himself, it’s the wrong thing to do. Focus on the team. It’s a team accomplishment, it’s a team win, it’s a team loss."

"I freaked out. I yelled at the ref. I was like, ’That’s BS!’ Excuse my language."

"One ref, just one ref."

"You can’t really process. We’re done. We’re just done."

"He told me about it. He got wrapped up by one kid, and then the other kid came in and just smashed his head or something. Another hit him, and his head just went crooked."

"I was about to poop my pants, because I wasn’t really quarterback all year, and Reece got hurt, and I was like, ’Oh crap. I don’t want to go in there now.’ The biggest game of the season and it’s the fourth quarter. It was third-and-twenty."

"Like, I’ll forget about it, and then all the sudden I just think, ’We lost.’ "

"That was it. That’s the last time Pop Warner."

"And I knew that was going to be the last time I could ever blitz for Pop Warner."

"One of the symptoms of concussions is that you have some mood swings. That’s in my research paper. I just thought that he might have a concussion because of that. He was saying it was his fault. I don’t think he did anything wrong."

"How do you make the call in those moments? Do they have to be unconscious? Everyone can see a broken bone or a swollen knee. You can’t see a concussion."

"He didn’t get hit in the head. He did not have a concussion. He doesn’t have concussion symptoms at all. His eyes weren’t dilated, his senses were there, he knew his name, he knew what was going on. He was dehydrated, number one. Then he starts getting banged around. He was just spent. We rested him a couple series, and that threw our chemistry off. You need every piece of your puzzle to win."

"You’re done, you’re done, you’re done."

"It wasn’t the hit. It was the landing. I can sort of remember now, but at the time I couldn’t really remember. I took the ball in a running play, and my head just got flung back. My head. My head just went back. It hit the ground. And I couldn’t remember much. I tried to go in at the end. I didn’t even know what the score was at the time."

"It’s like sunburn. You worry about the cumulative risk. But that doesn’t mean you spend your life inside."

"Guys, we have a choice to go to theme parks or watch football games. It doesn’t get much better than that. You understand? You’ve got to choose how you’re going to handle this. Stand up. Put your hands in the air. I want LV on three. One. Two. Three!"

"EL VEE!"

Jeanne Marie Laskas (@jmlaskasis a GQ correspondent.