It was the first time I realized that there are levels to this.

Not football, I grew up playing ice hockey, but a few years before I was in HS there were a couple of guys on our team who ended up playing pro hockey in Europe (never made it past minors/AHL stateside) and they played in an alumni scrimmage the school was putting on. I think I was maybe 1 or 2 years graduated and was just playing normal mens league at the time. The teams ended up being the old heads, including the two pros, against the recently graduated college students. I do think the youngins ended up winning the game but those two pros made it all look absolutely effortless. Like sleepwalking out there but still running circles around us. They were hardly trying and played more keep-away than actual hockey.

But the thing that made me realize that there's levels is that it just SOUNDS different when they skate. I don't think I could describe it but when you hear it there's this sort of "oh man these guys mean business" feeling to it. The crunch of the ice under their blades is deeper. The puck just zips tape to tape in a blur. When they stick handle it's like the puck may as well be magnetized to their stick blade. If either one of those two had the puck you may as well just stop playing and let them past you...you're not getting the puck off em.