A drunk lurches over and gapes. Two teams, comprising both Marines and schoolboys, line up on the gravel, facing each other with a lemon-shaped ball between them. A kid hikes the ball to Hickok. There is a flurry of running, blocking, flailing arms. Hickok scrambles and throws the ball downfield.
All activity stops.
The ball is returned to where it started, and the observers murmur in bewilderment. It is obvious that something momentous is occurring, but it is hard to say just what. Someday, when the Vladivostok Cossacks and the Moscow FSBeshniks fight it out in the first all-Russia Superbowl, the importance of this moment will become clear. We are witnessing the birth of American football in the Russian Far East. But if you insist, I will accept a footnote in the annals of football history.