Concussions. The word freaks out almost everyone. Some of the NFL's finest--Joe Montana, Steve Young, Troy Aikman and Dan Marino--have been knocked senseless on the field. High school quarterback Rudy Maxa doesn't know that much about head injuries, except that they suck. When Rudy and his mom move from Indiana to northern California, he wonders plenty about the weird behavior of his aging new friend, Mitch. A former footballer himself, Mitch practices with Rudy at mostly deserted Burned Out Park. After a while, Rudy figures out that Mitch's inability to keep things straight comes from having used his head the wrong way few times too often.