The final score: a touchdown for the human spirit.

It had taken him four years. In that time, he had come to practice every day. Suited up, with the big No.45 on his jersey. Run his sprints. Hit the tackling dummies. Took all the blows with the scrubs. Yet he had never taken a snap or played in a game.

He was now a 17-year-old senior at Northwest High School in McDermott, Ohio, and had just one more football game to watch from the bench.

Nobody knew exactly what it meant to Jake Porter. His teammates loved him for his warm, glowing personality, his perseverance, and his simple charm.

They also knew he was "different," and they looked after him. Jake Porter suffers from Chromosomal Fragile-X, a form of mental retardation. He was never going to be a star or play under stress. But he was a friend, a classmate, and a teammate--family. Someone to look after.

For Jake, all of this was enough. He did not have to run a 4.5 or be a tackling machine, and he never had to think in terms of scoring touchdowns and victories. Just being Jake Porter was enough.

But for the team and its coach, Dave Frantz, the Porter story wasn't complete. It needed an ending. An expression of their feelings for him and a moment that he, and them, would remember forever.

The wheels were set in motion the week before the final game against a strong Waverly High team, coached by Derek DeWitt. Jake's coach, Frantz, called Coach DeWitt, and told him what he had in mind. "If the game became a blow-out, would it be okay to allow Porter to take a knee and run out the clock on the last play of the game?"

Taking a knee would ensure Jake's safety--no one would touch him. Coach DeWitt thought it was a great idea.

And so October 18 rolled around and Somebody Up There must have liked Jake. The game did turn out to be a blow-out, and with Northwest having the ball at midfield, Coach Frantz called time out to set up the play--have Jake take the handoff and drop to his knee on the last play.

Meanwhile, Coach DeWitt of Waverly had also come out on the field to check with Coach Frantz about the surprise ending. DeWitt had his own surprise in mind: How about letting Jake run with the ball for a touchdown?

Nobody who saw what happened next will ever forget it. Jake--who still believed he was going to go down on his knee with five seconds remaining--took the handoff at the Waverly 49-yard line

As he looked up, he saw a hole the size of Montana staring him the face. Both teams had cleared a path and were pointing out the Promised Land to him. "Run, Jake, run!" they beckoned.

And so Jake, who was initially baffled, began to run... with all the players, the coaches, and the fans cheering and clapping. Forty-nine yards to pay dirt! Touchdown, Porter!

In the grand scheme of things, the "touchdown" was meaningless. Northwest lost 42-6 to Waverly. But it was a victory in so many other ways. It was a victory for sportsmanship and the triumph of the human spirit in a wounded boy.

For a day, Jake Porter was a football hero.