Within minutes, the locker room became a portrait of suffering. The quarterback tried to hide his onion inside his helmet, but the stench clung to his gloves. The kicker, a delicate soul, simply held his onion and sobbed. Coach Spuf watched as his star wide receiver bit into the onion like an apple, shuddered violently, and then curled into a fetal position.

Spud blinked. His chunky, pixelated face remained stoic. “An onion?”

The first half of the championship game went fine. Star running back, Barry “The Burner” Sanders-256, rushed for 187 yards on 16-bit grass. The defense, a brutal squad of chunky sprites, forced three fumbles. At halftime, the score was 24–3, good guys.

In the post-game interview, a reporter asked Coach Spud the secret to his success.

With two minutes left, down by four, Coach Spud called his final timeout. He looked at his players: faces smeared with onion juice, burps smelling of sulfur and regret. He walked to the sideline cooler, reached past the Gatorade, and pulled out his secret weapon.

On the final play, as time expired, the QB dropped back. The onion fumes had cleared his sinuses so violently that he could see into the future. He threw a 99-yard bomb that deflected off an onion peel, bounced off a ref’s head, and landed perfectly in the end zone.

The second half was a disaster. On the first play, Barry took the handoff, but as he cut left, a single tear blurred his vision. He fumbled. The onion, still undigested, gurgled in his gut like a dying dial-up modem. The opposing team—who had smuggled in a case of hidden ranch dressing—scored 21 unanswered points.