Junior Year Box Set

I had to stop and gather myself. Jeff’s question had caught me unawares, and the feelings had come rushing back. Thankfully, Jeff switched to football-related questions. I told him about Coach Diamond’s new offense and how I didn’t think anyone could stop us this year. I wasn’t bragging. I really felt that only we could stop ourselves. Every play had been designed with a purpose in mind, and that purpose was to gain big chunks of yardage, if not score. At the end, I asked Mrs. Sullivan to come over.

“I want to introduce you all to Mrs. Sullivan, the president of our booster club. She has led an incredible team of people who’ve worked hard to improve the facilities here at Lincoln. The new Lincoln Field House is amazing, and we have state-of-the-art equipment to go with the facilities. On behalf of the students at Lincoln High, I want to thank you,” I said and gave her a hug.

I had to hurry back to the locker room because it was almost time for us to warm up. We were going to have a big crowd tonight. It seemed the town was treating this like a real game.

◊◊◊

For the freshmen and sophomores, this was a big game. They would get some playing time at the varsity level. As I expected, they were nervous, so I sent Wolf in to get them together, and he told them stupid jokes until they calmed down. I, on the other hand, wasn’t nervous at all, which surprised me. Usually, I’d have been puking by now, but somehow this felt more like practice to me. It was hard to get excited about hitting your fellow teammates. There was one exception, though: Mike. I planned on putting him down hard and often tonight.

I had Tim and Jim scheduled to lead the team out for warm-ups. They had taken the demotion from team captains hard. This was my way to let them know I still supported them, even if I felt their hazing of the new linemen was childish. I agreed with Coach Hope that it needed to be nipped in the bud, though.

The blowback had been worse for Jim. He was in his senior year, and recruiters were looking at him hard. Jim was currently ranked the fourth-best lineman in the Midwest after he’d gone to several lineman camps over the summer. I’d been asked about his character more than once by recruiters. Getting reprimanded for hazing and removed as a team captain did not make the sort of impression on colleges that you’d want. The big-time programs were under a lot of pressure to get it right, and a troublemaker was absolutely not the kind of guy they wanted in their locker room.

I was doing my usual routine of listening to hard rock music before the game when my phone chirped. I had a text from Brandon, my new personal assistant/recruiting coordinator.

‘Call Me!’

Other times I would have ignored him this close to taking the field, but something told me I needed to answer him.

“Sorry to ask you to call me right before a game,” Brandon said.

He had played football and knew I didn’t want a disruption in my pregame rituals. Every player had a way to get ready for a game. Some were very particular in what they did.

“I figured it had to be important or you wouldn’t have sent the text,” I said to ease his mind.

“I should have anticipated this, but honestly didn’t think we would get so many requests this early.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Recruiters want to schedule you for campus visits and also in-home visits. Bo Harrington said you needed help to schedule everything. He suggested that you limit what you do this year to only the schools you’re serious about. He would like to sit down with you and your family after the game.”

Bo had taken the quarterback-coaching position for the Crimson Tide, and could no longer coach me one-on-one. I’d put out a call to Bud Mason, the former Oakland Raiders quarterback coach and offensive coordinator who’d coached me at Elite Camp in Houston, to replace Bo as my off-season coach. Coach Mason told me he was happy in retirement, but would consider it. He had agreed to review my game films and give his observations each week.

“I can’t do anything this weekend. My parents are in Las Vegas, and we’re going to the Northwestern-Stanford game tomorrow. My mom would like to meet the coaches before I make a decision. She’s already met the Northwestern coaching staff, so we’re okay with them. I’d hoped she could meet the Stanford staff, but we can probably do that when I’m in LA shooting the movie after the season.”

Mom and Dad were familiar with Stanford since she had gone to their cancer center. They hadn’t met the coaching staff, though. Mom had said she wanted to spend some time in LA while I did my new movie, and I wanted them there for the release of Star Academy.

“Sounds like a plan. I understand that some of the other guys will be meeting with schools tonight and won’t be able to go to your party,” Brandon said.

Ah ha! My sister-in-law and the cheerleaders planned to throw a party at my place while my parents were gone. I hoped Precious had done some major damage this morning.