CHAPTER 81

I had practice the following day, so I thanked Alexis and left her office, heading back to the hotel. I grabbed a quick bite to eat, cleaned up and went to bed about eight that evening. I slept right through until the alarm went off the next morning. I got up quickly, dressed and drove over to our training facility. As I drove there, I thought about what Josh had said to me the day before, I was determined to try and remain positive. I dressed quickly, and made my way out on the field, stretching with the rest of the team during warm ups.

For the first time, since I had been here, the starting offense went against the starting defense in one on one situations. As was customary Billy Huber started with the first group on offense. The drills were maybe twenty minutes in, when Coach Reed gave me the nod to take Huber's place. As I entered the huddle and tapped Billy on the shoulder to leave, he gave me one of his patented nasty looks and growled.

"Watch that safety when you drag the middle rookie, they will take your head off.", he said, pointing to the strong safety on the other side of the line.

The safety nodded to Billy and pointed to him as he jogged off the field. Now this was full contact drills, however with that said, no one was hitting all out this early in camp. I basically paid him no attention as I bent over into the huddle. Josh called several running plays, all away from me, so I had little responsibility other than to look for a "hot" read . A hot read was simply a blitzing linebacker, safety or corner on my side, that could come free untouched and run the play down from the back side.

I was maybe ten plays into my set when Josh called my number in the huddle.

"Ok guys, here we go. Strong left, shift right, Jet twenty post, X overload, on three." he barked.

The play he called had three options available. I was the primary target. I would line up on the left side of the line, run twenty yards down the field, then break to an open spot in the middle. If I was covered, we had a running back circling out of the backfield on the right for a swing pass. We also had our left wide out running a streak or line pattern straight down the sideline. As we broke formation, I trotted to the line, I glanced into the secondary. They looked to be in a

two deep, or over and under package. What this basically meant was the two corners matched up man with the outside recievers, the safeties would cover anything middle level, with the linebackers picking up the swing routes.

Josh came to the line, he began his progression of cadence. If at anytime, he saw something he didn't like, or a coverage shift, he could change the play by calling out "Kill, Kill, Kill", then call an audible. Josh was well experienced, he was considered one of the top players in the league. He stuck with the called play, I came off the line well, no one made any contact. At fifteen yards up the field, the free safety crept up, noticing the back swing out. The strong safety stayed deep holding his ground. That left a ten yard cushion right in the middle of the field, which is where I cut and broke hard for. Josh saw it open at the same time I did, as I snapped my head back to the line of scrimmage, the ball was already airborne. Josh had thrown me open, I extended my hands, the ball was right on target. I snapped the ball from the air, pulling it quickly to my body, that was the last thing I remember. Seconds later, I was laying on the ground, my head spinning, a sharp pain in my jaw. Apparently someone had leveled me, I was completely unaware of who had hit me. As the fog began to clear, I heard player's shouting at each other. The trainer's were out there checking me, everyone standing around looking down or talking. I shook off the trainers and got up, getting my feet back under me. Josh was still jaw jacking with the safety who had leveled me.

"Chris, that's chicken shit man. We ain't three deep yet. You pull that shit again, we gonna have problems.", he yelled.

"Fuck you Josh. I'm just letting the rookie know this is the big time. He can't hack, let him watch from over there.", he snapped back, pointing to the bench.

"Bullshit, you're trying to help your boy Billy, because you know he can't hack motherfucker.", Josh screamed.

I stepped in between Josh put my hands on his shoulders and gently starting walking him backwards.

"It's ok Josh, I'm fine man. He just taught me a valuable lesson. I will be ready next time, sorry I dropped it.", I told him.

"Fuck him, Brian. That was cheap and he knows it.", he answered.

We went back to the huddle and ran another succession of plays, none of which called on me to catch the ball. Finally we came to the red zone part of practice, where the offense was on the twenty and had three plays to score. We lined up for the third play, which was scheduled to be a double out to the left side, the running back on the five yard line, the wide out at the back of the end zone. I was lined up on the right side, my job was to take the free safety and try to get him to bite on me in the middle of the field. As Josh barked out the cadence, the defense suddenly shifted. The free safety moved to our left showing blitz, the strong safety, who had just leveled me came up and matched me one on one. Josh immediately recognized the mismatch.

"Kill, Kill, Kill. Double Slot Right, X Fade Right, Jet Left, 62 Combo on same.", he shouted.

He had just changed the play. I would now take the strong safety hard to the corner, Josh would hang the ball up on one of my shoulders, whichever was opposite the coverage. Josh was still pissed about Chris laying me out.

The ball was snapped, the wide out posted in front of me at the five, I cut hard off his shoulder for the corner. I had the safety right off the cut, he was beat. Josh lofted the ball high for the rear pylon, I timed it perfectly went up and pulled it down getting both feet in bounds with no problem. I think Josh was more excited than I was after the score.

Josh ran into the end zone, slapping me on the helmet in excitement. He turned and laughed at Chris, who just moments before had taken a cheap shot at me.

"Hey Chris, next time you try to play at that height, maybe you better get some oxygen. But then again, if you can't hack, the bench is over there.", he laughed and pointed.

Three plays later, I beat Chris again, this time on the back end line dragging across. By now the veteran was livid, he was being embarrassed by a rookie. Coach Reed now yelled out to Billy Huber, who had been standing on the sidelines now for a good half hour.

"Huber, you better get in there now. Obviously Williams can't cover Stevens. Let's see if he can stay with your old ass.", he growled.

Although Coach Reed had said nothing about the cheap shot earlier, this was his way of saying he knew what the two of them were up to, and he didn't like it. I spent the rest of practice on the sidelines watching about a dozen more plays. Coach dismissed us, some players headed for the locker room, others began walking to the fans. I followed the latter, Josh was walking right next to me. He put his hand on my shoulder, almost like a big brother would do.

"It's good to have you back Brian. You made some big league catches out there today.", he said.

"Thanks buddy.", I answered.

We reached the fench area as hundreds of fans were holding out items ranging from footballs, jerseys, pictures, and posters, all screaming for autographs. Josh was no doubt the fan favorite, everyone wanted his signature. Several people did hand me various items to sign, which I did so with a smile. Several people welcomed me to town, telling me they were excited watching me play. I thanked each of them individually, staying there until no one else had anything for me to sign. I looked around and the only two left out on the field were Josh and I. I tapped him on the shoulder, told him I had his pads, and began walking back to the locker room.

I showered and had began to dress by the time Josh came back in from the field. He walked past me and winked at me, pausing for just a second.

"You're a class act kid. Never walk away and leave a fan unhappy. They pay your salary, without them, none of this is possible. Always be the last to leave, if you can. Good job, Brian.", he said, softly.