Hometown Favorite: A Novel (47 page)

Dewayne had to stand on the bench and wave his helmet,
accepting their appreciation, before the game could begin.

Dewayne did not start or play any of the first quarter. By the
middle of the second quarter, he went in for a series of downs
but never received the ball. He got to run onto the field, run his routes, throw a few blocks, and run off again without embarrassing himself. His groove was coming back. All the instincts
were firing, and he could feel his mind and body readjusting
to the physical demands of the game. But more important, his
heart was growing into the spirit of the game, something that
had most concerned him. What if, once he was on the field
engaged in real-time play, he discovered that he no longer cared
about the game, that, in fact, he was afraid?

In the third quarter, Dewayne caught passes for a couple
of first downs, which brought the fans to their feet, but in the
fourth quarter, got smacked high and low after snagging a
thirty-yard pass. He brought in the catch, but the referee called
an official's time-out for the team doctors to escort Dewayne
off the field to the subdued applause of distressed fans.

The next day Coach Gyra announced Dewayne had suffered
a mild concussion and the coaching staff would take a waitand-see attitude about his role in the next game. The media
jumped on it, raising doubts that Dewayne was not ready to
return, that the game was no longer in him.

"You've got nothing to prove," Rosella said that night in bed
as she rubbed his chest. "Nobody will blame you."

"I've got everything to prove," he said, taking her hand in his
and kissing her fingers. "I just had my bell rung. That's all."

"How many times can that happen and you walk off the
field on your own two legs? How many times can your head
take the punishment?"

"It's the life, baby. You know the life. I've just come back
from a brain tumor. You think I'm going to let a mild concussion-

"I'm afraid, that's all. I'm just afraid;" she said, pulling her
hand away and turning over on her back. "Will these concus sions bring back the tumor? The doctors don't know that. I'm
just afraid"

Dewayne turned on his side and smiled down at his wife.
He took the top of the sheet and dabbed her eyes, and then he
caressed her face.

"We've been through more than anybody could ever imagine, and we made it to the other side. We'll never be the same,
but I can't live in fear. I want to grow old with you and have a
houseful of babies along the way, but I can't live in fear. I want
the joy we once had to be restored to us, and I believe that can't
happen if we live in fear. I promise I will do nothing foolish
that might endanger a happy future together, but if I live in
fear, I live as half a man, and you don't want that:"

"I don't want to live in fear either" Rosella pressed his hand
onto her cheek.

"We're gonna make it, baby;" Dewayne whispered. "We're
gonna make it"

The Stars had to win the final three games of the regular
season in order to make the play-offs. In the previous games,
Dewayne evaded injury and made positive contributions, including a few touchdowns, which built the confidence factor.
He avoided responding to the press, who had placed a high
expectation on his game and expressed disappointment in his
ho-hum performance to date. Dewayne's own expectations were
all that mattered, and those who insisted he should be doing
more by this time in the season to help the Stars make it to the
play-offs would not distract or discourage him.

Though his strength and speed had returned to first-season
levels, he did not play up to those expectations. This forced
the team to play with more cohesion instead of relying on one
player to be a difference maker and built poise and camaraderie
among his teammates.

The Stars won the first of the last three games with Dewayne getting less than eighty yards and no touchdowns. In the
second game, he took a hit that would have floored a charging bull, but when the three tacklers peeled off his flattened
body, he bounced onto his feet and trotted off the field as if
he had tripped over his own shoelace. The Stars went on to
triumph.

The third game was against his old nemesis, Baltimore and
Colby Stewart. It was do-or-die for both teams, and Dewayne
knew Colby would do everything in his power to get inside
Dewayne's head. The smack talk began in the pregame warmups.

"Well, if it isn't Teddy Bear Boy back from the dead;" Colby
said as he high-stepped around Dewayne sitting on the thirtyyard line and stretching his calves.

"Colby, how's the weather in Baltimore?" Dewayne asked.

"Cold, and I brought cold with me today. I'm gonna show
you cold. I'm gonna hit you like the iceberg hit the Titanic, and
you're gonna go down. You're gonna sink, and I'm gonna be
the one who knocked the hole in your hull"

"Listen to his bad self," Dewayne replied. "Don't you ever
get bored by the sound of your voice?"

"How can I be bored when I've got sixty minutes to smack
on Tumor Man?" Colby shouted. "Is it true the docs burned
half your brain when they cooked your tumor?"

"Yeah, I heard that story;" Dewayne said, wrapping his big
hands around his shoes and bending forward until his face
mask touched the grass. "You read that in the tabloid section,
which is about your grade level?"

"Well, the tabloids say you took a nap while everyone died
around you," Colby said.

Every muscle in Dewayne's body stiffened.

"Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and you slept while the
devil ransacked your house"

It was as though some powerful hand lifted Dewayne to his
feet; pure rage popping capillaries, but the hand went from
invisible to solid form and held him in place with a firm grip
on his shoulder pads.

"Colby, can I quote what you said to my man, so I can show
the world what a real jerk you are?" Sly said, sticking a microphone in Colby's face as a camera operator stepped from
behind Sly with his eye attached to the lens of his camera.
Colby's expression went from scowl to hateful. "Zoom in on
Colby and let him do an instant replay of what he just said,
then I'm gonna turn loose of my man here and let him do a
little Mississippi soft shoe all over your ugly head, something
all of America would love to see."

Colby spat in the direction of Sly's shoes before he put on
his helmet and snapped the chinstrap in place.

"The devil is loose in your house, and I'll stomp you like
a mouse," Colby said and then trotted in the direction of his
locker room.

"My, my, Mr. Stewart, you have such a way with words!"
Sly shouted after him. "In your next life you can come back
as Shakespeare"

Colby never turned around but raised the middle finger of
each hand before he disappeared into the tunnel.

"There goes next year's NFL poster child for Miss Congeniality," Sly said.

"I might have killed him if you hadn't grabbed me," Dewayne
said, still trembling from the verbal sledgehammer blow. Dewayne was as surprised by his murderous reaction as he was
by Colby's attack.

"And I might have let you if we hadn't had a stadium full of witnesses" Sly released his grip but extended his arm over his
friend's shoulder. "Take a couple of deep breaths for old Sly,
and remember Colby's in a world of hurt"

"I might just break some of that world over his head today."
Dewayne released a deep breath of hot air.

Sly patted Dewayne's shoulder pads. "Focus on the win. You
get the win, and Colby can go back to his little pit of hell."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Dewayne started jumping up and
down, getting the elastic back into his muscles. "Hey, congratulations on yesterday's win;" Dewayne said with a slap to
his arm.

"I'm counting on you breezing through the play-offs and
seeing you in February."

"To what do I owe the honor of Sly Adams coming to my
rescue, sporting a suit and a cameraman?"

"All Sports Network brought me in for halftime commentary. Set me up with a cameraman to score a few pregame
interviews;" Sly said. "I'm trying out this sports news thing.
Couple of championship rings on my fingers, and this may
be my second career." Sly signaled the camera operator to roll
tape. "Are you ready to face down Baltimore?"

"Baltimore is a great team," Dewayne said. "But they'll go
home disappointed"

"I've got some insider information from a very reliable source
that says you take your famous teddy bear with you everywhere
you go. Is that true?"

"He is sitting in my locker even as we speak, and he goes
with me on the road."

"What's the meaning of that teddy bear?"

"It reminds me of how precious life is and how wonderful
God is for creating every life, no matter how short a stay it
might have"

"Good luck today," Sly said and sliced his finger across his
throat for the camera operator to stop taping. Sly cradled Dewayne's helmet in his hands. "You be careful, my man."

On the very first possession of the very first play, the Stars'
quarterback let Dewayne build a head of steam across the field
and dropped the ball right into his hands for the first score of
the game. Had the crowd noise not been so loud, Dewayne
might have heard Colby reaming out his teammates as they
jogged off the field for letting Dewayne slip by them.

With their second series of downs, Dewayne caught two
passes in a row, both for first downs, and Colby took the unusual
step of calling for a time-out to rewrite the defensive game
plan. Colby did not ask for suggestions or consensus. For the
first few seconds he browbeat his squad's incompetence, and
then he revamped their strategy.

"If we don't stop him, we don't stop them," Colby shouted to
the group before he turned to the cornerback whom Dewayne
had turned into a chump. "He's too big and fast for your scrawny
ass. I'll roll up on him at the line and knock him around. You
help with coverage, and we'll own him"

In spite of Colby's being flagged twice, once for unnecessary
roughness and a second time for unsportsmanlike conduct, this
double-team coverage strategy virtually shut down Dewayne
for the rest of the first half, holding him to three catches for
only thirty-plus yards. Instead of being a poet in his next life,
Colby could come back as a motivational speaker.

"This is a battle royal;" Robert Hickman said, sitting in his
chair as anchor for All Sports Network for the halftime show.
"Colby Stewart and Dewayne Jobe, two titans of the game, are
battling it out on the field. Sylvester Adams, who do you think
has the upper hand at this moment?"

"Colby Stewart, no question. After the first ten minutes, Colby and his crew have dominated the game and shut out
Dewayne. If the Stars' defense had not stepped up with those
two interceptions and held Baltimore to one score, they could
be two touchdowns ahead and we wouldn't be looking at a tie
game. I heard what went on between those two during the
pregame warm-up. It wasn't pretty, and they've taken it to the
field"

"Can you repeat anything that was said?" Hickman asked.

"Not unless you want to lose half your sponsors," Sly said.

"Then we'll leave it to our imaginations," Hickman said. "So,
Mr. Adams, what does each team have to do to win?"

"Loser goes home today. Winner goes to the play-offs with
a powerful momentum working in its favor. If Colby and his
boys keep winning the head game with Dewayne, they could
go home with their play-off ticket. I've got the three Rs for
Dewayne Jobe: relax, refocus, and rejoice. He's been playing
conservative. It's time to play his game"

Rosella, Jake, and the entire stadium stood for the kickoff at
the top of the second half and never sat back down. The third
and fourth quarters were not much different from the first two.
Each team got one more score but only a field goal apiece.

Throughout the thirty minutes of play, Dewayne kept silent
and let Colby do all the smack talk. He did his best to block
out Colby's attacks for the one dropped ball he had, the two
underthrown passes, and the diving attempt he made for an
overthrown ball. Colby blamed every mistake on Dewayne,
accusing him of spooking the Stars with bad mojo. Dewayne
found it impossible to shake the double team, and Colby's harassment fueled the demoralized state of the team.

With five seconds left to play and the Stars on the fifty-yard
line, everyone including the commentators expected this game
to go into overtime.

When the play came in, Dewayne told the front line to protect their quarterback at all costs. He needed time to sprint
close to forty yards.

The Baltimore defense set up a nickel package with an extra
defensive back standing at the ten-yard line. Colby's screaming
mandate to his teammates before the ball was snapped: "You
let Jobe get behind you, and I'll make you a cripple for life!"

A "Hail Mary" had little chance of working the way the
defense was spread, so it would be up to the receiver to carry
the ball into the end zone.

The front line did their job keeping the defensive line from
taking down the quarterback, and Dewayne sprinted his forty
yards in near Combine time. Dewayne suckered Colby and
the defensive back into thinking he was on a dead sprint mission to the end zone, but at the ten-yard line, he slammed
on the brakes and cut directly across the field. The ball was
already in the air when he made the cut, and it was slightly
underthrown, forcing Dewayne to slow down and catch the
ball behind him. This adjustment in speed gave Colby time to
recover switching directions, and he plowed into Dewayne's
side at the seven-yard line.

Time had run out on the clock, and Colby's driving force
almost took Dewayne to the ground. Dewayne had only a second or two before the Baltimore defensive backs would be
piling onto this Stewart/Jobe duo moving violently in opposite
directions. Colby was riding Dewayne like a cowboy trying to
trip a stubborn calf while Dewayne's legs churned the ground
like a thoroughbred determined to finish the race.