Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2023 16:43:39 +0200 (CEST)
From: ylenia@tutanota.com
Subject: Naivete In North Carolina   Part Eleven   Gay Young Friends

For those that read this, if you like it (or have some suggestions or
complaints) feel free to email me. My email address is: ylenia@tutanota.com
Like most authors on here and in the outside mainstream world, feedback is
important to us. If we don't hear from people, we can't improve!

Hope you all get some enjoyment out of this, this is a continuation of the
first part of the story with mostly new characters and new settings. Jimmy
has gone on to college and is living in the frat house with his 19 year old
boyfriend. More people come in to the story as it progresses and it follows
Jimmy's journey from a 12 year old genius boy to a nationally known
football coach and championship winner, all before he becomes a teen.  None
of the names or activities are real!

Finally, the end has come! This is the final part of the story and I hope
it's brought some enjoyment to you. I had a good time writing this.

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Naivete In North Carolina Part Eleven

Daniel and I left early, at 3am, for the drive back. We arrived around
730am and Daniel stayed at the frat while I wandered first to the
cafeteria, then to the office. I didn't know if everyone was back yet or
not but I saw lights on as I opened the door. Irene was there at her desk
and there were lights on farther down where Tom's office was. I said hi
to Irene then walked and peeked in Tom's office. He was just sitting in
his chair, staring at the blank wall and didn't seem to notice me. I
cleared my throat and he seemed to come back to reality and he smiled at
me.


"Hey Jimmy, it's good to see you. Are you ready for the circus to
really begin?" he asked.


"It'll be a lot of fun. It's been a circus for me since before the
North Carolina game and it became three rings after that game." I
answered. "What's the schedule for today?"


"Nothing really, just getting everyone back to town. We are going to
meet as a team at 8pm just so everyone knows exactly when to be here to
get the bus to the airport." Tom replied. "There's no real need for
you to hang out here unless you had some pressing business. I'm leaving
in a few minutes myself."


"Sounds good. I'll go get more sleep. Daniel and I got up at 3am to
come back this morning." I said with a laugh. Then I checked with Irene
and since there were no fires for me to put out I went to the frat, got
to our room, stripped and climbed in bed with Daniel.


We got calls from Rudy, Findley, Jackson and Johnny in the early
afternoon and we all got together to hang out. I wasn't even thinking
about anything sexual when I went there but when I saw the boys on their
knees I had to let them take me to bed.


"I'm so glad you're all here." I said, giving all of them a kiss. I
ended up in the middle, Rudy and Jackson were on each side of me and
Findley and Johnny were on top. Well, kinda on top. If they had actually
been directly on me I'd have been squished. They were laying mostly on
the other two with just enough contact that I could feel the heat from
the four of them.


We laid there awhile but none of us were naked and nobody was even hard.
It was just so nice to be together, with all 5 of us feeling the others.
After about 10 minutes I decided I needed to get something to eat and we
all went out to a local sub shop. Now that we were so popular everyone
seemed to know us, there were lots of people telling us how much they
were looking forward to our destroying Notre Dame.


There were some autographs given and a lot of pictures taken and it was
all a lot of fun. After we had eaten I told the boys that I'd see them
at 8pm. I told Johnny to be there as well, I was determined that my
intern would be everywhere I went to make sure next year all the coaches
would follow suit.


We were alone in the frat when we got back and just hung out until it was
time to go. The meeting itself was just a general information meeting. We
had to be there with our luggage, dressed in a suit and tie, at 8am. We
had a bus to take us to the airport and unlike our last airplane trip,
this was a charter flight. We took along everyone who was on the team
whether or not they were injured or on the practice squads. That's just
how the big bowl games worked.


We went to bed without sex and the next morning met up with everyone for
the bus, then the plane ride. I was a coach and they gave me a 1st class
sized seat. Since this was a charter flight that catered to football
teams all the other seats were larger than usual plane seats. It was good
since football players are kinda large, nobody felt cramped on that five
hour flight. I had to suffer through the stewardesses flirting once more,
someone had made sure to tell them how good I was at sex. I never did
find out who the culprit was.


I circulated through the plane and ended up with my usual group. This was
Johnny's first ever flight and he was both scared to death and full of
anticipation. Every time there was the least bit of turbulence he'd make
a little noise. It was so cute, I would have to kid him about it once we
reached the ground. The others had been on our earlier plane ride to the
Florida State game so they were old hats, as was I.


We were on time at the airport and everyone made sure their suits were on
and ties neat. I assumed there would be some reporters, maybe even
television and I wanted the men to look professional in their appearance.
All of us coaches were also in the standard black suit, white shirt,
black tie uniform as well. I was looking out as we taxied to an area near
the terminal and I saw a large crowd of people.


I asked the stewardess if I could use the microphone and got on.


"Attention men. Everyone listen up." and the plane got quiet.
"There's a crowd of people outside, I don't know who they are but lets
be really cool as we exit the plane. Even though it's our first time,
let's not act like it!" and I laughed. The laugh was echoed through the
plane and I went back up to the front where the other coaches were.


They were discussing how to disembark from the plane. The usual shy ones
wanted to just come down after the players so nobody would pay attention
to them but Tom seemed to think we should go first.


"What do you think Jimmy?" he asked. "You're our official etiquette
coach." he added with a laugh.


"Sheesh, another title?" I said with a laugh. "We go first, kind of in
order of title. You first Tom, then whoever of Al or Jerry is the senior
in time served. Followed by the assistants in their order of time served
and then I'll be last in the coaches line. After me comes the players
with the team captains first and then the rest of the team, regular
players and the others to follow. Any people on the flight who aren't
players or coaches after that." I said and Tom nodded and that was all
settled.


As we exited the plane we heard a singing of the Maryland fight song,
there were about 500 people wearing Maryland colors, waving the
university flags. It made me feel good that even here, over 1000 miles
away, our fans were into the team enough to come out and welcome us.
There were lots of television cameras along with regular photographers,
reporters and the bowl game president as well as some of the assistants
and finally the drivers for the busses that would take us to the hotel.


There was a dais set up and the photographers took a few minutes to get
the team into place, then the coaches in front so they could get a good
picture. It was amusing to me, while all of them by now surely knew who I
was, the reality of some 5'2" kid there with all the other coaches
didn't seem exactly real. There was a quick welcome speech that was
answered by Tom with his own speech and it was off to the hotel. There
were a lot of questions yelled by the reporters and I heard my name a ton
of times. The most I did was turn and smile when asked.


"Sheesh, what a zoo." Tom said to me once we had all safely gotten on
the two busses.


"That's nothing. It'll get worse the closer to game time we get." I
said with a grin. "I can't wait!"


"You're a showoff!" Al chimed in but he laughed so I knew he wasn't
serious.


"Hey, I'll take all I can get so the rest of you and the team can have
a peaceful ride to game time."


"Thanks for that!" Jerry added and it was echoed by the two assistants
that were so shy I don't know how they managed to even walk outside.


The next couple of days were fine, nothing going on except our practices.
There were the usual interviews, I had more requests than the rest but I
made sure I took one of the shy assistant coaches along in case someone
dared ask me a football question. By now Al, Jerry and Tom were
experienced old hands in the interview process and they had been well
versed by me on what to say and what not to say. We don't want to give
Notre Dame any ammunition to fire the team up. In their interviews
however they haven't tried to hide the disdain for the team, the coaches
and, especially, me.


I think of all the things that they said that their comments about me
made the team the angriest and set their minds on game time. I just
didn't want them to get too crazy, just enough to give them that extra
motivation on game day. Tom, Al, Jerry and the other assistants got
together and decided that for the team get together that I should be
seated as if I were the assistant head coach rather than the lowest
tenured coach in the group. I have to admit I protested this but Tom
explained it all to me.


"Look Jimmy, let's be realistic about things. You, Al and I set up the
offensive game plan. You, Jerry and I set up the defensive game plan.
You're the only one who knows both. So essentially you are the assistant
to me whether or not you want to see it that way." I gave one more
protest since I didn't want any of the other coaches to think I was
trying to take the limelight away from them but shut up when told by
everyone that it was going to be that way.


I knew there would be some questions now but I had enough time to prepare
myself. The more I thought about it the better it sounded. With Notre
Dame's absolute mockery of me in the press, this should make them more
confident. The question really became, should I be myself or just a star
struck 12 year old boy? Another conversation with Tom made me decide to
just be who I was and let things play out that way.


I was at breakfast the next morning with the other coaches when Dr
Seronta came in, followed by all the upper echelon of Maryland faculty,
head coaches and administration. He seemed a little angry to me as I saw
him walking towards us and he had a newspaper in his hand.


"Have you seen this?" he growled, tossing the paper in the middle of
the table. It was the South Bend newspaper and the headline read
"Maryland makes team laughing stock of the country!" and the article
was all about having me as the assistant head coach at the December 30th
interviews.


I scanned the article quickly, tossed it to Tom and it made the circuit
of the table. I looked at all the important upset looking Maryland people
and while I tried to keep a serious face, it wasn't a success and I
laughed. The rest of the coaches laughed as well.


"It's working." I said. "Totally working."


"What? Don't tell me this is another wild Jimmy idea?" Dr Seronta
asked.


"Sorry Dr Seronta, this time it started with me." Tom said. "I told
Jimmy that since he was the only person that knew both the defensive and
offensive game plan that he was now the assistant head coach for the
press day. Then Jimmy ran with it and made it his own."


"They'll underestimate us even more." I told Dr Seronta who suddenly
seemed to get it.


"Damn Jimmy, do you ever have a normal idea? One that I can understand
without you having to explain it?" Dr Seronta said with a laugh.


"Sorry, I guess my mind is just warped." I answered and I noticed the
others didn't seem as amused. "Can I invite you all to have a seat,
gather around and let's get it all explained."


Over the next half hour, as I went through each step in the thinking, the
others all got it and by the end of the meeting everyone was smiling and
happy. I made sure to keep that newspaper, it was one more thing to hang
in the locker room to motivate the players tomorrow. There were no
further issues that day and Daniel and I went to bed anticipating
tomorrow's events.


It was pitch dark in the room when the phone started to ring. I couldn't
see a clock anywhere, no idea what time it was but I eventually found the
phone and answered it.


"Hello." I said, sleepily.


"Jimmy, this is Dr Seronta. Get dressed, we have to go see Tom. I'll be
down in 5 minutes." he said and before I could say anything else he hung
up. I stumbled out of bed, it was 430am according to the clock. I was a
little bit off, I guess because of the time change and it being 330am
back in Maryland but I managed to clear my eyes and get dressed. I woke
up Daniel and had him put on underwear, then I told him to go back to
sleep and I went out to the living room area of my suite to await Dr
Seronta.


I had no idea what could be up at this hour of the morning. I didn't
have time to think it over before there was a knock at the door. I opened
it and Dr Seronta, Al and Jerry were all there.


"Good, you're dressed. Come on!" Dr Seronta said and I followed them
out.


We went down to the lobby and there was a car waiting, we all got in and
were driven off. Nobody said a word but we pulled into a hospital and I
started to get a little nervous. Why were we here? Who was sick? These
questions were all in my mind as we went in the lobby and were met by a
doctor who took us to the emergency room area.


He motioned us to a door and I followed Dr Seronta in. Tom was laying
there in a bed and he didn't look good at all. The noise of our
movements must have roused him, his eyes opened and he looked at the four
of us. He tried to grin but leaned over and puked in a bucket they had by
his bed. After he finished he looked at us again.


"The doctors say I have food poisoning. A serious case. I'm not getting
out by game time." I had a feeling of impending doom at his words and I
looked over at Al and Jerry. They were both looking at me.


"You're the head coach Jimmy." Al said.


"For the same reasons as yesterday. You're the only one who knows both
game plans and besides, let's be honest. If there's anything that can
be seen you'll see it." Jerry added. I turned to look at Tom and now he
had a faint smile.


"You can do it Jimmy." Tom said, his voice raspy and weak.


I took one more look at Al who was nodding his agreement, Jerry was doing
the same thing. Dr Seronta looked at Tom, the other two and when he
looked at me I could see he was on board also.


"This is definitely not going according to MY game plan." I stated.
"This may be the most ridiculous thing of all the ridiculous things that
have happened to me this school year but I know you're right Tom. I'll
do it. We'll beat Notre Dame and dammit, get yourself well in time at
least for the after game press conference!" I added, laughing.


That brought a laugh from everyone else and after a few more words we
vacated Tom's hospital room and headed back to the hotel. I said goodbye
to the others, told them I'd see them at breakfast at 8am and headed
back to the room. I quickly stripped and got back into bed with Daniel.
My movements woke him and he looked over at me.


"Something's wrong." Daniel said. I guess my expression said it all.


"Hold me." I asked and I felt his arms around me. "Now nothing's
wrong." I said. I gave him a little kiss and went back to sleep for the
next 90 minutes. When I woke at the alarm going off I was a little
confused for a moment. There was a bit of grogginess from the early
morning wake up call but it cleared up quickly. I woke Daniel with a
kiss, we showered together and went our separate ways. Me to the private
breakfast room we had reserved for the administration and coaches, him to
the team's breakfast area.


I saw Al and Jerry walk into the room and I heard some applause. I saw by
the clock it was just 755am so I knew I wasn't late. I heard some louder
talking from the room and then I entered. Everyone from Dr Adams, the
Chancellor of the university, Dr Seronta, all the other head coaches,
they stood up and clapped. Al and Jerry joined in and I was almost
overwhelmed by this show of support. I raised my hands up and the place
got very quiet.


"Gentlemen, that was a huge surprise and very welcome. I had a dream
last night after we came home from seeing Tom. That dream showed us with
the trophy for the national championship and with the assistance of all
the coaches and the efforts of the players, that dream will today come
true. I wish Tom was here to say these things, to take the responsibility
but he's right. It's my job to do now and I'll do my absolute best to
inspire the team, try not to make too many errors and bring the game to a
successful conclusion."


There was a louder ovation this time and I saw heads nodding agreement.
One of these days my mouth was going to write a check that my ass
couldn't cash. I just hoped that today wasn't that day. I was very
emotional as I shook hands with everyone in the room but managed to
recover by that last hand shake.


"Can we eat now? I'm starving!" I begged, laughing.


The mood was excited and confident by the time we all left. I grabbed all
the coaches and we went up to my room and had a meeting.


"Okay, by now all of you have heard what the deal is? That I'm going to
be acting as the head coach today?" I asked, looking at the assistants
who weren't with us last night. They all nodded that they had heard.
"Let's go over a few things just to be clear in the responsibilities.
Al, I want you and James (quarterback assistant coach) to take care of
the offense. Jerry, you and Al2 (linebacker/defensive back coach) take
care of the defense. I'm going to stay out of your way unless I see
something that I think needs to be done. Is that acceptable?"


"Yeah but I definitely want your input on things through the entire
game. This is really your game plan anyway thanks to our meetings." Al
said, Jerry echoed it.


"Don't worry, I plan to be watching carefully." I said, laughing. "I
do want to do one thing though, at least to start the game. Even though
you're calling the plays I'm going to pretend to call the plays as
well. If they really think I'm doing the play calling they might just
laugh themselves to death and make it easier to win."


You can't keep this type of thing a secret. The local papers had it as
the headline and all the players had seen the reports that Tom wasn't
going to be able to coach this game. After we got all the players on the
first bus I went over to see them. While they knew Tom was out they
certainly had no idea I was going to be the head coach.


As I stepped on the bus it got completely silent. I looked at all the
players and saw some apprehension, a little nervousness but no really
down attitudes in their expressions or stature.


"Gentlemen, you've heard the news about Tom. Al, Jerry and I went to
see him this morning at 430am and he designated me to take over today as
the head coach. I've been part of the making of the offensive and
defensive game plans and since I was the only one who knew both, it
became my responsibility. All of you became part of that same
responsibility. You know me by now, I won't say what I don't believe. I
believe in each and every one of you. For now, forget Tom. Get your minds
only on the upcoming game, on your assignments and execute them like all
of you are capable. We are going to win this game and I absolutely 100%
fucking guarantee it. Now, LET'S GET THEM! LET'S GET THEM!" I started
to chant and it rang through the bus. I had them riled up now and I knew
nothing was going to stop them.


I went to the other bus and sat with the rest of the coaches.


"Ruffle my hair." I said to them and for a moment it was all the usual.
All the pressure fell away from me and there was this serene moment. The
bus drove to the stadium and pulled inside, stopping outside the hall
leading to the locker room. We filed in there and there was silence for a
few seconds then the usual locker room noises. The loud talking, the
boasting, the fun atmosphere we had been enjoying since the Florida State
game.


We had our warmups and everyone was crisp in their execution. There was a
little murmur in the crowd as we came out without Tom but it wasn't time
yet to spring the surprise. That will come at game time. We finished up
and went back to the locker room, waiting for our introductions. I knew
by now the announcers had been given the starting lineups and the
coaching staff lineup and they saw my name listed as the head coach. I
almost snickered at the thoughts they must have had when they saw it.


Finally it was time for us to assemble.


"Gentlemen, this is it. One more team. One last game for this season.
LET'S GET THEM!" and that was all I had to say. They chanted along and
then everyone formed up at our entrance to the field. The players were
announced, then the assistant coaches and I heard the announcers.


"Tom Nugent, the head coach, contracted food poisoning and is currently
at the local hospital. Now, the acting head coach of the Maryland
Terrapins, Jimmy Jones!" and there was a moment of almost stunned
silence in the stadium. Then I heard a soft chant start.


"Little man, little man, little man..." and as the chant went on it got
louder. The players were waving towels at the Maryland fan contingent in
the stands. There were maybe 25,000 of them and it got louder as I ran at
the same pace as the other coaches to the sidelines. The crowd wouldn't
stop so I turned and waved at them. With one last loud cheer the chant
died off.


I had brought Johnny along to the sideline, he was in charge of my
cables. There was about 200' of cables making sure I could go up and
down the sidelines without tearing them out. His job was to move with me,
make sure I didn't get tangled up. I had another intern there nearer the
bench to make sure from that end. All of the coaches interns were there,
it was something I had insisted on. They were a part of the team.


Notre Dame won the coin toss and elected to receive. I was glad, this way
I could get a better idea on how our game plan was going to work. If it
worked on the offensive side, it would work on the defensive side. They
ran the kickoff back to the 35 yard line. Their first play was to attempt
a long pass, I guess to catch us by surprise. The defensive end ran right
past their end and after chasing the quarterback around tackled him for
an 11 yard loss. Second down was a run, it gained nothing. Then a holding
call on 3rd down and Notre Dame was on their own 14 yard line. An
incomplete pass led to a punt.


It was a lousy punt too, barely made it to the Notre Dame 35 yard line.
Al had been standing next to me and muttered "kill shot" and I nodded
as he took the offense and said a few words to them.


What was kill shot? It was that first play I had shown the three coaches,
where the linebackers sucked but the offense sucked worse. We however
didn't suck and I watched as Daniel went down the middle of the field.
He was being covered by a linebacker and after 10 yards there was no
contest. He was alone streaking down the middle and Jamie him him in
stride. One play, one score. Extra point was good and we were up 7-0.


Notre Dame was 3 and out again and after the punt we used our preset
series of plays. We had runs to both sides, then the screen pass taking
the safety out of the other side coverage. It took us about 5 minutes of
game time but we punched it in, right up the gut for a 14-0 lead and
there was still half the 1st quarter to go.


The next few series were inconclusive. Notre Dame did manage to get a
first down, finally. It was a series of punts and now it was starting the
second quarter. We had the ball and I watched as Al called plays. It
seemed to me he was getting predictable and I wasn't really happy with
that. Our game plan was based on surprise and I think Al was worried
about making a mistake. We were on the Notre Dame 44 yard line and it was
4th down and 5.


Al looked over at me and I walked down. "Go for it." I said. We called
a timeout to talk it over.


"Are you sure?" Al asked.


"Yes, I'm sure. Use the revamped 4 wide play. I guarantee they've
never seen anything like it." and he nodded and told Jamie the play. It
worked to utter perfection. I'm 100% certain Notre Dame expected us to
run the ball, we had our main running back behind the quarterback. They
expected some type of student body left or right play and I saw the
safeties squeeze up on the line. I grinned to myself as the play started.
All 4 of the wide receivers took off down the field. One of their
cornerbacks and the safety on that side both fell down as they got
tangled up together. Both of our receivers on that side were wide open
and Jamie threw a strike. We were up 21-0 now.


With each score the Maryland contingent was getting louder and louder
while the Notre Dame fans, who were in a distinct majority, were heard
less and less. The next series our corner fell down and Notre Dame
actually made it in our territory for the first time. Luckily the safety
wasn't out of position and made the tackle at our 40 yard line. Four
plays later and no yards gained we took over on downs with three minutes
to go.


Al looked over at me, asking me with his eyes what to do. I'm sure at
this point he was happy going in to the locker room up 21-0 but I
wasn't. I walked down to him and looked him in the eyes.


"We don't do conservative." I told him and walked back to my position.


We ran the clock down and moved the ball. With 21 seconds left Daniel
caught an 11 yard touchdown pass for his second of the half. We went in
at the half up 28-0. The players were almost out of control as we headed
back to the locker room. I knew that even though all of us coaches had
told them that we were a better team this was Notre Dame and they
weren't as sure as the coaches. Notre Dame was one of the real power
house football programs in the country and this was our first winning
season in 15 years.


I let them blow off steam for a few minutes, then blew my whistle and
they gathered around and quieted down. I saw them all looking at me, then
I motioned the other coaches to come up and stand with me.


"Gentlemen, that was practically a perfect half of a football game. It
was ONLY A HALF THOUGH!" I yelled and I saw a lot of the players jump at
my change of tone. "We still have 30 minutes to go against a good team.
A team that right now is hearing it from their head coach. Remember, to
them we are nothing but a joke, one that's not very funny at this
point." I looked around and saw the player's intensity back. "So
let's pretend it's still zero to zero as we start this half. Keep them
under control, listen to the coaches instructions, execute like you did
in the first half and we'll win it." I heard the buzzer for 3 minutes.
"LET'S GET THEM! LET'S GET THEM!..." and we chanted it together as we
headed back to the field.


I was watching their sideline as they came out of the tunnel. They were
all hyped up, too hyped it it seemed to me. Almost out of control. We
needed to make a statement to start this half and we got the ball first.
I walked over to Al.


"Let's see if we can break their will. Run until they stop it, then
pass. Let's see if we can jam it down their throats. What do you
think?" I asked him and I saw his eyes light up. After that first half I
knew we could do it and so did he.


"Fuck yes. Let's take it to them." Al answered.


It took us 13 plays with two 4th down conversions before we jammed in a 1
yard off tackle plunge. This time it was Findley who took it in and I was
so happy for my boy. It was almost like watching a balloon deflate, their
sideline got very quiet. Nobody was jumping around anymore. We held them
after the kickoff, they did manage two first downs but another punt and
we were on our own 37 yard line.


I had seen Jerry come over and talk to Al, they both grinned and Jerry
went off. I saw Al talking to the offensive team and then they were on
the field. First play went a few yards and then I saw our usual end
around formation. As I saw it I wondered, would Al really spring that
with us up 35-0? I didn't have long to think though, the ball was
snapped and it was my play. The ball was thrown perfectly and nobody was
within 20 yards of the receiver as he caught the ball. He ran the ball in
and now I had some tears, watching my play score a touchdown. The wide
receiver brought the ball back and handed it to me.


There was still 5 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter and I gathered up Al,
Jerry and the other coaches.


"How much do you want to win by?" I asked.


"100 points." one of them said with a laugh. "They said we were a
joke, that you were a joke."


"I believe our second string can score against them." I said. "What do
you think Al?"


"I think you and I could score against them." Al said, laughing.


Notre Dame's sideline was unhappy before but on our next series, when
the second string came out, they looked absolutely defeated. Their
coaches looked even more confused, angrier. Now they knew we didn't
really think they had a chance.


The first series wasn't so good, we were three and out. Kenny missed two
open receivers. I motioned him over to me as he left the field.


"What happened?" I asked.


"I froze up." Kenny said, not trying to make any excuses.


"You're good enough to start on the Notre Dame team. Have you seen how
pathetic he is? Don't freeze up next series." I patted him on the
helmet and sent him on his way. I walked down to Al.


"Keep running the normal offense. Kenny will find himself." I said and
Al nodded. He had seen me talking to Kenny after that first series. I was
right, Kenny was on fire the next series. We did 5 runs, 5 passes and
Kenny hit on all of them. Now we were up 49-0. I had looked up something
before we left Maryland. The worst ever Notre Dame loss was 59-0 to Army
about 20 years earlier. I wondered if we could top that. It was just two
more touchdowns and we had 15 minutes to do it.


The next series had two of my boys as the main characters. Rudy rushed up
the middle and as the quarterback threw the ball Rudy deflected it. It
went right to Jackson who caught it in stride and ran into the end zone.
56-0. I could feel that trophy in my hands, in our hands. I made sure my
expressions on the sidelines were stoic, I didn't want to make fun of
them. Not on the field, I can do that in the post game press conference.


They had changed quarterbacks when they got the ball next. While he could
throw he had the mobility of a statue. We weren't rushing him and he
completed three straight passes, was in our territory. I saw Jerry and
stalked over to him.


"He's a statue. Why are we letting him get the pass off?" I yelled.
Jerry looked at me like I was a little crazy. We were up 56-0 and I was
complaining? He must have seen my eyes though and the next play was an
all out blitz. Their quarterback didn't even have time to fall over
before he was hit. The ball popped out and was rolling on the ground. I
swear it looked like every player on the field touched it before Rudy
scooped it up and started to run.


Rudy is a great linebacker. Big, strong, great at his position but nobody
would ever classify him as fast. He picked up the ball at our own 32 yard
line and off he went. It was like he had a wall of blockers to help him
and only one poor Notre Dame player was even chasing him. It took Rudy
about 3 hours, well it felt like 3 hours, to get to the end zone. The
defense mobbed him, he was one of the defensive team captains and this
was his first ever touchdown.


There was still 9 minutes left in the game. At this rate, up 63-0 now, we
might make to 100 points. I started to think to myself, how much is too
much? Do I really want to rub it in? Fuck it, yes I do! Let's see though
if our worst players can do it though!


"Put in the 3rd stringers. Make sure everyone gets to play a few downs
at least." I told Al and Jerry. Poor Notre Dame, here was the problem.
Sure, their best players were far better than our 3rd string and worse
players. They were however beaten, whipped. Tired and embarrassed. Their
best players didn't want to play anymore. It's not as much fun when
you're not winning by 20 points. The players we sent in were fresh,
really fresh since most of them hadn't played much this season. Some
hadn't been on the field even one time.


Our 3rd string quarterback was a total running quarterback. I knew next
season he'd have to decide if he wanted to play football at all. If he
did he's going to have to do a position change to running back or wide
receiver. We stuck him in and I saw to it that Al gave him all running
plays. There was still seven minutes left to go, too much to just kneel
down, so Al sent in a quarterback draw with 3rd and 10. The
quarterback's name was also Jimmy and somehow the entire middle of the
field opened up. Unlike Rudy Jimmy was very fast and once he cleared the
line of scrimmage he was gone. A few seconds later and it was 70-0.


By now Notre Dame had seen more than enough. They put in their backups as
well, I suppose to give them something to remember. They didn't score
and neither did we and finally our side counted down the seconds to the
end of the game. With about 30 seconds to go I knew I was in for it. I
saw them coming out of the corner of my eye but I figured they had earned
it and let them dump the ice water barrel over me. I squealed and shook
myself, then hugged the ones who did it. It was Rudy and Daniel, two of
the team captains. The rest of the team cheered as they let me have it
and the last seconds ran out.


I ran across the field to their head coach who was coming towards me as
well.


"Incredible game coach. You were the better coach and team." he said
and we shook hands.


"Thanks coach, I appreciate your words." and then we were apart. The
other coaches came up to me and shook my hand and even some of their
players. It was a total mob scene as all of us hugged and cried together.
We got up on stage and both Dr Seronta and the athletic director were
there. Both of them had tears too as we all hugged each other.


Jamie won the MVP of the game, he had gone 22-25 for 350 yards and 5
touchdown passes. All of my boys had scored. Daniel twice, Rudy, Findley
and Jackson once each. It was the perfect end to the perfect season. They
handed me the trophy and started to ask me questions.


"This game was dedicated by the players and coaches to our missing head
coach. Thanks to his leadership we were all prepared for the task we had
to do. This is for you Tom!" I said to loud cheers. Then it was time for
the post game press conference. I knew there was going to be a lot more
direct questions this time and we hadn't had time to sort out between us
exactly what to say.


We all sat on the stage and looked out at the sea of reporters. There
were lots of television cameras as well. They made me sit in the middle,
in the head coaches spot. I kind of thought that now with the game over I
could go back to my usual seat but the rest of the coaches wouldn't let
me. There was a man who picked the person that would ask each question so
it wasn't bedlam, this was my very first actual press conference. All
the rest of my interviews had been one on one, or two if I brought one of
the assistant coaches with me.


"Coach Jones! That was the most unbelievable performance I've ever seen
by a football team. Were you really the head coach out there?"


I started to answer but both Jerry and Al stood up. "Jimmy was
instrumental in developing the game plan for both the offense and
defense. When Tom went down he was the only possible choice for head
coach since he was the only one who knew the entire game plan. As you
witnessed in the game he was the proper choice!" Then they sat back
down.


"As both Al and Jerry said, yes, I was the acting head coach today. I
knew we were prepared and, with only a few exceptions, I let those two
call the plays that we had set up in our pregame preparation."


"Were you nervous?" asked another reporter.


"Do you want honesty or the expected answer?" I replied with my own
question.


"Honesty of course!" was their reply.


"Then no, I wasn't nervous. I knew what our team could do, those men
were at their peak and I couldn't be more proud to be part of a team
that had such men to play the game! I knew our game plan was exceptional.
I just had to keep both myself and the rest of the coaches and team from
getting too hyped up."


"Did you expect to win this easily?" yet another reporter asked.


"Again, this is the honesty versus expected answer. Honestly yes, I
thought we'd win pretty easily. We had discovered through viewing tapes
of their team what their strengths and weaknesses were and our game plan
was set to exploit them. As you can see, we did exactly as we had
planned. I'll admit I didn't expect to shut them out, or score 70
points. I did expect however to win by at least a couple of scores."


There was a little commotion off stage to the side and I saw them
wheeling Tom into the press conference. He wasn't strong enough yet to
walk but his intern was manning the wheelchair and I started the applause
as he was wheeled to the table. I moved to give him the center spot but
he grabbed me and held me in place.


"You're in the right spot Jimmy." he whispered to me with a little
grin. "Just don't give away the trade secrets." and I grinned back at
him.


"Some of your plays were really unusual. Who was responsible for them?"
was another question.


"They were a team effort. If one of us saw a weakness or strength then
everyone else looked until it was confirmed. Then the play was made up
based on those views." I replied. "This was Maryland football you saw
today and that you'll see as we continue into the future. It's not the
same old thing."


Tom raised his hand before the next question and they gave him his own
microphone. "Jimmy here is too modest. Most of the plays were based on
his ideas. If you had asked me before the season I would have said a
person who had no knowledge of football at all, who had never played the
game, couldn't be much use. Maybe we just lucked out and found a genius
but whatever we found in Jimmy propelled the team to a perfect season and
the win today." Then he put the microphone down.


The place was silent as all the reporters processed this new information.


"But you sounded like just an ordinary ditzy little boy when some of the
reporters did interviews with you." I was asked.


"I had seen their comments making fun of me so decided to be what they
expected when the obviously biased Notre Dame fan reporters asked their
questions. That way they surely wouldn't expect anything good to come
from me. If you saw some of my other interviews where I was the real me
then you'll notice the difference." I replied. I saw the expressions on
the reporter's faces as they registered my comments and then I saw them
get it.


The rest of the interview went normally, Al, Jerry and the other coaches
got their time in the spotlight and it was finally time to call time on
it so we could go celebrate our victory in a proper manner. I handed Tom
the trophy and we followed along as he was wheeled backstage. We made it
back to our locker room where the entire team was still waiting, along
with the interns and all the other people we had brought with us. There
was more applause and this time I made sure that I joined in, letting the
team know just how I felt.


"Gentlemen, that performance will go down in history. We absolutely
crushed the supposed second best team in the country today and, if I
might be honest, they would have probably beaten everyone else except us.
You players listened, you bought into what we said as coaches and you
executed it perfectly. I can't find anything to complain about, nothing
that I thought you could do better. You've certainly set a high bar for
all those teams that follow you."


There were more cheers, then we all showered and got dressed and were
driven back to the hotel. The flight back home was set for 9am tomorrow
and I made sure everyone knew where to be and when to be there. The next
day we boarded the same plane, with the same crew and headed back to
Maryland. We landed in Baltimore, that was the closest airport to the
college and the buses were ready. Unfortunately Tom had to remain back in
Dallas, he wasn't quite strong enough to fly so I was still acting as
the head coach.


It was kind of odd on the flight back. All the rest of the contingent,
the other sport head coaches and the administration, joined us on the
ride home and those other head coaches treated me different. There was a
lot more respect in the conversations, they had all heard the press
conference and seen the results. Dr Seronta came by my seat and asked if
I had read my contract or not, I told him I hadn't even glanced at it. I
was told it was for three more years, that's all I thought I knew.


"Just check out the performance clauses." and that was all Dr Seronta
said.


As we exited the plane in Baltimore there were 100s of people cheering us
all the way to the buses. We came down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway
and there were cars parked almost nose to tail on the shoulder, blowing
their horns and waving Maryland university flags. I wasn't sure what to
expect but this was certainly a little over the top. It was starting to
get dark as we made it to the campus.


We turned off at the University of Maryland exit and as we drove down the
main road towards the campus every business, every office building, all
of them had Maryland flags. I was told we were heading for the largest
open area on campus, it was about three times the size of the quad and
the closer we got to campus the more people lined the street.


Our buses turned in and the crush of pedestrians was so thick that our
buses could barely move through the crowd. We had a solid police escort,
clearing a way for us to get on campus and then up to the church. It was
on a small hill and there was at least 5 acres of nothing but grass
leading down to Route 1 and that entire area was packed full. I could see
the crowds had spilled out and Route 1 was also blocked, plus the area
inside the U of the fraternities was just as crowded. The crowd was
making so much noise that even inside the busses, with the windows up,
the roar was deafening.


When the driver opened the doors the noise became almost a physical
force. I wasn't sure we were going to be able to force our way out of
the busses, it was just that strong. It had gotten almost completely dark
by now but there were lots of searchlights lighting up the sky and we
were hurried up to the stage. I didn't want to lead, I'm sure you think
I'm pretending to modesty, but I was moved to the front once more. I led
the coaches, the players, the support staff and the administration up the
stairs.


A spotlight hit me as I walked on stage with the trophy and that noise,
there's just no way to describe it. It sounds weird but I swear it
lifted my 100 pounds almost off the stage because as the crowd saw me
they raised their level of cheering. We headed for our seats and I made
sure to wave at the crowd. As the players started on the stage the noise
increased once more and I was so glad to hear it. They deserved most of
the accolades, they did the work on the field.


Even the support staff, the team managers, the interns, they got their
own little roar as they came up and stood behind the team. There was an
actual stage manager for this and I realized we could have used one at
our other rallies. He pointed at Dr Adams (the Chancellor) but he nodded
no and pointed at me. The same with Dr Seronta who did the same thing. I
wasn't paying attention to him at all I was still in awe of the crowd of
people who were all cheering for us until Al poked me. I looked at him
then over at the stage manager and nodded my okay.


I slowly walked to the podium and as I stood on the box provided for me
the noise went up another level. Then again when I raised the trophy and
I placed it on a table that was next to the podium. I waited for a few
seconds but the noise wasn't abating so I thought I better get started.


"Can I have your attention?" I yelled into the microphone and my voice
boomed out loud enough to be heard over the din the audience was making.
Slowly but surely the noise level lowered and I milked it just a little.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you the national champion
Maryland Terrapin football team!" and I stood down, walked over and
encompassed the entire team with my arms, with waves while the noise
threatened to knock me over.


"We did it!" I started, once the noise died off again. "Our team,
those men behind me, those coaches over there, we did it!" and the
cheers drowned out my next words. I had to wait until they calmed down.
"Let's not forget our head coach either, Tom will make a full recovery
and should be back in a couple of days. This team was his baby, he
recruited every single player you see behind me and hired all of us
coaches and together we brought a dream to reality!"


Then I introduced all 72 players on our roster. Both the active roster
and the injured players. Then the team managers and all the interns.
Finally I brought up all the coaches one by one. I shook each of their
hands as I introduced them to the crowd.


"So there you have it my friends." I started but Al pushed me out of
the way.


"There's one more person to introduce and he's probably more important
than any of the rest of us coaches. He's the one that made us all
believe and who helped more than any of us to create the game plans used
in both our conference win and especially in that Cotton Bowl win in
Dallas. I know he was going to let it go, give everyone else the credit
but we aren't. So let's hear it for Coach Jimmy Jones!" and he moved
back, picked me up and stood me on that box.


I wanted the moment to be over, I wanted it to last forever. I tried to
quiet down the crowd with hand motions but they weren't going to be
silenced. The stage lights dimmed and from behind this huge crowd I saw a
single rocket go up into the night. It burst open in a spray of color and
now there was a fireworks show going on. The ones on campus on July 4th
were good, the ones in downtown DC by the Washington Monument even better
but this one outdid them all. For 45 minutes the sky was filled with
fireworks, explosions of just noise and then color.


The crowd had gotten quieter with applause for the more spectacular
blasts. When it was finally over the lights on the stage were turned out
completely and all of us were led back to the busses that then took us
over to the locker rooms. People started to leave and, after making sure
I knew where the keys were, so did Al and Jerry and the other coaches and
it was just Daniel, my boys and me.


"Rudy, can we go to your house?" I asked and getting a nod we all made
the short trek to his apartment. We got to his door and I went in first.
As each of the boys entered the room I gave them a hug and kiss. Daniel
came in last and got his hug and kiss as well.


"Let's see if we can rearrange things, I want to make a place where we
can all sleep together on the floor." I said, looking at Rudy who smiled
and nodded. He took Jackson with him into the bedroom and Daniel
followed, leaving me with Johnny and Findley.


"Can you guys move all the tables out of the way?" Rudy asked and the
three of us did. Now there was a very large empty space in his living
room. All he had in the way of furniture was a big couch and some tables.
With it gone the room looked huge. Daniel and Rudy brought in the
mattress, then the box springs. We took the cushions off the couch and
grabbed all the throw pillows. For some reason Rudy loved his throw
pillows, there were 20 of them scattered around.


All of us got busy and before long the entire living room was about the
same height. There wasn't a lot of change in the softness either, it was
pretty cool. Rudy got more sheets and blankets and there was plenty to
cover the area.


"Strip to underwear." I said and even Daniel listened to me. "Let's
all lay together, I want to hold each one of you and let you feel how
much I love you." We climbed in the makeshift bed and I took a few
minutes to hold each of my boys and give them some soft kisses. Then I
did the same with Daniel. We all gathered together on the bed and in
minutes we were fast asleep.


I woke up around 7am the next morning. I was still wired some from the
prior events but I felt two things, satisfaction and hunger. I was about
to die, we hadn't eaten anything since the meal on the plane. I was
conveniently next to Johnny and gently woke him up. We got dressed and
left the rest still sleeping as we tried to noiselessly get out.


"Go ahead back to your dorm and get ready, I'll see you at the
cafeteria in 30 minutes." I told Johnny and he headed off. I ran back to
the frat and at this hour there wasn't a soul stirring. I did the same
thing Johnny was doing, got dressed in my coaches clothes and met him at
the cafeteria. He was right on time, coming to the door at the same time
that I did. I had gotten a lot of waves on the way and braced myself as
he and I entered the cafeteria.


It took about 15 seconds before they noticed me, then there was loud
applause and cheers. I smiled and waved at everyone before getting a tray
and enough food for two people. That was just for me, I felt like I
needed some good old cafeteria food. I had gotten used to it and it was
actually really good. Johnny and I ate in peace after the initial
reactions and I hoped things would calm down pretty quickly. There
wasn't anything to keep their interest up now.


We walked over towards the football offices and I saw a few news trucks
parked nearby. "They're still going to be after us." I told Johnny.


"After you, thankfully not after me!" he answered me, laughing. "It's
okay though, you protest a lot but you love it."


"Okay, you got me. I do but I'll also be glad when it's over so I can
relax and be myself." I admitted. We walked into the offices a few
minutes after 8am and as we did all the secretaries got up and clapped. I
waved at everyone and then held my hands up to get them to quiet down.


"Ladies, all of us coaches owe thanks to each and every one of you. Your
support let us concentrate on the game and in every case if we asked you
to get something done, we never had to worry about it again. For that,
for your support in our efforts, I thank all of you." and I joined in
the applause at my words.


As I came up to Irene she smiled at me, then leaned down and gave me a
big hug. She followed me into the room and I looked at my desk and made a
noise. It was covered in notes, memos and all kinds of other things. I am
sure I made a face and then both Irene and Johnny laughed at my
expression.


"Hey, this is just the start. You have to go talk to Amy now." Irene
said. Amy was Tom's secretary.


"What? Why?" I asked.


"You're still the acting head coach. You have to deal with Tom's stuff
too." Irene said, grinning at me. I just looked at her. I had thought my
responsibilities were surely all done by now. I mean Tom was due back
today or tomorrow, couldn't it just wait? I took the long walk down to
Amy's desk. She gave me a big smile.


"I'm glad you're here. It was starting to get to be too much." she
said.


"I didn't expect to have to keep being acting as the head coach but
hey, I won't let you get overwhelmed either. What can't wait until Tom
is back in a day or so?" I asked.


"I got a call from Dr Seronta earlier. He's going to come see you in a
few minutes to talk about it." Amy said.


I think I groaned out loud, then I had to laugh as I heard her giggle.
"Let me take a peek inside his office." and when I looked I had to
suppress a real groan. I thought my desk was bad, his was even worse. Of
course he was a bit untidy to start with but still, there was more on his
desk than I had on mine. I backed up and pretended to be horrified by it
all, leading to another giggle from her. "You've been his secretary for
a long time right?" I asked Amy and I got a nod. "Then you have a
pretty good idea of critical items versus those that we can put off?"
and I got another nod. "Good! How about taking care of that and I'll
get started as soon as I can."


"Thanks Coach Jones." Amy said but I held up a hand.


"Unless there's someone else around I'd like you to call me Jimmy
please." I stated. "No need for formality." and she smiled and nodded
again.


I was back at my desk. I just pointed at it all and told Johnny to get it
organized and he got right to it. I knew that in an hour or so he'd have
it all sorted and then I'd see what I personally had to do. The intercom
buzzed and it made me jump, a few days away and I had forgotten about it.


"Yes Irene." I said.


"Dr Seronta is here to see you." she said.


"Please, send him in." I answered and I got up to meet him at the door.


"There's my favorite football coach!" Dr Seronta exclaimed as he came
in and shook my hand.


"Uh oh, that sounds like you have something you need me to do." I said,
grinning at Dr Seronta. Johnny was still working on his sorting and there
wasn't a lot of space. "Come on, let's appropriate Tom's office, I
don't want to interrupt Johnny in his task." and the two of us went
down and into Tom's office. I sat behind the desk and Dr Seronta took
the open chair. I saw him give me a look and I thought there was some
satisfaction in his expression.


"Jimmy, Tom is going to be gone for a little while." Dr Seronta stated.
"You're going to have to do his job while he's away."


"Amy told me that this morning. I was kind of hoping I could go back to
newest coach after the bowl game but I'll do whatever needs to be done
for the next week or so until he's back." I answered.


"Week or so? Try months or so. The food poisoning led to other
complications and even once he gets out of the hospital he's going to
have to go to rehab to get his strength back. It might end up being even
longer." Dr Seronta said. "In the meantime you're going to be the one
in total charge here."


I gave a little sigh. "I have to say I'm not ecstatic about this. I had
hopes of taking it a little easier now that the season was over." I said
and I gave a little laugh. "I should have known things never work out
quite that easy. So, what exactly is Tom's job now that the season is
over?" I asked.


"Starting the next season planning. The most important thing is
recruiting. You need to start getting together with the other coaches and
identifying players that you all think will fit in the system you, Tom
and the others have created. You have to go meet them, to their houses,
wherever they live. Convince them that Maryland is where they want to
play, if you still want them after the talk."


"Not to mention keeping track of the budget and spending. Replacing any
of the staff that leaves or gets hired away. Getting the facilities here
ready to go."


"We can't afford to lose Al and Jerry. Or Al2 and James." I firmly
stated.


"Don't worry, they'll get compensated. Did you ever look at your
contract?" he asked.


"No, I haven't had time and to be honest I forget all about it." I
admitted.


"I thought not so I had a copy made. Now, remember I mentioned something
about performance bonuses?" and I nodded. "Let's see, here it is.
Okay, if we made it to a minor bowl game you got an extra $500 bonus. If
we won the conference, another $500 bonus. If we made a major bowl game
you got $1500, if we won you got $2500. If we won the national
championship you got yet another $5,000. So thanks to how the team
performed your bonuses add up to $8,000."


I think my mouth fell open. "Do all the coaches get that?" I asked.


"Yes, they all get a little more. It's based on their regular pay and
you were low man on the totem pole on salary." Dr Seronta said. "In
addition 50% of the bonuses are added again to next year's base salary.
So that's what I meant about their being compensated, they all will get
approximately a 30% raise for next year." I heard that "low man on the
totem pole" comment but again it didn't really register.


"To be totally honest with you I'm certain that the university never
expected to pay ANY of those bonuses considering how bad our team had
been over the past 10 years or more. Not that I'm complaining mind you,
the university got paid slightly over $700,000 for being in that bowl
game so we can afford it. It all comes through my office and I certainly
have no issue."


"Well, I hope all the assistant coaches see it that way. I'll talk to
them during the recruiting process visits. I'm sure there's a lot of
driving and even flying at times to get to the best possible recruits.
Hopefully Tom has already began the process, I just have to jump in
quickly so we don't fall behind."


"I knew we could count on you Jimmy. Now, I have something for you." Dr
Seronta said, pulling a bundle of papers from his inner pocket. "Here's
your revised contract showing your new salary and bonuses that's
commensurate with your updated responsibilities. Also, we don't want
someone coming in here and hiring you away. It is also retroactive to
November when your duties really changed." he added with a grin.


I laughed with him. If he only knew that I'd do it for free as long as I
could be with Daniel and my boys. "So can you just tell me or do I have
to read it? I hate legal paperwork almost as much as politicians." and I
grinned as Dr Seronta snorted.


"Okay. Contracts are common knowledge, they have to be since Maryland is
a public university so I'm not telling you any secrets. Tom makes
$60,000 a year. Al and Jerry are both making $35,000. Al2 and James are
both making $20,000. This is before the bonuses and the upgrade in salary
from those. You are being slotted in between them and Tom at $50,000 a
year plus the bonuses."


I forgot to breathe. I started to cough and even choked a little. Dr
Seronta ran over behind the desk and patted me on the back until I
recovered. I looked up at him, this had to be a prank. "$50,000 a year?
Are you pulling a prank on me?" I hoarsely asked.


"No prank. You earned it. Every head coach at this university agreed.
Also all the heads of the administration. That's why it's been made
retroactive."


"I could retire by the time this contract is over. At least you don't
have to worry about anyone hiring me away, nobody else is crazy enough to
pay a 12 year old that much money." I said laughing.


"I'll make you a $5 bet." Dr Seronta said. "Before the month is out
you'll get offered at least $75,000."


"You're on! Another easy $5!" I signed the contract noting my parents
had already signed off on it. "Now, there is one thing I'd like to do.
I want to get rings made for every player, team manager, intern and the
office staff as well. They were all a part of our winning."


"You don't have to ask me. You're the head coach for now, do what you
want." Dr Seronta said. "I don't have time to second guess you and I
don't want to do it. You've proven to be capable."


"Okay, if I'm in charge then you gotta get out. I have real work to
do!" and for just a moment Dr Seronta looked surprised, then he laughed
and got up. I opened the door for him and shook his hand. Dr Seronta
looked over at Amy.


"He's kicked me out, said I was a waste of his precious time." Dr
Seronta told her. Johnny had been waiting outside the door and his face,
if I only had a camera to show you what he looked like when the President
of the university just told the secretary that I had tossed him out
because I didn't have the time for him.


"Amy, where does Tom keep the recruiting files?" I asked after Dr
Seronta left and motioned Johnny into the office. Amy followed and showed
me the drawer with the files by position. It was very much out of date, I
could see that. "Who decides how good a recruit is? Do the individual
colleges do it or is there some clearinghouse?" I had asked this more in
a rhetorical fashion but Amy grabbed a file at the front.


"This is the service we use. They cover the entire eastern US to the
midwest. There are other services for players in the west, we have never
gone that far." and she grabbed another file with a list of phone
numbers and names.


"Thanks Amy. Call the other coaches, set up a meeting for 2pm. We need
to get moving quickly. All those losing teams have had a head start on
getting players." I closed the door and smiled ruefully at Johnny.
"This is going to be crazier than it was before the game. Are you
ready?"


"I'm ready Jimmy. I'll help as much as I can." Johnny said and I
ruffled his hair.


I went to the door again and looked down. Irene was way too far away now.
I got on the phone and called maintenance. I told them what I needed,
they promised to send someone out within the hour. I walked back down to
Irene's desk.


"Irene, we're going to move you down next to Amy. I need you closer to
me. I hope this doesn't inconvenience you." I saw her smile as she
looked at me.


"You're the boss Jimmy. It makes more sense though."


"They'll be here within the hour. You take charge of them, make sure
you and all your phone lines get moved. Also have Johnny's line
installed in Tom's office, for now I want him with me too. Have another
line installed in the office as well so Sam will have his own." and she
nodded. I knew I didn't have to worry about that anymore, she would take
care of it.


I asked Amy to come in and show me the items that we didn't need right
now. I got some boxes and we temporarily packed everything away that
wasn't needed. I had Johnny and Tom's intern Sam go get Johnny's table
and we put it in the room. Tom's office was about three times the size
of mine, maybe bigger. Now that we had cleared out the junk there was
plenty of room for Johnny's table. I started to think about Sam, I'm
sure he could do some of the work too. I had no idea exactly what he did
for Tom though. I can remember Tom telling me he didn't even remember
his name.


"Sam, can you come in for a minute?" I asked and he immediately came.


"Yes Coach Jones?" he asked. I made a little face.


"In private, while it's just those of us who usually work in the
office, I'm Jimmy. I'm only Coach Jones if we have visitors, okay?
Let's just be a family!" and Sam smiled at me.


"Yes sir Jimmy." he answered.


"Now, what is it you usually do?" I asked. "Obviously I have no
idea."


"Well, I do whatever anyone tells me. Either Coach Nugent or one of the
secretaries." Sam responded.


"From now on you're here with me and I'll give you whatever jobs I
need done. I'd like you to help out Johnny now, get my own work cleared
up so I can more easily tackle what I need to do for Tom's job. I'll
have a separate phone line and chair set up along with another table."
and Sam really smiled. It was obvious he was pretty much doing make work,
that was over as of now. "See if Johnny needs any help moving things and
just hang on. It's going to get crazy."


Maintenance arrived quickly and I saw Irene taking charge of them. In
less than an hour they had moved everything necessary, brought in another
couple of tables and another white board and installed another branch
phone for Sam. We got the number and passed it along to the secretaries.
I had walked down to my own office and it seemed bare, my desk was
completely cleaned off.


I saw Al come in and he immediately ducked into his own office. It's
okay, I didn't need him right now but I had to grin at his evasive
technique. It was getting near noon, time for lunch. I walked back to
Tom's office and looked at all the people.


"Don't forget lunch people. An hour here and there isn't going to make
us get behind. I'm leaving now in case someone wants to assign more
tasks to me!" and with that I grabbed my coat and left. I walked to the
cafeteria and when I went in the same routine as earlier happened with
the cheers and applause. I saw Daniel and Rudy and I grabbed a tray and
went over to them.


"Hey guys, it's good to see the both of you. Hopefully all of you
managed to help Rudy get his place back in order." I grinned at them.
"I enjoyed the sleepover, it made me feel so secure."


"So what's new? You look a little harried." Daniel asked.


I related the events of today to the two of them. As I kept talking they
stared at me more and more.


"Wait a second. You're going to be the acting head coach from now on?"
Rudy asked. I nodded yes to him. "You're getting paid that much
money?" I nodded again. "Fuck, you're rich. That's more than twice
what my parents make put together."


"Same with my parents. I may not tell them what I'm making. They signed
the contracts so they'd be legal but I doubt they read them." I said,
smiling.


"Little man, from now on you can buy dinner!" Daniel said grinning.


"I already did that." I snorted and they both laughed.


"My first job is to find really good players with potential to add to
our core. I can't wait for my first trip to visit with a possible
recruit." I said.


"With our record and with you here, you'll be able to get anyone you
want." Rudy said.


"I hope so. I'll find out later this week or early next. I'm sure
I'll do some local recruiting trips to break myself in. Maybe I'll take
some of you with me."


I did check my watch, I wanted to set a good example and not take like 2
hours for lunch. I made it back to the offices and readied myself for the
meeting at 2pm. I had the charts out, there were actually 3 guys listed
in the immediate area including one who was listed as a top recruit at
quarterback.


I went out to the meeting room at the allotted time and all the other
coaches were there waiting for me. I looked at each of them, I really
wanted a clear view if there was any resentment towards my new duties.
All I saw was expectation though and confidence in me.


"Hi all. It appears Tom isn't going to be back for months. I've been
asked by Dr Seronta to continue in the acting head coach position until
his return. What I want to know from all of you is, how do you feel about
it? Are any of you resentful? Think you can do it better?"


"Fuck no." Al said with a laugh. "I've only been an offensive
coordinator for 2 years, I'm not ready to be a head coach."


"Same here. Out of those two years only this year has seemed real and
that's because you were here." Jerry added. The others just nodded
agreement.


"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now to the most pressing business.
It's way past time to get recruitment underway. Have any of you done
trips on your own? Or with Tom?"


"No, neither." Jerry said. "Tom handled it all."


"Same here." Al added.


"Well, we're going to do it a little different this year. I can do a
lot of things but I can't drive myself anywhere yet. So when I visit the
local guys I want whichever of you that he's playing for to go with me,
be the driver."


"Wait a second, you're admitting there's something you can't do?" Al
asked with a laugh. The others joined in.


"Yeah, I guess I'm not perfect." I answered laughing along.


"I've had Tom's intern Sam trying to arrange appointments with all
three of these local players next week. I'll let you know the time to be
ready when I know. We can use the university's cars to seem more
official. Oh and Al2 and James, I haven't forgotten you. You're going
to be included on some of the trips as well."


"Now, what positions do we need the most?"


"Quarterback is crucial. Right now we have no quarterbacks, both Jamie
and Kenny will graduate. Jimmy isn't really a quarterback, he's more a
running back pretending." Al said.


"Our defense is strong. We haven't lost a single starter. We can use
better back up players to get ready when those players graduate." Jerry
added.


"So let's concentrate then on Rick Robinson of DeMatha. He's rated the
number 2 quarterback prospect in the entire country. He's Irish ancestry
and I'm sure Notre Dame will also be after him. We'll have to point out
the Cotton Bowl results I think. For this one I want you to come also
James since you're the quarterback coach."


The meeting went another 30 minutes, then adjourned and I made it back to
Tom's office. Both Sam and Johnny were hard at work. Amy stopped me and
handed me a sheaf of messages. About half were to me, the others to Tom,
so the news was getting out that I had taken over for now.


"Johnny, Sam, what are you two up to?" I asked.


"Almost done with the last of the donations pile. After that your desk
messages are all cleared up." Johnny said.


"Good, I've got more for you to do. Johnny, you can finish that up and
I'll start Sam on what I need from him." and Johnny nodded. "Sam, go
through all these, see if you can figure out which I actually need to
take care of and which ones you, Amy and Johnny can handle. Then we'll
go through them together and I'll see how good you are at it."


It was easy to get the appointment with Rick Robinson. Evidently he had
seen not just the game but the press conference afterwards and was very
interested in meeting me. We scheduled it for 7pm on Thursday. I thought
for this one we'd take both Al and James since they would be his two
coaches if he came here.


He lived 2 streets away from my house, I wondered how I didn't know him
at all but when we were welcomed in I did recognize his younger brother.
While he also was a Catholic schoolboy he had often played in our
neighborhood football games in the open field that was in front of my
block.


"Hey Jimmy!" he said, shaking my hand. "Dude you're like famous as
heck."


"Hi Buddy. Nice to see you again." I answered.


Rick's dad was in the doorway to the living room. "Buddy, I don't
think Jimmy came to see you." he said, laughing. Buddy laughed too and
then we all followed Rick's dad into the living room where Rick sat with
his mother. He stood up and I went over and shook his hand.


"Hi Rick, I guess you kind of know me. Just in case though I'm Coach
Jimmy Jones, I live over on Ravenswood. These are the two assistant
coaches in charge of the offense. This is Coach Al Jardin, our offensive
coordinator and James Gilchrist, the assistant coach in charge of
quarterbacks and the receiver corp. I am the assistant head coach and now
acting head coach at Maryland while the regular head coach Tom Nugent
recovers from his serious bout of food poisoning."


We all shook hands and we were invited to take a seat. I looked at Rick
and he kind of had that glazed over look that I saw a lot as people were
exposed to me for the first time.


"Rick, I suppose you know why we are here?" I asked.


"You want me to come to Maryland and play." Rick answered. "Is that
it?"


"That's it. Would it be okay if I asked you a few questions? Then of
course you're welcome to ask us anything you wish." Rick nodded his
okay. "What is football to you? Do you see it as a career, going on to
the pros?"


"Well, that would be the best situation. Do you think I could do that?"
he answered.


"From what I've seen and heard of your play you'd have a great chance.
It depends on a couple of things. First your ability to mesh with the
others as a teammate, football isn't a solo game. Second that you can be
coached, that you don't think you know it all already. You also have to
be versatile, able to handle a pro style offense." I replied.


"Will you be a coach there until I graduate?" he asked. "And the two
of you?" and he looked at Al and James.


"We all currently have three year contracts. I would imagine my contract
will be extended before the football season starts. Since it's my job to
extend Al and James' contracts I'm very comfortable in saying yes."


"I've been thinking about Notre Dame." Rick said, looking over at his
dad. "We're Irish, like you Jimmy. It just seems like the place to
go."


"I can understand that but I think you saw on January 1st the passing of
the torch to a new style of game. One that the pros are going to be
jumping all over once they learn it. We were a better team than Notre
Dame this year and for sure next year we'll be better. All our starters
are back on defense. Besides they don't let freshmen play at Notre Dame,
we have no such limitations."


"It's hard to argue with 70-0." Rick said with a laugh. "Can I think
about it for a couple of days and get back to you?"


"Of course. Take your time. This is a big decision and anyone who tries
to rush you into something is worse than a used car salesman." I said,
laughing and hearing his parents join in laughing at my comment.


A few more pleasantries and we were back outside and in the car.


"That's one down and on our side. Who's next?" I asked.


"He didn't say yes." Al said.


"His body language said yes. Now he's got to talk his dad into it." I
said with confidence. "I kind of know his dad and he'll see reason."


Over the next week Al, Jerry, Al2 and James and I visited a number of
players. I think we hit every one within 100 miles who was highly ranked
and a few that we had to fly to meet with. I decided to pass on a few of
them because of what I saw as their attitude towards the game. They gave
off an air of seeming to know everything and I didn't think they'd be
easily coachable by us. We really needed to find about 25-35 potential
recruits, out of those we should get what we need since we had so few
actual starting spots that we needed to fill.


I found out something else. Winning the national championship the way we
did drew people to our campus. Over that same period of time we received
calls from players who were doing a college tour and wanted to stop by
and talk to us on the way. Most of these players were midwest or west
coast players, ones we had heard of but probably wouldn't have gone to
see because of the time and costs involved.


One of the visits was really cool. The Johnsons were twins. Identical
twins. They were both around 6'4" and built. Fast too. One though was
an all state wide receiver while the other was an all state linebacker.
Each of them were ranked in the top 5 at their positions. We went out to
the practice fields and since Jamie was still around in class we had him
come out and toss some passes. Jerry was over the moon at how fast and
agile the other one was. As soon as they left I wrote them an offer
letter, in a week they had both signed it and were on the way to
Maryland.


A month later and we had sent offer sheets to everyone we wanted. Oh, our
first attempt at recruiting? Rick Robinson? He called us the next week
and committed to our team. We did manage to find two more quarterbacks
who weren't at his potential level but who could lead the team in case
of an injury so I think we're okay. Of the players we really wanted we
got every single one of them. While I try to be modest, sometimes it's
not possible, in almost every case I was the deciding factor in their
agreeing to play for us.


Thanks to Amy, Sam, Irene and Johnny everything was running smoothly. Sam
had become a great asset now that we were having him do some real
important work rather than just the filing or whatever he had been doing.
Amy and Irene were perfect together, they complimented each other and
managed to keep most of my duties separate. Eventually Tom will be back
and I didn't want my own work to get behind while I concentrated on his.


I had interviews with each of the coaching staff, offering them an extra
year on their contracts and ensuring they knew the current updated pay
scale. They all signed up before they left the office, no hesitation at
all. Dr Seronta came by and extended my deal by a year as well so now
we'd have four years as a team.


I did lose that $5 bet. Within a week I got a phone call from the Notre
Dame athletic director. He congratulated me on the last season and the
championship. Then he played the Irish card, reminding me of Notre
Dame's background and my ancestry. When he asked my salary and I told
him he was a bit taken aback. I don't think he assumed that Maryland
would have given me that big a raise that quickly. He said he'd get back
to me after he had talked it over with the coaching staff and
administration.


Two days later I got a letter by registered mail. Inside it had a formal
contract offer. Full paid education for as long as I wanted, my own
apartment, also fully paid. Then the salary was listed. $77,000! I almost
choked again and Johnny and Sam came over to see if I was okay.


"Take a look at this." I said, tossing the letter over to them.


"Damn Jimmy, that's a lot of money. How long was the contract for?"
Sam asked.


I looked at the paperwork, I hadn't noticed. "5 years. I still
wouldn't be old enough to drink." I said laughing.


"You're not interested?" Sam asked.


"No, I'm where I want to be." I said. Johnny looked over at me and
smiled.


Now that wasn't even the highest offer I received. They did all stay
below the $100k range but it was getting crazy as they kept going up and
up. I took a $5 bill and used about 100 staples to make sure Dr Seronta
couldn't easily get it off the Notre Dame contract offer, then I called
to check and see if I could get a few minutes. I got the green light to
come over and, after shaking hands with him, tossed him the contract.


"You were right." I told him. "I couldn't believe it at the time but
you were certainly right." and I watched as he read the contract
details.


"Are you taking the offer?" he asked me. I just laughed and he looked
confused.


"No, of course not. I just had to bring you the $5 I owed you on the
bet. If I were going to take an offer it wouldn't be this one, this is
one of the lower offers I've gotten in the past week." I said, still
laughing. I showed him the thoroughly stapled $5 bill on the back page
and then he laughed also.


"I'm going to have this framed!" Dr Seronta exclaimed. "This might be
the first time anyone has won a bet with you! Seriously though, you're
not looking at any of the other places?"


"Nope, I'm not looking. I'm where I want to be. Unless you're trying
to get rid of me."


"No, no, no! Stay please! We want to win and you're the extra piece we
needed!" he replied. I left the contract with the $5 there and wandered
back to the frat. I had finally gotten everyone to stop treating me like
the second coming and it was all back to how it was before I became
acting head coach. There was a big celebration party coming up, it had
been a month since we won it all.


I still hadn't talked with Tom. The doctors just said he needed total
rest, no football talk at all. I kept expecting him to call me but
nothing was going on. I had the rings all ordered and scheduled the
ceremony for the last Saturday of March. It took some secret maneuvering
to find out some of the ring sizes, I wanted it to be a surprise for the
office staff and interns, team managers, those people who you never hear
about.


I reserved the stadium to make sure it was available for the day I
wanted. By now I'd been the acting head coach for almost 2 months and I
was truly ready for Tom to get back. When you take his whole job and add
my job to it, that was a lot of work for anyone. So far I've been
keeping up thanks to Amy, Irene, Johnny and Sam. Not to mention all the
attention that my boys have been making sure I get.


I really started to think about the facilities now. They were old,
outdated. I suppose before the money really wasn't there to do the
improvements but over the past few months the donations had been pouring
in from the alumni as well as businesses and just regular individuals who
wanted to be part of the success. I thought we should redo the entire
locker room area for one thing and I knew there was a huge empty room
beside the locker room and I thought perhaps we could make a weight room
there for the athletes.


Not just ours either, I was willing to open it to all the other sports
teams if they wanted to chip in on the cost. I sent out a message to the
other head coaches asking them if they could come to a meeting on the
following Tuesday and got acknowledgments from all of them. I saw that I
had the phone number for Jack Kent Cooke in Tom's rolodex and decided to
give him a call.


I wanted to borrow the coach that was in charge of the Redskins player
training and after actually talking to Jack, got assurances that the
coach would be there for the meeting with pictures of what their
facilities looked like at Redskin Park. I had done some preliminary work
on the costs and it wasn't near as much as I had expected. We, meaning
the football team, could do it ourselves and I changed my mind about
asking the other teams to chip in.


This way we had total control of the facility. I liked that. The day of
the meeting came around and the general consensus was that it was a great
idea. Up til now the players were pretty much on their own as far as
training, getting it at other people's houses, their frats, wherever
they could get access to the equipment. We were wrapping up things when
Irene came in and whispered in my ear.


"Jack Kent Cooke is here and wants to address the meeting." I nodded
yes to her and she led him in. I had not actually met him in person, just
had the brief conversation on the phone and he seemed larger than life. I
met him as he came in the door and we exchanged handshakes.


"Coach Jones, I hope you don't mind me busting in on your meeting this
way." he said.


"Of course not Mr Cooke. I'm glad to have the chance to meet you." All
of my coaches were stunned it appears, none of them made any motion to
move or speak.


"I have something for you." Mr Cooke said and he reached in an inner
pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a piece of paper. He handed it
to me and I took a look and this time it was my turn to be stunned.


It was a check for $200,000. More than enough to do the weight room and
update the entire facility. I could see that Mr Cooke was watching my
face as I took in the check and the amount.


"This is a very generous donation Mr Cooke." I finally managed to get
out.


"It's the least I can do!" he replied. "My son is going to Maryland
now and I'm hoping the success here will inspire the Redskin's players
to win this season as well! Perhaps you can come out and give them one of
your famous pep talks?"


"I'd be honored to visit Redskin Park. I've been a fan my entire
life." I said, then realized that sounded dumb since I was just 12.
"Well, my entire life hasn't been all that long but the Redskins are my
professional football team for sure!"


One of the secretaries was a professional wedding photographer and had
her camera with her so I called her in and had her do a lot of pictures
of all of us with Mr Cooke and I front and center in all of them. I got a
promise from the Redskins weight coach to get with me and make sure we
had all the proper equipment. The meeting broke up and I called
maintenance immediately. They were there to start the work later that day
and assured me it would all be done in a few weeks.


It was completed in mid March and I was given a tour through it. It was
so amazing looking, all sparkling and brand new. I made sure to use each
piece of equipment as I walked past, that way I was first to lay hands on
it. Then we went into the locker room and it took my breath away. It's
amazing what you can do when money is no longer an object. The lockers
were wider with more storage for each player. The benches were the old
ones but buffed and polished.


There were a couple of television sets in a corner, some large fridges
full of all kinds of cold drinks and water. The lighting was spectacular
and there was a stage area so I could be seen easier. I couldn't wait to
show it to the public tomorrow. I had sent out invitations to the entire
university administration and the other sports head and assistant
coaches.


Mr Cooke didn't want it named after him but I insisted on having a
plaque thanking him in both the weight room and locker room area. I had
been talking with the Redskin's weight coach and he recommended someone
he knew to potentially be our part time trainer. I called him and he
agreed to the contract offer and would be there the next day as well.


This time we had the photographers from Andy's publicity department as
well as the local newspapers. There were television news people and
cameras there as well. It was going to be a proper circus, it had been a
couple of months since there was this much activity.


My intercom buzzed at me, since I had two secretaries I had two different
tones to the buzz. "Yes Amy?" I asked.


"Dr Seronta and Dr Adams are here." she replied. I told her to send
them in and I met them at the door. I shook both their hands and smiled
at them.


"To what do I owe this honor?" I asked, looking at the two of them. I
knew they wanted a sneak peek otherwise they'd have never come this
early.


"Well, we wanted to make sure we were on time." Dr Seronta said.
"Early even."


"No peeking!" I stated firmly. "You have to wait until the official
opening time and that's about 30 minutes away!"


"See, I told you Dan." Dr Seronta said to Dr Adams. "He's impossible
to deal with!" and both of them laughed.


"You can be first in line, after me of course." I conceded. "First
we'll look at the new weight room, then the updated locker room."


"Someone told me it was spectacular." Dr Adams said, with a question in
his voice.


"Well, I didn't have to cut corners thanks to Mr Cooke's donation. So
it might be a tad more extravagant than what you're expecting to see."
We talked another 15 minutes and then I told them it was time to go. We
came out of my office and saw the assembled masses by the door to the
weight room. It had been closed off with a red and white Maryland banner
and I moved through the crowd to the front with Dr Seronta and Dr Adams
in tow.


I was watching the clock, the final minutes were ticking down.


"Everyone, can I have your attention!" I said in a loud voice and the
crowd quieted down. "What you're about to see is state of the art in
training equipment. I've had extensive consultations with the trainer
from the Redskins, I want to thank both Ray Evans and Jack Kent Cooke for
their support, and together we've made sure that anything our players
could need would be available. I'd like to thank the maintenance team
for their contributions as well as all the outside contractors that made
it possible to get it done so quickly. Now, if you'll join me in a
countdown, we can all see the completed facilities!" and with this I
counted down the final seconds.


At zero I broke through the Maryland barrier, threw the two doors open
and walked in with the rest following. I had seen it before but today
with every light on as bright as it could go, all the new machines
gleaming, it was a sight that was made to stun your senses. The crowd
noises got quieter as they took in the expanse of machines, the rows of
free weights, then the applause started and cheers. I felt on top of the
world, this had been a huge expenditure of funds and time and to see it
this way, in its perfection, it almost made me too happy to stand still.


We spent an hour in there with our new weight trainer showing off each
piece of equipment and explaining the methods used to individualize it
for each player's needs. I could see Dr Adams was very impressed, Dr
Seronta was just walking around and touching all the equipment, feeling
the steel under his fingers. This was state of the art for a professional
team and I knew for a fact that no other college team had one.


The locker room was just as impressive and got the same reactions, again
I didn't think any college team had a better one. Certainly not a newer
one, that's for sure. I have to admit I was preening a little, all the
praise I had gotten for the designs and the work done were getting to me.
I realized it after a few minutes and managed to get back to my usual
self. I left after about 30 minutes, letting the visitors continue to
make their own impressions of the two spaces and went back to my office.
I had a couple of calls to make to potential recruits, it appeared my job
was never done.


I had left the door open and I saw Dr Seronta and Dr Adams stick their
heads in. I waved them in to a couple of chairs and finished up my call.


"So gentlemen, what did you think?" I asked. I saw their body language,
the excitement of it hadn't begun to wear off.


"Dave told me you never thought small. I saw that in the game plans but
seeing the new facilities I now know exactly what he meant." Dr Adams
said, smiling. "It's the oddest thing, you're the smallest person in
every room but because of your personality it's like you're the
largest."


"I told you Dan." Dr Seronta said, looking over at Dr Adams. "Any
other plans that we should know about? Are you planning to redo the
entire university next?" he added with a booming laugh.


"I hadn't given thought to that. I don't think I have that much money.
Yet." I said, trying not to grin.


"How much have you gotten, if you can give us a ball park figure." Dr
Adams asked. "I know it's not time yet for the report to be submitted
but I am curious."


I buzzed and Irene came in. "Irene, where's Johnny? Have him come in
and bring the donation book." I said and in less than a minute Johnny
was there. "Johnny, Dr Adams wants a rough estimate of our donation
totals. Can you give him a summary?" I was curious what Johnny would do.
He was a shy boy to start and there are times now, around strangers,
where he seems tongue tied a bit. This was the top brass of the
university so I asked him to do it on purpose.


He fumbled for a bit and opened the notebook, then dropped it. Dr Adams
was quick to pick it up and handed it back to Johnny with a smile. Johnny
had blushed so red, it was almost too cute.


"Thanks sir." Johnny softly said. "Here are the donation totals as of
yesterday. We only update them once a day. The facilities fund has
received $688,224 since late November when Coach Jones started the
serious fundraising. The scholarship fund has received $322,912. The
stadium improvement fund currently has received $293,177."


"Really? You have received that much?" Dr Adams asked, looking at me.


"Johnny has been in charge of keeping track of the different donations.
He's more than capable in that job and I trust that he's giving you the
correct donation totals. That's not the total that's in each fund,
obviously there were carry over totals. I was surprised at how low those
prior totals were." I said, answering for Johnny. "Also $200,000 of the
facilities total was the donation from Mr Cooke that went to redoing the
locker room and the new weight room."


"Thanks Johnny, you're doing a great job." Dr Adams said.


"You can head out Johnny, we'll have a meeting later." I said and he
left. "Now, there's another expense you should know about. I've set in
motion the refurbishment of the stadium facilities. It's going to take
about $100k, give or take $25k to redo the two locker rooms, the press
room and broadcast facility. There needs to be a decent amount of work
done to get things state of the art television ready. It will all be done
long before the stadium is needed for anything and the work will start in
April after we have the ring presentations. I hope you're both coming?"


"Wouldn't miss it." Dr Adams said and Dr Seronta echoed it. Sam and
Johnny had come to the open door, looked in and backed out quickly. Dr
Seronta had seen them though.


Dr Seronta looked over at Dr Adams. "We better not overstay our welcome
Dan. He's kicked me out before, told me I was a waste of his time." and
he laughed. Dr Adams looked a little shocked, then laughed also.


"Let's go then! I haven't been tossed out of a place in ages, don't
want to start now." Dr Adams replied. A couple of hand shakes and then
they got up and left.


Finally I heard from Tom's wife in the middle of March. She told me he
was in the rehab center near the university and that it was finally okay
for him to have visitors. That he had been asking about me and the
football team so they thought it was time for him to start to get back
into things. Right now it was just the physical aspects of long term bed
rest that was the issue but they hoped that a few weeks of intensive
rehab should have him back to something resembling normal soon.


I had Johnny drive me to the rehab center and I left him outside as I
went in to see Tom. I didn't know exactly what to expect, all Tom's
wife had said was that he was a lot thinner than before. I steeled myself
as I walked to his room and then knocked.


"Come on in." I heard from a familiar voice. At least that hadn't
changed. I walked in and Tom's face lit up. Mine did also. While he was
skinnier for sure that smile looked pretty good. I could see some traces
of worry around his face, I'm sure he had thought often about all this
time wasted that he could have used to recruit players and get ready for
the new season.


"Tom, it's so good to see you." I said with a big smile. I went over
to him and shook the hand he offered me, then he pulled me down and gave
me a big hug. I returned it just as eagerly. "How are you?" I asked
after he let go of me. Both of us had some tears as we looked at each
other.


"I'm getting better every day. Pretty soon I'll be back at the
office." he replied. His voice wasn't really strong but it didn't
sound like an invalid either. It sounded more like someone on the way
back.


"I hope so, it's been really tiring doing your job and mine." I said
laughing.


"Can you give me a rundown on what's happened?" he asked. "I know the
doctors told you not too long and don't upset me but I have to know."


"Sure, I don't think it'll upset you." I replied. I went through all
the various things that I had done, that we as coaches had done, over the
past three months. I didn't mention the new locker room or weight room.
Tom just kept on looking at me and I could see his face. He was getting
more and more excited as he realized I hadn't let things slide, that I
had done my best.


"You've been under a lot of pressure. It would be a lot for anyone
Jimmy, let alone someone your age. Are you handling it okay?" he asked.


"Yes. It was a trial only for the first few days until I managed to get
things organized in a way I could understand. I had the help of your
secretary Amy, my secretary Irene, my intern Johnny and your intern Sam
has been a lot of help."


"Sam? That's his name?" Tom asked.


"Yeah and he's been incredibly helpful. All he needed was someone to
give him real work to do."


"Remember, make sure all of us have interns that we interact with from
now on. No more invisible people." Tom said and I nodded with a grin.


"I'll annoy you all until I get my way." I said with a laugh.


"Want to hear a good laugh?" I asked and Tom nodded yes. "I got a
formal contract offer from Notre Dame early in January. Full benefits,
housing, educational package and an $77,000 base salary. They weren't
even the highest bidder."


"You stayed at Maryland for that pittance we are paying you? Are you
crazy in the head?" Tom said with a snort.


"Well, Dr Seronta had already redone my contract. I'm below you but am
getting paid as the assistant head coach. So no longer a pittance, unless
you compared to the offers I was getting."


"Why did you stay?" Tom asked.


"This is my home. I feel comfortable at Maryland. Nobody treats me like
a 12 year old, they listen to me. Sometimes they even understand me."
and both of us laughed. "I am perfectly happy with what we are doing at
Maryland so unless you want to fire me I'm not leaving. At least not
until my class of recruits graduate in four years."


"Recruits? You've done that? How far along are you?" Tom asked.


"I think we're pretty much done unless we get visitors who overwhelm us
with their talents. We've had 4 recruits who were in the top 5 for their
positions basically just show up at Maryland from the west coast to apply
for a scholarship offer. I have 30 right now including who I consider the
best quarterback prospect in the US. We still have 4 scholarships open so
a little room to maneuver. Plus we have a lot of money in the scholarship
fund now, just in case we need it."


"You got Rick Robinson?" Tom asked and I nodded. "How did you... never
mind, that's a dumb question. You just talked to him and he came to
us."


"That was about it. It helped maybe that I was friends with his younger
brother and he lives 2 streets away from my house. Also he was a little
in awe of me, I could tell that as we talked. It was just a matter of
convincing his father who had visions of Notre Dame in his head for Rick.
Reminding them gently of the 70-0 score kind of helped get over that
hurdle."


"Have they given you a rating vs other teams recruiting yet?" Tom
asked.


"Yes, we have by far the best recruit class in the US. Nobody else is
even close to us." I said, almost gloating. "Every one of them told me
they chose us because of the coaching staff and that they saw Maryland as
a football school thanks to the rallies we had last year. Now we just
need to coach them to their potential, avoid major injury issues and we
may never lose another game." I added that with a laugh and Tom joined
in.


"I'm hoping to be out of here and back to work, at least part time, by
the end of March." Tom said, switching to a more serious tone. "For the
foreseeable future you're going to be continuing to do what you're
doing until I get completely back and that might not be until near the
start of the actual football season."


"As long as I have your knowledge to draw on I'll be able to handle it.
I had some niggling doubts about my abilities to start but now I know I
can do anything if I have the right staff around me. Also, you need to
get out, even if it's just for one day, for the ring ceremony."


"What's the ring ceremony?" he asked.


"I thought we all needed a memento of the season. So I ordered rings for
all the coaches, players and what I considered to be our support staff.
The secretaries, team managers, interns, all the staff. That part is a
secret so don't tell anyone. I got one for Dr Seronta also since he's
been my biggest supporter since day one. It's scheduled for the last
Saturday of March in the stadium. It's going to be a huge party with
music, beer, food, everything you'd associate with our program from now
on."


"That's such a good idea Jimmy. Again it's a new idea, I wouldn't
have thought of it and it's just great. I will be there if I have to
tear this place down to get out." I saw Tom was getting a little tired
so I made some work excuses and left him.


Over the next month it was pretty quiet. I made a few calls about the
ring ceremony, to the Budweiser rep and the food people. Then made sure I
got tickets printed for the day. Not only did we have seating in the
stands but also more seating on the field itself. We had to do a lottery
system for the tickets, the demand was incredible. There were at least 10
requests for each ticket. We prioritized it by season ticket holders,
then students, then big donors. When I say I did this, I had to do some
of it. Most of it Irene, Amy, Sam and Johnny took care of. I had learned
to delegate, it was one of the harder things I had to learn to do.


I received all the rings two weeks before the ceremony. I went through
them one by one, making sure they were all there and all correct. No
names misspelled. This was important to me. They were solid rings too,
exuding power like our team had done. I couldn't let Johnny help, he
would have seen a ring with his name on the box. I hoped Dr Seronta
hadn't been given too much of a shock when he saw the bill, the rings
were 18k gold and there were over 100 of them in total. Once I checked
the rings I had them taken by the university police to store them in the
school bank vault, they were a little too valuable to keep in the office.


I was in the office looking over some plans and dates for the next school
year football rallies and I heard noises from outside the office. They
got louder and I heard some cheers and applause. I dropped the papers and
went out and Tom was being wheeled in by his wife. I joined in the
applause at that point and I went out to meet Tom, giving him a hand
shake. The other coaches happened to all be there and it was a great
first time visit, none of them had seen him since we left Dallas after
the bowl game.


His wife wheeled him towards the office and I followed him inside. I saw
him give the place a quick glance, it certainly bore no resemblance to
the office he had left. It was neat as a pin and there were two extra
tables with phones on the side. I moved to the side, I was going to let
Tom get behind his own desk but he waved me in that direction so I went
back and sat down. The other coaches made their way in and sat down and
Tom's wife left to go talk to Amy and some others.


"Guys, I'm so happy to be back here in this building, with all of you.
Jimmy and I have talked and he's told me the progress you've made
towards next season and I'd like to thank you myself for being so
supportive of the assistant and now acting head coach."


"What else could we do? He'd probably have us strung up and then
convince everyone that's what we wanted if we gave him any crap. You
should have seen him recruiting, if he really wanted the guy there was no
contest. By the time Jimmy finished talking to him he was all in for
Maryland." Jerry said, laughing. "Seriously though it's been an
experience. It made me understand more what a head coach job entails and
I'm glad Jimmy was here to take charge of it. I couldn't have done
it."


"Me neither." Al added and the other coaches chimed in.


"We've all been lucky to have found him." Tom added. "Did he tell you
he's turned down offers that were almost twice as much as he's getting
paid here?"


"Yeah, he posts them on a special board. It's the WHO WANTS JIMMY TODAY
board, you passed it on the way in." Jerry said. "It's been inspiring
to know that being here means more to him than all that money. I think
he's crazy, turning it down."


"I'm sure you got some offers too Jerry. You too Al, probably you too
also, Al2 and James." Tom said.


"Yeah but after what Jimmy did how could I even think about leaving for
a lousy $10k or so." and he and Al both laughed. "I know we'll get
bonuses next year, we just have to coach well enough to get all the way
once more."


"In four years every one of you will be worth to those schools what
they're offering me now. You're still young in comparison to a lot of
coordinators and coaches. Wait for the right offer to come along." I
added. "We promised the recruits we'd all be here for their four years
and I intend to keep the promise."


"Thanks to all of you. I'm going to get back here as soon as I can. I
have to, otherwise they'll just give my job to Jimmy permanently." and
Tom laughed so I knew he wasn't upset at all. "Also, this is now your
office Jimmy."


"Wait, I didn't want to take your office. I just needed the space to do
both the jobs..." I started but Tom held up his hand and I stopped
talking.


"I'll have them make the meeting room next door my office. We'll use
your old office as the meeting room. Can you take care of that for me?"
Tom asked, looking at me.


"Sure, I can do that. I'll have Amy take care of it tomorrow." I
answered.


"Wait a second, you delegate jobs now? You don't do everything
yourself?" Tom said, grinning.


"I had to learn that skill. Ask the interns, or the secretaries. They
have to do twice the work now." I said, laughing. "Otherwise I'd be
worn out." I realized Tom hadn't seen the new facilities, didn't even
know about them. "Hey Tom, I have a surprise for you, are you up for
it?" I asked.


"Sure, I think I can handle a surprise." Tom said, grinning.


"I might have changed the locker room area a little." I added and I saw
the other coaches grin. "Come on, let's take a look." and I led the
group out of the office. Tom's wife was talking to Amy and she picked up
pushing the wheelchair. "This way." I said and she pushed Tom beside
me. As we neared the end of the office area his eyes picked up the weight
room signs and I saw him look over at me. "Here we go." I said and I
pushed open the doors and led our group into the weight room. I was
watching Tom's face and his mouth opened. I saw a look of disbelief on
his face.


"How, umm okay. How did you manage this? It's incredible." Tom finally
got the words out.


"Jack Kent Cooke of the Redskins donated the money for it. I've hired a
part time trainer to set up plans for every player that wants to take
advantage of it. Also any office personnel can use it, they get the same
exercise plan set up." I could see Tom just looking at me and shaking
his head.


"Now for the locker room." I said and his eyes again almost bugged out
at the brand new locker room area. "That same donation paid for all this
as well. No college in the entire country has this level of lockers and
weight training. We're even better than half the professional football
teams. Plus we still have over $500,000 in the account for facilities so
if I've forgotten anything we'll be able to get whatever we need."


"You've outdone yourself again Jimmy." Tom said. "I do have one small
request though."


"What is it?" I asked.


"Can you leave something for me to do? I mean just a little something?"
then he busted out laughing. I had to laugh along, I knew he wasn't
serious about it.


The next week was a good one, the offices were like a well oiled machine.
I had Irene hire another secretary to take care of the two assistant
coaches and let the one that used to do them and Jerry take care of both
Al and Jerry now. Irene was going to just be my own secretary from now
on. I was getting a little nervous about the weather. My big party and
ring ceremony was set up for Saturday and now, on Wednesday it was
pouring rain. The weather report said cold and rain possible for the next
entire week.


Johnny, Sam and I were walking to the cafeteria and I looked up at the
sky.


"Okay, that's enough! Finish up and get out of here." I yelled,
looking up.


Johnny was very confused, he was looking all around. "Who are you
talking to?"


"The sky. I've had it with this weather so I told it to go away." I
explained and I wasn't laughing or smiling. Johnny looked at me and
shook his head.


"You're nuts." Sam said with a laugh.


"Maybe but I think the weather is about to clear up." I stated.


The next morning when we came into work it was sunny. As I walked into my
office I saw Johnny give me a weird look. I just smiled at him and sat
down at the desk. For the rest of the week the weather was great, bright
sunshine and there was plenty of time for the field to firm up and dry
out. I was glad, now there wouldn't be any damage done by all the
people, booths, just general traffic that would happen Saturday.


I had received the great news that Tom would be making it to the ceremony
and not in a wheelchair. He didn't even have to use a walker or crutches
now but he was still moving slowly and going to rehab every other day.
Finally the day of the event dawned and I felt so good about it,
especially the office staff part. So far I had told nobody about that
except Tom and swore him to secrecy. I arranged with the school bank to
allow the police access to the vault to pick up the rings and I took
Johnny and Sam and met them at the stadium where we locked them up in a
safe I had borrowed until time to go.


I did my usual tour around, it was only 930am but already the beer trucks
were in place as well as the food trucks. Just a note here, there were
beer and food trucks outside the stadium also to take care of the people
who were waiting to get in. The stage was set up and a couple of the
early bands had arrived. The people also had started to stream in, it's
not like it was crowded but it was a steady drip of people entering.
There were lots of waves and already I had been smiling so much that I
knew my face was going to hurt the next day. The football team and all
the other ring recipients were scheduled to get there around 1120am. This
would be our largest one day crowd for sure. The stadium held 75,000
people but with the layout and the stage it was down to 68,000.


As I said earlier we used a lottery system to distribute the tickets. At
least 25% were going to university students. Well they had been sent to
the students, who knows who is actually coming. I really hoped to have
the place full or almost full to show the support for the team. In
addition we had 15,000 seats inside the stadium, on the field itself and
the sidelines, those went to big donors and season ticket holders as well
as the guests for the team. I was curious to see how the maintenance
people were going to handle that. Once the ceremony was over all 15,000
chairs would be taken off to make room for more people on the field. The
stage was on the home team's goal line. Banners were draped all over any
surface one could fit, we sold them out as well. My family and all the
neighborhood guys would be there and I invited all the local recruits to
come by and see how we do things at Maryland.


I wanted this to be a little less formal so I asked the players to wear
their jerseys and, if they wanted, after the initial presentations they
were welcome to keep wearing them or take them off and just hang out as
civilians. All of us coaches were in our coaching uniforms Once the
ceremony itself was done around 145pm the stadium will be opened to
everyone and the party will go on until midnight for whoever wants to
come. There were already people waiting in that line, 5 hours before they
could get in.


Johnny and Sam were taking turns at the participant entrances in case
anyone from the office forgot their badges and to make sure we didn't
have people sneaking in. With all the gold I had on stage I was a little
paranoid about thieves but I had so many police around it calmed my
fears. Why so many police? Because they all volunteered to come, didn't
even want their overtime pay. Of course I let them all come as long as
they were in uniform. The television news people were already set up and
I saw our own publicity people and their cameras. I wanted to get a good
shot of the chair removal and the entire show.


By 11am the stands were about 2/3 full and the seats on the field were
even more full. I had seen a lot of the players peek in, look around and
leave. The office staff were mostly here by now too, they had their own
area on the stage, each one had a chair with a sheet of paper printed
with their names. Their guests had a small area also so they could sit
together. I had gotten the stage manager to turn on the recorded rock
music and the crowd was doing singalongs to the more popular ones.


Dr Adams and Dr Seronta came in together and I shook their hands. "Glad
you two could make it!" I said with a smile. "Welcome to a beautiful
day for a party!"


"Speaking of beautiful days, I heard a rumor about you Jimmy." Dr
Seronta said.


"What rumor is that?" I asked.


"Someone told me that on Wednesday you yelled at the sky and told it
enough rain, to go away and that it became sunny the next day." he
replied.


"Well, that's true enough. I was tired of the rain and it had to go. I
can't have it interfering with my plans." I answered and I kept a
totally straight face. Not a hint of a smile. "I'm glad it saw things
my way."


"I'm afraid to ask what you'd have done had it not obeyed you." Dr
Adams said and both he and Dr Seronta laughed. I did crack a smile at
that, couldn't keep the serious face going. I pointed out the area on
stage where their chairs were located and then kept on welcoming people
as they came in to the place including my own neighborhood. Rick Robinson
and his family arrived and I saw Rick looking at the stadium which by now
was 95% full.


"Hi Rick and everyone else. Glad you could make it." I said, shaking
hands with him.


"This is pretty overwhelming a crowd and it's not even a game. Just an
awards ceremony." Rick said, still staring around.


"Get used to it, we're going to be sold out every single game next
year. Even more people than this." I stated, then I sent them to their
seats and kept on the move.


Tom and everyone else had arrived, the stage was full now. It was exactly
noon and I motioned to the stage manager to get things started. The music
ended and the cheers began. The crowd had been revved up by the music and
they were ready for whatever I was planning to do.


Dr Adams did a short welcome speech, then Dr Seronta and then it was my
turn. The stage manager had Dr Seronta introduce me and the cheers were
satisfyingly loud. I'm not sure why but I love the sensation of noise,
the way it feels on my body. I'm still refusing to grow and maybe it's
a good thing. I'm sure Daniel with his 6'7" body doesn't get the same
feelings from the crowd noise that I do.


"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming. Your continuing support
is very much welcome! On the stage you see all those people who are
responsible for our success this year. You might think it's all about
the players and the coaches but there's a lot more to a football season,
a team. We have a phenomenal support staff, our secretaries help us out
immensely and we couldn't perform as well as we did without our interns
and the team managers. So let's start out with each of them. As I
introduce you, please come to the podium."


I said the first name and when I got out her box, opened it up and handed
it to Amy she about fainted. I had to hold on to her for a moment to
steady her. After that the rest of the staff, the team managers and the
interns all got their rings as well. I saw Johnny almost shaking as he
had to walk alone to me with the crowd cheering for him. Then I did the
players starting with the team captains and then the rest in alphabetical
order.


I got to the coaches next. "Now, everyone, please welcome the head coach
of the national champion Maryland Terrapins, Tom Nugent!" and he slowly
but steadily walked to the podium. We shook hands and I gave him his
ring, then the other assistant coaches. I only had two boxes left now.


"This next ring is very special for me. At the very first rally this man
must have seen more in me than I thought was there and since then he's
been solidly behind my every action. He's made it so that I could do
what I did for the team and the university and I had to get him his own
ring. Dr Seronta, please come up!"


Dr Seronta looked very surprised, stunned almost. He slowly rose from his
chair and made it to the podium where I shook his hand and gave him the
box. He saw there was one box remaining. "Is that your ring?" he
whispered and I nodded yes. "Don't move!" he ordered as he opened his
box and slipped his ring on. I could see his face, there were actual
tears running down his cheeks.


"I'd like to thank Coach Jones for this honor." he said, looking at
me. "It was totally unexpected and it's made me quite emotional. We are
almost done but there's still one person, one ring to give out.
Assistant Head Coach Jimmy Jones, step up here." and he handed me my own
ring. The crowd cheered loudly again and I waved behind me, to get
everyone to stand up. I didn't want individual cheers now, we were a
team.


After about 30 seconds I thought the ovation had gone on long enough. I
leaned to the microphone, looked at the crowd. "Let's get this party
started. Open the gates!" I yelled and over 500 volunteers streamed out,
each one grabbing up 4 chairs. Then again and in less than a minute the
chairs were all gone, leaning against the walls around the stadium. It
was extremely impressive. The outside crowd was streaming in and our
group was vacating the stage so the first of the live bands could get set
up to play.


The party went on through the afternoon and evening and ended on schedule
at midnight. I didn't stay all that long, I knew it would run smoothly
so after checking with the vendors to make sure their supplies were
adequate I grabbed up Johnny. He had been trailing me the entire time,
not close enough to interrupt anyone else talking to me but he kept me in
sight. I checked in a side glance and I saw he had on his ring. There was
one point where he stopped to talk to a man and woman and he was showing
them the ring. I wandered over in their direction and Johnny waved me to
come over.


These were Johnny's parents. I got introduced to them and my analytical
mind was watching. Johnny's dad was looking at him and he had this look
on his face of pride. His eyes would drift down to the ring and back up
to his son's face.


"Nice to meet you Mr and Mrs Edmonds." I said. "Johnny is my intern
and he's mentioned you two on occasion. I'm glad you could make it to
see him get his ring."


"He didn't tell us he was getting a championship ring." his father
said.


"That's not his fault, I kept it all a total secret. Wanted to surprise
all the office staff." I answered.


"Ahh, that explains it. Well I don't think he's ever going to remove
it." his dad said with a laugh and Johnny did his beet impression.


"I hope not. I'm not removing mine. Hopefully we can do it again
someday, win the championship again. After all we have nine more
fingers!" I said with a big laugh.


They all laughed too and I started to wander away. I heard Johnny say
something to his parents and then he was beside me.


"Thanks Jimmy." he said. I looked at him and he was barely holding it
together. "My dad has been cool, I'm sure they know I'm gay even
though I've never said it and they've never asked. To get this ring
from something football related, even as just support staff, its made him
see me as more than what I've heard my relatives call me, a sissy boy."


"Let's get out of here. I think the party can run without our help." I
said and we headed back towards the frat house. There were a lot more
waves, greetings and photos I had to take with various people as we
managed to get away from the stadium. Once we got back on campus the
crowds were gone and we walked towards the frat U. The frat house seemed
empty as well as we came in and I took Johnny up the steps to mine and
Daniel's room.


As we entered the room, before he even had a chance to strip, I grabbed
him and kissed him. We made out for a few minutes before I let go of him.
Even though he was 6" taller than me I felt like I was looking down at
my boy. He was so pretty now that his hair was longer. Not to my length
of course but to his shoulders.


"Undress me." I whispered and Johnny got to his task. He pulled off my
shirt and kissed me in the center of my chest before going to his knees
in front of me. He lifted a foot, took my shoe and sock off, then kissed
the top of my foot before licking it like an ice cream cone. Then the
other foot got the same treatment. I thought my dick was going to explode
through my pants, I felt so hard.


His eyes looked at my crotch and he saw how hard I was. He looked up at
me and leaned forward, slowly pushing his face against my dick. He
sniffed, then again. His hands unbuckled my pants, then unzipped me. He
let the pants slither down my legs before pulling them off, one leg at a
time, lifting each foot and leaving me in my white briefs in front of
him. His hands shook a little as he pulled my underwear away from my
body, making sure not to catch my dick in them and he slid them off.


I was naked in front of my boy and I saw him staring at my hard dick. He
didn't move towards it though, I hadn't given him permission. I leaned
down and he raised up just a bit and our lips met and I softly kissed
him.


"You're mine." I whispered and he moaned at my words. "You're
mine." I whispered once again and he shook. "Get naked. Now." I said
and I watched as he stood up and threw off his shirt, then kicked his
shoes off. "Slow down." I ordered. The front of his pants bulged
obscenely, his dick was pressing hard against them and I knew they were
tight. I had bought them for him and made sure they were tight.


He took his socks off, then his hands unsnapped those tight pants. He
shimmied them down and I saw his smoothness. He shaved off all his body
hair, not because I told him to do it, because he wanted to look like me.
I wondered about that occasionally that once I grew leg hair or underarm
hair, would he let his grow then? I loved seeing him so smooth so I might
not let him. Plus I know it turned on Rudy even more. From the first day
that the two had met they became really close, closer than Findley and
Jackson, boy friends in a way.


Johnny stood there in just his tight white briefs now and I smiled at
him. He slowly took them down and I saw his dick. It was too hard to fall
down, it was tight up against his body. He knew I loved to look at him
and he slowly turned all the way around, showing me his ass. I touched
his ass as he showed it to me and he moaned again.


"Come to bed baby." I whispered and I took his hand and led him to the
bed. I had the other hand on his ass, I was entranced by it today. His
ass seemed to be calling to me, to my dick. "Get on your back." and I
manhandled him into place. I reached in the side table and got the lube
out and coated my dick with it. I was staring in his eyes as I put a
lubed finger to his hole, then slid it inside the boy. He was so hot
inside, so tight.


I got between his legs and put them over my shoulder, then grabbed
Daniel's pillow and, after having him raise himself, put it under his
ass giving me a good angle. I put my dick against his hole, leaned down
and kissed him. As my tongue entered his mouth I rammed my dick up his
ass and he yelled into my mouth. Not really in pain, just in surprise at
my sudden aggressiveness. I started to slam fuck him, over and over I'd
pull my dick out, slam up deep into his accepting hole.


His moans were continuous under me, his dick as hard as it could get. I
was mauling his prostate in this position, it wasn't a massage it was
more me punching it with my dick as hard as I could go. I had been
working out, I was stronger now and I used that strength, that stamina,
to fuck Johnny. I pulled my mouth off his and looked down at his face,
all red. I had him bent practically in half as I fucked harder. It was
like I wanted my entire body to fuck Johnny.


It had been a long time since I fucked anyone like this. The sounds my
crotch made slapping against his ass as I gave him all the dick I had.
"Cum when you want baby boy." I whispered. "Cum and then I'll cum in
you." I felt Johnny relax a little as I kept fucking and I realized he
had been trying to not cum for the last 10 or 15 minutes. I felt his body
get sweatier and then he stifled a yell as his dick exploded. Over and
over he shot and I just fucked him through it, making sure my dick hit
his prostate, giving him as much pleasure as I could.


Even after shooting his dick would spew a little more sperm as I kept
fucking and then my own orgasm was on me. I slammed my dick home, again
and again as the sensations of one of the best orgasms of my life took
hold of my body. I could smell the sperm that Johnny had shot and I saw
some near his face. I licked it off, then kissed him to feed it back to
him. The orgasm ended and I barely had the strength to pull out and roll
over on my back next to him. He quickly turned around and slurped my dick
in his mouth, cleaning me off and after 30 seconds I pulled him off my
dick and brought his head to my chest.


"I needed that baby boy." I whispered. I felt his body against mine,
his breathing was heavy and irregular as he fought to come back down from
the fuck and the orgasm. His skin was silky under my fingers as I softly
rubbed his back.


"Thanks Jimmy. I needed that too." Johnny whispered back.


I was drifting in and out of sleep and feeling the heat of him next to
me. A little wetness, Johnny always drooled a little in his sleep. I knew
I couldn't lay here all day but I didn't want to move. I finally
stretched out and as I moved Johnny roused next to me. He opened his eyes
and looked up at me and smiled. I ruffled his hair and leaned down enough
to kiss him on the forehead.


Then I got him up, we showered and back out to the real world we went. I
didn't see any of the other guys so I split up with Johnny and headed
back to the party. It was in full swing now and most of the players were
still there. I'd see the occasional jersey dancing around with a group
of people. I saw Daniel off to the side, near the beer truck. He had
obviously been dancing too, he was all sweaty.


I made my way over to him and glanced at his hand where I saw the ring.
His ring was well over twice the size of mine just to fit his finger the
same way. Mine wasn't much bigger than Irene's ring since my fingers
were still slender. He saw me coming and his face lit up with a smile.


"You sure know how to throw a party." he said, laughing. A few of the
other players had gravitated to the two of us and then I was suddenly off
the ground. They took turns tossing me from one to the other while
walking around and as they did more people joined the line.


"Put me down!" I ordered, then begged but nobody listened to me. By the
time we had done a circuit of the stadium there were at least 30 players
that had tossed me. I hadn't eaten much so my stomach didn't get upset
but it did remind me I was hungry. Finally after coming back to the stage
area they let me down again. I tried to pretend to be mad about it but
they just laughed at me and I had to laugh back.


I got a burger and fries from the nearest food truck. I had my money out
but they all pretended not to see it and shooed me away after giving me
the food. I wanted a beer in the worst way but stuck to soda, there were
too many witnesses right now. As planned some of the chairs had managed
to get set up again near the food and beer trucks and both of us sat down
and I looked around. It didn't look like that many people had left. The
stands were still pretty full and the actual field was almost packed.
Rick and his family saw me and came over to tell me they were leaving but
hoped to see many more of these parties over the next four years.


On Monday when I came into the office I was met by every secretary who
gave me a hug, then the interns and team managers. Some of them hugged me
as well, some just a hand shake. I resisted the impulse to squeeze their
asses, somehow. A few of those boys were totally edible.


Irene followed me into the office and stood there, giving me a look.


"What's wrong? Is there something on my face?" I asked, rubbing it in
case I hadn't wiped well enough with the napkin.


"You're something else Jimmy. In the overall scheme of things nobody
notices us secretaries, or the support staff. What made you think we
deserved the same attention that the coaches and team got?" Irene asked.


"Well, it seemed to me everyone had a job to do to get us to win. If you
ladies, or the rest of the staff, weren't here we'd have to commit too
much time to doing the things you all did and maybe our team would have
suffered. All of you deserved the attention and the ring as well." and
when I finished she gave me another big hug.


I followed her back outside and made sure I told each person that should
the rings not fit properly that I had it set up with a local jeweler to
adjust them to the proper fit at no cost. Most I could sneak around and
get a size, a few I couldn't do that and had to just guess. I did notice
every single person was wearing their ring.


I kept getting offers to do ads, or give speeches. I tried to ignore them
but I thought perhaps I should do some to keep the team in the spotlight.
The more they see me the more they'll think of Maryland and maybe the
fundraising keeps going all year round. I needed an agent though, I had
no idea what a good rate was for me doing an ad, or a speech. I asked Dr
Seronta and he pointed me to an agent that he knew did work for quite a
few famous actors. He was also one of my frat brothers and was an alumni
from Maryland so I hoped I could get an in to him that way.


I gave his office a call, there was a branch office in Washington DC, the
main offices were in Los Angeles. I had no idea what would happen, this
was out of my experience level. I just hoped that maybe the DC office
people had heard of me. As soon as I gave my name I was transferred to
the man in charge of the local office.


"Hello Coach Jones!" I heard a hearty voice at the other end. "I am
Dick Angle Jr, I'm the son of the guy who owns the agency. Also a fairly
recent graduate of Maryland and a football season ticket holder. It's an
unexpected surprise to get a call from you, can we help you in any way?"


"Hi Mr Angle." I started only to get interrupted.


"No, please call me Dick." he said.


"Hi Dick then." I said, with a smile in my voice. "Well, I guess then
you know who I am?"


"Only the most famous person from the university." he said laughing.


"Well, I don't know about that. I do have an issue that I'm hoping
your agency can help me out with. I'd like you to take me on as a
client." I stated.


"A client? What did you have in mind?" he asked.


"I've been getting a lot of requests to do ads. Mostly television but
print too. Also companies have been trying to get me to do speeches at
their meetings. They offer to compensate me but I have no idea what I
might be worth. So I figure I need an agent to handle that part of my
career."


"I'm not surprised at the interest in you. I'm just surprised you've
put it off this long. You've probably lost a relatively large amount of
income. Although I'm sure once you are listed as available they'll all
come back. Can we have a more in depth meeting to discuss it in person? I
will certainly come out to your office." Dick said. He seemed eager to
do this so I was thinking he saw some money.


This was Thursday and I had no time available until Monday. "Can we make
it for early next week? I am available Monday or Wednesday in the
mornings." I told him.


"Sure, how about Wednesday? My dad will absolutely want to fly in for
the meeting and to meet you." Dick said. "He's also a brother of
yours, as am I."


"Sounds good, 10am then on Wednesday?" I asked.


"Perfect. We'll see you then!" he exclaimed and after a few more
pleasantries the call was ended. I went out to see Irene and Amy, let
them know about my appointment so they wouldn't schedule me for anything
else. I was kind of excited about it, I hate to admit it but I missed
being the center of attention. Even though I had managed to control my
own expressions and ego, at least publicly, when I thought about it in
private I wanted more and more.


I mentioned it to Daniel over dinner that night. It was actually our 20th
month anniversary and we went to a local steak house for dinner. This was
one of the places that had actually asked me about doing an ad for them
and I knew if they asked again and the agent could make a deal, I'd
certainly do it. I loved their food. When the bill came they had comped
it for me. This wasn't an unusual occurrence either, it happened more
than I'd ever expected. I didn't really want to have it comped though
just in case I did someday work for them. I was afraid it might blur the
lines.


The owner came over and I thanked him but asked if I might pay this time.
I explained to him that I was going to have an agency representing me and
that, if he was still interested, he could call them and try to make a
deal to get me to do an ad for them. It would feel weird, I said, if they
were already giving me free food. The owner said he'd give me a call
after my meeting to get the name and number of the agency, then sent over
the bill.


I'm sure you're wondering about my education with all the rest of the
things I'm contracted to do. Well, I had graduated high school and just
needed a few required courses to get my BA in Psychology. I could take
those classes at night, one or two at a time and I'd get my degree by
the end of next school year. It was May now and Tom had made a few
appearances at the office. He seemed to like how Amy had done his new
office and managed, in just those few visits, to get it nice and messy.
Just the way he liked it. I'd peek in on him and once he saw me, I'd
purposely look around, then shake my head pretending disgust and back
out.


My meeting with the two Dicks, both had the same name, a senior and
junior, went very well. They decided the best thing to do was to make
sure that everyone knew I might be available so they ran a full page ad
in an advertising magazine to let the world know. Within days I had my
first potential job. It wasn't a local company either. It was Post and
Kellogg cereals. Obviously I couldn't do both companies since they were
in the same business. My agent had them do a bidding war to get me, then
called me.


"Jimmy! Boy do I have a deal for you!" he boomed. Dick Jr didn't have
a soft switch on his voice, it was all loud, all the time. I always put
him on speaker phone, otherwise I felt deaf after all the yelling.


"Give me the details!" I said and I was excited. My first ad job!


"The job will take about a week but they agreed to do it as close to the
university as possible. The ads will all be for television and they'll
have 6 months of exclusivity to run the ads. You'll get paid a fee to
start and another usage fee each time the ad airs."


"What company? You haven't told me!" I practically yelled.


"What's your favorite cereal?" Dick asked.


"Kellogg's Frosted Flakes." I answered. "Wait, it's Kellogg's?


"You got it. National exposure. In every major market in America."


"Damn. Dare I ask how much?" I asked. I braced myself for the answer. I
hoped it would be a few thousand at least.


"The initial fee for your time, after our fees have been deducted,
$22,000. Then you'll get $25 each time the ad airs. I know that doesn't
sound like much but the expectation is that the ad will air up to 2000
times."


I was shocked, almost to the point of not being able to speak. "You mean
one deal could be worth upwards of $70,000?" and this I was yelling back
at him.


"At least." he answered. "Plus after the 6 months we'll sit down and
see how the ad figures are, see if you made a difference. If you did I'm
sure they'll want more of you. At a higher price of course."


"Wow, when I decided to do this I had no idea of the potential." I
said, my voice calm now. Johnny had been looking over at me, following
the conversation and wondering what I was talking about.


"How would you like to do a movie?" Dick asked.


I had been drinking some coffee and spit it out. Luckily I turned enough
that it went all over the rug on the floor and not my desk. "A movie?
Me? I'm no actor." I said.


"Trust me, you're an actor. I've seen your speeches and the rallies.
That was all acting." Dick said.


"Let's just see what happens. I have a full time job here that is the
most important thing to me. I have maybe 4 weeks between mid June and mid
July that I could get away from here. Otherwise I'm too busy to leave
for more than a few days."


Once the conversation ended I hung up and looked over at Johnny. "That
was my agent. Kellogg's wants me for a nationwide ad campaign. Just that
one job could net me over $70,000."


"You deserve it Jimmy, nobody has worked harder than you have to get
where you are." Johnny said. As always, when he looked at me, I saw the
adoration in his eyes. If there was ever anyone whose soul was totally
owned by another, it was his by me. I started to think back to the first
time I had him fuck me. I almost had to spank him to get him to do it, he
was so totally a bottom. Was he good at fucking? Hell no. He didn't know
what to do but once he managed to get inside me the feelings just made
him shoot in less than a minute. I had him do it over and over, by the
fifth time he managed to last long enough where I kind of got off.


I had already talked things over with Dr Seronta and Tom, they had no
issues with my "renting" myself out for ad work. In fact both of them
told me to get what I could while I could, they even gave me permission
to use the Maryland Terrapin clothes or symbols. I made sure that when
the agents told me the company wanted to use those symbols that the
companies paid a fee to the university.


The Kellogg's people came out, did the commercial and it took 4 days 6
hours a day to get the various commercials completed. I did five
different ones for Frosted Flakes with different backgrounds. All of them
involved football in some form or another. It was funny, we were sitting
around in the frat house and I had drank a couple of beers so I was
feeling pleasantly buzzed when suddenly there I was on the television.
The frat brothers watching it all yelled and we rushed in to watch it. It
was pretty cool, a lot different than my other television appearances.
Plus just knowing this ad would run 2000 or more times.


I started to get calls at the frat immediately after the ad was over. I
was out to anyone who called except Dr Seronta, when we talked he said it
was done tastefully and he was very happy to see the campus in the ad and
even happier to see the big Maryland sign where it couldn't be missed.


I did more ads, sometimes 3 or 4 in the same day. It got to be routine
like everything else you do frequently. Then I got a registered letter
from the agency one day. I had no idea what it was all about so told
Johnny to open it and let me know what it said. Sam was there that day
also and when Johnny opened it a check fell out.


"It's your quarterly statement Jimmy." he said. "Plus your check."


"How much is it for?" I asked.


"Holy shit." Johnny said. He showed it to Sam.


"Sheesh, is that for real?" Sam asked.


"Well, how much?" I asked. I figured maybe $25,000 or so. The
Kellogg's first fee should be in there plus more ads. I never asked what
a job paid, that was the agent's job, to get me the money. Since they
got a percentage I figured they'd squeeze every dime out of the
advertiser.


"$52,336.72." Johnny answered. I sat up quickly and jumped out of my
chair to see the check. Johnny wasn't lying, that's the amount I saw
too.


"Was there an itemized account?" I asked and Johnny handed me the sheet
of paper the check came with. That money didn't include any of the per
ad payments from Kellogg's. Just my local ad revenue plus the fee from
the cereal ad. I had done quite a few jobs but I had thought they were
all relatively cheap ones, like for some local restaurants or businesses.
"Well, that was a surprise." I said with a laugh. Both the boys just
looked at me.


"You're gonna be rich." Sam said. "I mean totally. I thought your
football salary was something, you made almost the same amount in 3
months from doing ads. How much is that movie gonna pay?"


"I'm not sure. The agents take care of all that, I just go do whatever
they have scheduled for me. I know I get something called points,
whatever the hell that is, in addition to a salary." I answered.


I had agreed to do the movie. I wasn't the biggest star in it, not by
any means. It wasn't a small movie, I read the script and it had big
time box office all over it. I was just a supporting actor in it even
though the story was mostly about my character so I was going to take my
vacation from the job to go out to Hollywood. I got them to hire Daniel
as my bodyguard and driver so he could get some spending money also. They
even gave him a small part in the movie, a speaking one. Only two lines
but everyone has to start somewhere! Plus I wanted him with me, I
couldn't have handled 3 weeks without him. I found out something I
didn't know, they didn't film a movie like we watched it.


It was a movie with a sad but inspiring ending. I played a kid who was
great at football but I got leukemia at an early age. Somehow I had
beaten it and was on the road to fulfilling my dreams of playing when it
suddenly came back and I died from it. That was the sad part but the
inspirational part was all the talking I did with others, not letting the
disease stop me from living what life I had left.


Because they had limited time with me they filmed all the scenes I was in
first. Even then they weren't in chronological order in the movie, the
first scene I did was the last scene of mine in the movie, then it was
all over the place. Part of it was the availability of the other actors
as well, some of them were doing another movie at the same time.


When I got back I was very tanned, the movie had lots of beach scenes. I
was so glad they had great makeup and health conscious people. Because of
my Irish ancestry I always tended to burn in the sun, no matter what I
did tanning was out of the question. They had all the proper lotions,
there was never a burn. They gifted me with a large supply before I left
and wrote down everything they used so I could get it on my own when that
ran out. That first day when I walked in the office I saw the secretaries
just stop and look at me.


Irene got up, ran over and hugged me. "Glad you're back Jimmy. It
wasn't the same without you." she said.


"Anything wrong? Hopefully it all ran smoothly while we were gone." I
said. I assumed there couldn't have been any issues, everyone had left
at the same time. Me, all the assistant coaches, even Tom didn't try to
come in. All of us were due back this week to get ready for the first
training camp in early August. We were going to look at the players and
see how we had to adapt our already strong playbook.


"No, nothing wrong. It seemed so empty though with all of you gone. No
Johnny or Sam to joke with." she replied.


"Whew, good. You had me worried. I am glad to be back. Enough of the
Hollywood life. I did the movie and quite a few commercials. Plus a
speech or two." I said. "I am ready for football! Believe it or not all
this acting and commercials is far more work than football is, at least
for me."


My desk wasn't even messy, that's how dead it had been. I wondered how
the next season would be. I knew there were some things we had to do,
like hire new interns. I had talked it over with Tom and while I was
excited to get a new intern, I didn't want to have to train him so I
hired Johnny on as a part time assistant. Sam too, he had proven to be
adept at organization and getting things done for me so I knew both Tom
and I could make great use of him.


Tom's recovery was really going a lot slower than anyone expected. While
he did manage to make it in to the office at least once a week after a
few hours he got so tired he had to go back home. He was done with the
walker though. I talked with his wife who had his doctor talk to our
weight training coach and he helped set up a plan for Tom that he could
do right here at the offices. At this rate I might be still acting head
coach when the season started.


We had a lot of meetings to prepare for the season. It was all just
conjecture right now, none of the players were in town yet. They would
come in next week and then we'd be able to see what we had. The first
preseason polls had come out and we were the unanimous #1 preseason pick.
I hoped we could live up to the hype. Even the meetings that Tom made he
deferred all the actual decisions to me. I was so used to it by now that
I wondered a few times how I was going to manage being an underling when
I was so used to being in charge.


Johnny and Sam had arrived also. Since they were now paid assistants they
didn't have the same usage rules they had when they were just interns. I
had them get started on the play charts, making up the books that each
player would receive as they came into camp. We hadn't had those before
and I thought it would help in the learning process if they could just go
to a page and see the play diagrammed out. There was an empty smaller
office next to mine, I had the wall knocked out between my office and
that one, installed a door and put Johnny and Sam in there. They really
needed room to expand, since last year the donations had kept on coming.


Both of the guys were there and I looked over at them. They were assured
now in their abilities, there was none of the nervousness I had seen when
they first took on jobs for me. They had assigned duties, like Johnny
with the donations and Sam with the room assignments in the various dorms
for the players. We had to decide if we needed to red shirt any of the
incoming freshmen and talk it over with them, see if they would be on
board with college taking 5 years instead of 4.


"Are you two ready for the new year?" I asked, looking at the two of
them. Like every other employee in the office they were still wearing
their rings. I hadn't taken mine off a single time since I put it on, I
wanted to remember last year.


"I'm all ready boss." Sam said, with a smile.


"Same here Jimmy." Johnny added. He had been to our frat room last
night and I gave him his first fuck of the new year. I talked to Daniel
and after a long discussion I told him it seemed unfair that I got to
have sex with all my boys but he only got me. I knew he found Johnny
really attractive, kind of like what I'm going to look like if I ever
decide to grow. I had my 13th birthday and was officially a teenager but
evidently nobody has told my body. I'm still hairless and dry at orgasm.
My dick though has gotten about a half inch larger so I'm sure it's
just a matter of time.


My days were consumed by meetings with the coaches. I hadn't been there
last year for any of the planning that they had done, my involvement with
the team didn't really start until right before the first game of the
season so I wasn't totally sure what to do. While Tom couldn't do the
office for long I could go over to his house and he and I talked about
how to get things started. After our discussions I realized it was all
pretty simple and my nervousness disappeared.


The first day of training camp was great. We had all the players there,
79 of them. I looked out over the sea of players and my eyes blurred for
a moment and I saw potential rather than individuals.


"Gentlemen, welcome to the Maryland Terrapin training camp. Or should I
say the national champion Maryland Terrapins?" and that got a loud cheer
from the group. "48 of you were here last year and I'm pretty sure you
enjoyed the experience, right?" and I got a "right" in response. "So
our goal this year is to repeat the experience. We have a lot of new
players that we're looking at to be fantastic contributors to that
repeat. I know some of you recruits saw our ring ceremony and if you look
around at players near you I'm sure you'll see their rings. I'm hoping
to fill up another finger this year but that goal is dependent on you
players, how you accept our coaching and execute the game plans."


I looked around at them all. I stood up and stalked up on a raised area
beside the practice field and looked at them all again. "Do you want to
know what I see?" I asked and I was almost knocked down by the loud
"what" I received in return. "I see this year's national champions
sitting and standing here." I answered and got more loud cheers.


"Let's get to work. Separate into groups with your coaches, get loose.
Hydrate yourselves, we don't want anyone falling over. This isn't boot
camp, it's training camp!" and with that the players drifted into
smaller groups. First the defense went to Jerry, the offense to Al. Then
they divided even more as the assistants took their players off to the
side to get to know them. This week was just getting into thinking about
football, getting the exercise programs set up with the trainer and
becoming acclimated to the atmosphere of a college team environment for
those high school students that we recruited.


We had a week of conditioning, then we started on the actual play
preparation. Rick was everything we thought he would be. Jamie was a
really good quarterback but he had no interest in the pros where Rick
wanted to be a pro eventually. His skill level on that first day was
already equal to Jamie's skills by his senior year. I had meetings with
both Al and Jerry every day and between the three of us we set up new
game plans for both offense and defense. Really there wasn't much to
change for the defense since we had very little change but the offense
was a lot better than it was last year.


Not just because of Rick but with Daniel at tight end and one of the
Johnson twins at wide receiver it complimented the other new wide
receiver. Findley was more than adequate as a running back, perhaps not
short yardage since he wasn't the fullback type but anything that
wasn't straight up the middle he excelled. We had the fullback to do
that 1 yard plunge play. Daniel had ended up 2nd team All America last
year and both the new receivers were in the top 5 of their positions on
the charts.


Tom would make an occasional appearance on the sidelines. I really would
like him to come back to a more full time position. Not that it mattered
to my workload. With Johnny, my new intern Dan, Irene plus Sam and Amy
everything got done and it wasn't all dependent on my efforts. We had
out first rally upcoming before we played our first game of the season.
Like most major college football programs our first opponent was a small
school that had practically zero chance of competing for a win. In most
cases they were lucky to score a point.


Obviously we won that one, then the doormats of the ACC were next up and
those two were blown out. So far it's been three games and our defense
hasn't let up a point. That was with our 2nd and 3rd string players
getting their turns to play because by halftime we were up by 35 or more
points. Florida State was next and this year they had to come to College
Park and see all of our tailgaters and tens of thousands of people who
couldn't get into the game.


We finally let up some points, eventually it had to happen. We did win
45-10 though so again we had that serious cushion. I had talked it over
with Rick early on after seeing just how good we were. The problem with
using the 2nd or 3rd string players and quarterbacks was that Rick
wasn't getting those astronomical stats that could propel him to the
Heisman. I promised him that once we got into next season we'd get him
that Heisman trophy, maybe two of them. Hell maybe three of them if he
wanted to be greedy!


He bought into the program and we stomped our way through the conference
undefeated. We outscored our opponents 496-20 over the regular season and
kept our unanimous #1 ranking. This year there were 2 other undefeated
teams and one of them wasn't Notre Dame. Our beating last year must have
shattered the players and coaches confidence, they only went 7-3 after
being ranked #2 to start the season. In a way I wished we could play and
crush both those undefeated teams just to make sure nobody had any doubts
about who was best.


Now it was time for my movie premiere. I had told them well in advance
that I'd be able to get away for the premiere as long as it was held
sometime after December 10th and by December 20th. Had to have my
holidays free and after that would be the next national championship
game. They scheduled it so I would be able to make it, evidently the
screenings of the movie they had done in advance for the critics went so
well, with my acting getting such rave reviews that they knew I had to be
there. Since Daniel was in the movie as well he accompanied me.


It was a really glamorous affair. Totally unlike anything I had ever seen
in my life. The studio took care of my clothes, I had to wear a tuxedo. I
thought I looked silly but Daniel really loved it. His tuxedo had to be
specially made since he was so large and as we walked the red carpet and
heard the cheers and yells, it was just an incredible feeling. All those
flash bulbs going off as I exited the limo at the theater were blinding.
The studio insisted that I have some makeup done, to avoid me sweating
and not looking as good as I could. They even made sure my long blond
hair was combed properly and it was stuck down with so much hair spray
that a hurricane wouldn't have moved it.


I hadn't seen any of the movie, remember they did all my scenes first
and I never even saw those scenes. I was looking forward to it and just
hoped that not only was the movie good but that I had done more than a
decent job in my role. The movie started and I was totally engrossed in
watching it. I got involved in my own character and when I died I had
tears in my eyes. I saw a lot of people with tears so I knew it was done
good.


The next day the reviews came out and I was so nervous as I walked down
to breakfast. Dick Angle, Sr was there with all the papers and the
different critics opinions.


"Jimmy! You're officially a star!" Dick boomed. People in the
restaurant seemed to all look in my direction at his loud vocalization.
"The reviews are in and they are even better than we could have
anticipated. They are talking about an Oscar nomination!"


"No way, really?" I answered. "That's great. I was so worried about
how I would come across on the screen, if I seemed believable as that
character."


"I expect we'll get a lot of role offers now for you. I've already had
calls from two different studio heads asking about availability." Dick
stated.


"Well, football is still first for me. I did like doing the movie role
and would love to do another one, or more but it all has to work around
my job." I replied. "Would they work around something like that for a
new actor like me?"


"Would they? They would do anything to get you in a movie. Next time it
won't be your name third on the credits either, you'll be the main
star. Or at least the main costar." Dick answered.


"I'm in, just send me scripts you think are good for my future. I'd
rather get paid a little less and make a great movie than take a ton of
money and make a dud." I said and then we finished up our breakfast.
There were photographers waiting outside as I took a limo to the
television stations to do interviews with their entertainment reporters.
Now it felt more like the football time that was quickly coming up, our
game with Alabama.


We opened at #1 in the box office gate receipts ranking and were still
there two weeks later when the game was being played. This year the game
was in Florida, in the Orange Bowl. Our opponent was Alabama, they had
gone undefeated also and while they had let up more points they scored
about the same amount we did.


Al, Jerry and I did my method of watching Alabama's team and they were
far more rounded than Notre Dame had been the prior year. They had no
true superstars but they had far less detrimental players. We did find a
few things we hoped to capitalize on during the game, only time would
tell if we did it or not.


Game day was beautiful, very little wind. Great for our passing game.
Alabama was more an old school run first, pass if you have to team while
we were more wide open and try to get yardage in chunks. The game was
close in the first half, we were only up 14-10 at halftime. I expected
the game to be close. Tom had made it to the game but insisted on being
in the upstairs box with a couple of our scouts. I guess he didn't want
to be a distraction but I'd have welcomed him there.


The second half we scored on our opening drive, then twice more and held
Alabama to one score and won the game 35-17. Both the Johnson twins
scored, I thought that was pretty good. Just one defensive touchdown this
year but I was just happy to win the national championship again.


There was no doubt at the postgame press conference who was in charge on
the Maryland side anymore. All the questions were directed to me, I did
send the questions to Al and Jerry on occasion to get them into the
spotlight. I knew it would be touch and go if we kept both of them this
year. I was sure they'd get some good offers, maybe bigger than we could
match. I would hope Tom would want to keep the team together, at least
one more year anyway.


We did have a special screening of my movie in the theater at the Student
Union building on campus. I made sure to invite all the people I knew,
even peripherally. It was another packed house and, if I were going to go
by their reviews, I'd win 100 Oscars. The part I really liked was the
part they couldn't hide, the tears or the tracks of tears on their
faces. That way I knew I had done a good job.


Did I win the Oscar? Well, no. I didn't win it. The movie though did win
the Oscar for Best Picture. It might be the first time something didn't
go perfect for me. However I did win it the next year so that made up for
it. Over the next three years our team won a lot of games, lost a few
games but had a much larger percentage of our grads that were drafted
into the NFL. That helped with our recruiting for sure. I didn't take
any more contract extensions, I wanted to have my slate clear so I could
more easily move along to whatever was next.


I did get my masters in psychology even though I doubted I'd ever do it
as a profession. I'd already made more than enough money to last me more
than my lifetime and it kept on coming in with the movies and
commercials, also I'd do maybe 30 speeches a year at $5,000 a pop.
That's a nice chunk of change. Daniel graduated and was drafted by the
Cardinals and went off to St Louis. I met him there and we lived
together. It kind of worked out well, I did most of my serious work in
the movies during the football season. Daniel was so busy with practices
and games that we wouldn't have had much time together.


What about my boys? Well, it wasn't possible to keep us all together. We
enjoyed our time together in college. Rudy was the first to go, he had
also been drafted and was in Los Angeles. Johnny went with him, they were
obviously in love. It was still all a big public secret, being gay and a
football player wouldn't have worked out in the mid 1960s. Findley and
Jackson went their separate ways, neither of them were NFL material but
both had great educations to fall back on. Jackson eventually became a
college coach and I was excited to see him make a difference. Findley
went to law school and became a lawyer.


I still occasionally see the two of them. Rudy and Johnny I see
relatively often since I do a lot of movies and they're based in the
Hollywood area. Even though we're all older now and have our own lives,
when we are together they are still my boys and I love the two of them
dearly. Johnny is still incredibly pretty and I tried to get him into
acting but he's happy working behind the scenes. Someday he wants to
direct a movie, so far he's just been an assistant director but he's
barely 24 now, plenty of time to learn the craft.


It was a fine night, Daniel and I were at my house in the Hollywood
hills.


"I love you forever Daniel." I whispered.


"I love you forever Jimmy." he responded, kissing me.


Then sleep overtook us and the next day and every day after we said those
words before we went to sleep. And we meant them.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Well, I have no idea how many of you read this from beginning to the end.
It sure didn't start out to be 300+ pages, it was going to be a long
short story. Then suddenly it took off and I had to come along for the
ride. When I started it I had no idea of the whole football and college
thing, not until it spewed out of my fingers on to the computer monitor.
Then I couldn't stop writing.


Hope you enjoyed it!