CHAPTER 89

The entire time I was talking to him, the smile just kept getting bigger and bigger. His mom laughed out loud at my explanation, knowing what in fact had actually happened. I pulled the chair up to the bed, sat down and leaned forward.

"So tell me buddy, why am I your favorite player ?", I asked.

The young boy, turned to his mom as if he was searching for an answer, she nodded her head towards me as much as to say, tell him. The young boy turned his head back towards me, I could tell he was nervous.

"Cuz your name is ….is the same as mine, and uh…you jump real high… then you catch the ball.", he said, slowly each phrase independent from the previous.

"Well we do have the same name, you're right. I do try and catch the ball, but sometimes I do drop it.", I said, winking back at him.

"I only …. saw you drop it….once.", he smiled.

By this time the boy's father had made his way into the room, he walked over and shook my hand thanking me for taking the time to come see his young son. I went back to my conversation with the young boy, I began asking him questions about himself. After a few minutes, we were getting along really well, like we had known each other for a long time. I had heard his father ask his wife, if she had eaten yet today, to which she answered she had not. I turned to the two of them, catching them unaware.

"Hey Mom and Dad, why don't you two go get something to eat, Bryan and I will hang out here until you get back.", I offered.

"Are you sure ?", the woman asked.

"Yep, we will be fine. If we get lonely, we will call in a few nurses, huh buddy ?", I asked, winking at Bryan.

"Yea Mom….. You guys go eat.", he laughed.

His parents left the room with a bit of hestitation, we resumed our conversation quickly. In the next forty five minutes I learned the true meaning of courage. This tiny child had been battling this disease for most of his life. He had spent the last three months confined to this hospital room. He made it very hard for you to even imagine you had any problems, much less entertain the notion of feeling sorry for yourself. There was a knock on the door, a very pretty blonde nurse came in, walking around to the boy's side of the bed. They knew each other well, he quickly acknowldeged her presence.

"This my new friend…his name is Brian too…he plays football on TV.", the boy said excitedly.

"He's on TV ?", the nurse asked, an astonished look on her face.

"Yep, he's really good too.", he added.

I had to laugh at his last comment, this small child was truly my biggest fan in this town. As he turned his head back in my direction, his nurse began checking all of his equipment, take readings, this I figured was her ritual. As she was wrapping up her duties, his mother and father came back into the room, walking to the foot of his bed.

"So how are you guys getting along ?", his father asked.

"Doing good sir. He is quite a little man.", I answered.

"We can't thank you enough for taking the time out to see him. It's really generous of you.", his father said.

"I had to come as soon as I found out I had a fan. I mean, do you realize he is my very first fan ?", I asked, trying to act as serious as possible.

"Am I really you're first fan ?", Bryan asked.

"Yes you are. This is my first vist to anyone, since I have been out here.", I answered.

"Wow.", he said, grinning ear to ear.

"And since you are my first fan, that entitles you to another visit, plus you get something signed for your collection. So what do you think you would like autographed ?", I asked.

The boy thought hard for close to a minute, then a smile returned to his face. With all the sincerity in the world, he asked for the item he most wanted signed.

"When you catch a touchdown on Sunday, can you sign the ball and bring it to me ?", he asked, innocently.

"Oh is that all you want ?", I laughed.

"Yep, that's it.", he replied.

"Well Bryan, I tell ya what. I won't catch a touchdown in every game, it's just not that easy. But I will promise you, the next one I catch, you will get the ball.", I answered.

"You promise ?", he said, frowning slightly.

"I promise buddy.", I responded.

His parents followed me outside of the room, once again thanking me for taking the time to come and visit their child. His father shook my hand, letting me off the hook for a return visit. He insisted I had done more than he had hoped for, coming back was not necessary.

"Are you kidding me. My fan wants a game ball, he gets a game ball.", I answered.

I drove back home, but that night I had trouble sleeping, I couldn't get the young man I had just met, off of my mind. I know it took over an hour for me to fall asleep. The next morning we had our customary meetings, we then went through our last walk through before the game tomorrow. After practice was over, we were dressing in the locker room, I mentioned my vist with Bryan the day before to Josh. He found it quite amusing that I had promised my new young friend, I would score for him. I explained I didn't have much of a choice, I was put on the spot.

I arrived early the following morning, I was in the stadium before nine o'clock. I hit the field dressed in just shorts and a tee shirt and began to warm up on my own. Slowly players began arriving, soon I was catching passes from one of our backup quarterbacks. At about ten thirty, I headed back to the locker room to get taped up and dressed, by the time we were set to kick off, I was a raving lunatic.

We got off to poor start turning the ball over on two consecutive possessions resulting in a 10-0 lead for our opponent in the first quarter. We had cut the margin to 13-7 by halftime, but we still were not playing well. The mood in the locker room was tense during the break, we were not used to playing from behind.

We opened the third quarter with a nice drive, I caught two passes for decent gains, before we stalled out and settled for a field goal. We narrowed the lead to 13-10, early in the third quarter. The score stayed that way for the rest of the quarter and early into the fourth. With about ten minutes left in the fourth quarter, Kansas City kicked another field goal extending their lead to 16-10, forcing us to have to score a touchdown to win the game.

We struggled on the next drive, twice having to convert on third down to keep the drive alive. We were at our own forty five yard line, there was less than five minutes to play. While we wanted to score, we also wanted to leave as little time on the clock as possible, because a field goal could beat us. We ran several more plays getting the ball inside of their forty, there was 3:10 left on the clock, Josh signaled a time out, he trotted to the sidelines. After a lengthy television time out, he returned to the huddle, a series of plays were called in case we had to go with no huddle. On first and ten, we had a screen play called, the defense read it well, Josh had to leave the pocket, running to his left. I immediately broke off my crossing route, reversed field and worked my way clear around the fifteen. He threw a dart that cleared two sets of defender's hands, right into mine. I took my eyes off the ball for a moment, to see how much room I had to work with, that was all it took as the ball dropped to the turf harmlessly.

"Damn it.", I screamed at myself, while thousands, groaned in unison.

I returned to the huddle my head down, I couldn't look at anyone. Josh took control of the huddle as always.

"You can't drop those rookie, get your head in the game.", he said, calmly getting his point across.