CHAPTER 99

My plane was on time, I was back on the west coast and home around seven o'clock that evening. I had film review and meetings in the morning, it was back to the daily grind. We worked extra hard that week, making sure the rust from the bye week was not a factor. We left for New York on Thursday afternoon, we had a mid after noon game that Sunday.

It was one of those games that you try to forget immediately, we played horribly. Offensively we struggled, we turned the ball over four times. We put our defense in horrible situations, they did their best, but the odds were overwhelming. We left New York with a record of

9-3, only four games remaining in the regular season.

The following week, practice was intense, the coaches wanted to make sure last week's loss was not going to become a habit. This late in the year, everyone was nursing some kind of minor injury, bruising or soreness. I had a sore hamstring, a nagging ankle and a stiff shoulder.

But all things considered, I was still in pretty good shape. We had a home game against Houston that week, it was a must win.

Their defense had been susceptible to the run all year, that's where we figured to exploit them. But for the first two quarters we struggled to run the ball, the game was tied 10-10 at the half. Coach Reed decided to open the second half with our quicker paced, play action package. We ran a quicker tempo, we were in and out of the huddle quickly, which prevented the defense from making substitutions on every play. Our first drive of the second half was going well until Josh was sacked and fumble the ball on our own forty eight yard line. Our defense took the field, but six plays later they broke the tie and took the lead, 17-10.

I had up to that point, one reception for eight yards, due to our attempts in the first half to run the ball. We started our next drive on our own twenty, the result of a touchback. Coach Reed stuck to the quick temp offense, but went with five receiver packages, lining me up in the slot as the fifth wideout. It was dangerous, because it left Josh with no protection other than the standard five man line in front of him. To counter that, we had a hot read on every play, in case of a blitz. They were using a nickel package with five defensive backs, a standard four man line and two linebackers.

Josh drove us down the field with laser accurate passes, splitting the seams in the defense like a surgeon. On third and four from their twenty five, we used a standard trips receiver package, I went in motion to the left. As I followed along the offensive line from right to left, the two outside linebackers communicated the switch, one dropping me off to the other. Josh then knew as well as I did, I was matched one on one with a slower defender. Just as I got outside on the tackle's shoulder the ball was snapped, I turned and accelerated hard up the field. The linebacker had positioned him between my outside shoulder and the sideline, which left the middle vulnerable. I simply planted my left foot and began to fade toward the middle of the field. The free safety snapped his head towards me, but by the time he did, we were almost on the same depth, but he was flat footed. I ran to the right hash marks, then looked back, the ball was already in the air. My first thought was to accelerate, I misjudged the ball completely. After several steps, I realized the ball would be short, so I had to slow down and wait on it. Fortunately it was still high and over my right shoulder, I was able to out jump the free safety and make the catch at the three yard line, but was brought down immediately. They spotted the ball at the one yard line, two plays later we punched it in, the game was once again tied 17 - 17.

Our defense got us the ball back quickly, giving us good field position at our own thirty three. Josh was in a groove now, the passes were dead on, almost impossible to defend. Several plays later we were once again at their seventeen knocking on the door. I was scheduled to run a fade route to the right corner, I was essentially a decoy. The ball was snapped and I drifted into the right corner looking back over my shoulder. I could immediately see Josh was under pressure, he spun around and started moving to his left. I immediately broke off my right, taking off down the line at the back of the end zone, trying to find an open seam. Just as Josh was running out of field, the sideline approaching, I saw a small opening three yards in front of me. I broke into the section of the end zone, knowing the throw would have to be low. Josh released a dart, which was right on target, hitting me in the chest as I slid forward in the end zone. The crowd roared, we were back on top.

As I got up from the turf, the crowd immediately became deathly silent, I knew something was wrong. I looked back up the field and I could see what the crowd had reacted to. Josh was lying out of bounds, his right hand, clutching his left shoulder. As I walked towards our bench, I looked up on the large screen, they were showing the replay. Just as Josh had released the ball a defensive lineman tackled him, both of their body weight all coming to rest on Josh's left shoulder. Everyone in the stadium was nervously holding their breath, waiting for him to get up. By now the trainers and doctors were out there, they were being extremely careful. I made my way to the bench and sat down, our backup quarterback Brad Dillon was beginning to warm up. While Brad was a decent quarterback, he was not in the same league as Josh.

After several minutes, they brought a cart out for Josh, taking him to the back for further evaluation. It was early in the fourth quarter, we had a 24-17 lead, but there was still close to a full quarter to play. Midway through the fourth quarter word reached us out on the field that Josh had separated his shoulder and possibly had ligament damage. I'm not sure if that mattered or not, but they scored twice in the fourth quarter, beating us 31-24, we had now dropped two in a row.

By the time I had made it back to the locker room, Josh had already been taken to a nearby hospital for further testing. I showered, dressed and left the stadium quickly, making my way across town to the hospital where they had taken Josh. As I made my way up to the third floor, I approached the nurse's station to see what room he was in. I noticed his girlfriend Angie, seated in the hallway, just past the nurses. I walked straight over to where she was seated, she was obviously extremely upset.

"Any news Angie, how is he doing ?", I asked.

"Oh hey Brian, they are running tests right now. They know the shoulder is separated, they are checking for tissue and ligament damage.", she replied.

I sat down next to the attractive young woman, trying to make her feel a little better about the situation.

"At least it's not his throwing arm Angie, it could have been worse.", I told her.

"Yes, I know.", she said, squeezing my hand.

Several hours later, we were informed that the shoulder had been separated and he had suffered some slight tissue and ligament damage. He would require immediate surgery, and his season was over.

He would be flown to Alabama the following day, where an expert in sports medicine would perform surgery immediately. I left Angie there, telling her to please call me and let me know how everything worked out.

I drove home, getting in just shortly before midnight. I made my way up to my condo, got undressed and fell into bed, I was exhausted.

Without Josh in the lineup, we struggled, there was no leadership on offense. People pointed fingers at each other for mistakes, no one had the command in the huddle that Josh had. We finished the season with three more losses, our 9-7 record, not good enough to make the playoffs. The season was over, as promising as my rookie year started out, it ended miserably. I finished the season with 89 receptions for 1097 yards and 9 touchdowns.

On the Wednesday after our final game, we all met for our last team meeting, cleaned out our locker's, then left the facility. I had been in constant contact with Josh, his surgery had gone well, he was expected to make a full recovery. He could start throwing again in a few months, he promised to call so we could work out together. I was now facing at least three months of inactivity, other than normal workouts to stay in shape. I thought about going home, but three months around Ashley just didn't seem like the right thing to do.