CHAPTER 112

About an hour later, Alexis knocked on the door, opened it and stepped in, announcing her presence. I invited her into the main room where I was watching the replay of last week's game. I pressed pause on the remote, freezing the game at that point. Alexis had a large manilla legal folder in her hand, which she laid on the coffee table in front of us. She bent over and opened it , shuffling through the papers.

"This is all pretty basic stuff Brian. If you both agree and sign this contract, he has the exclusive right to produce this one shirt only. You retain all legal rights to the name HyperDunk as it pertains to this one image. Although a local shoe company does produce a shoe with that name, this being strictly a name given to a non shoe product, doesn't violate any laws.", she began.

"This is what the front and back of the shirt will look like.", she said, handing me two drawings.

On the front of the shirt was a full length photo image of my second dunk in the St. Louis game. My hand and wrist were above the crossbar but the ball was still in my hand, it was an incredible photo. On the back of the shirts were the words Hyper Dunk 89 in bright gold lettering. The base color for the shirts would be a very light blue color, although they would be available in both black and gray as well. Alexis began to lay out the numbers.

"Each shirt costs nine dollars to produce, Dynamic Graphics is asking for a profit of seven dollars per shirt, putting the unit at sixteen dollars to produce. If you sell the shirt for nineteen ninety nine, you have a profit of just under four dollars per shirt. That goes directly to you, although it will be added to your annual income.", she stated.

"I'm ok with everything except one thing, Alexis. When I talked to Mr. DeAngelo, I insisted that part of the proceeds must go directly to Courtney's foundation, that's not negotiable, he has to pledge something from his side, I will match whatever he puts up.", I answered.

"Well let's see what he says.", picking up her cell phone.

She found the number in her directory and dialed him quickly. It took him a while to answer, but he finally picked up.

"Mr. D'Angelo, this is Alexis Clarke. I am here with Brian Stevens, I explained your proposal. He is fine with everything as it is, there is one exception. Part of the proceeds of this shirt must go to his foundation at Children's Hospital, that's not open for discussion. Brian will match any amount per shirt that you pledge.", she offered.

They went back and forth for a while, she finally put her hand over the mouthpiece of her phone.

"He's offering a dollar per shirt, if you match it, that's two for every shirt sold, I think it's fair Brian.", she stated.

"Tell him we have a deal.", I replied.

She hung up, gathered all the paperwork together and placed it back in the folder. It was already close to nine o'clock. I had practice in the morning. Even though I wanted to spend a little more time with Alexis, I thought quickly.

"Have you eaten yet ?', I asked.

"No, it's been a long day, I'm exhausted.", she answered, with a smile.

"How about I run just down the street, grab a couple of sandwiches, while you relax here ?", I offered.

"Oh that would be so sweet of you, you don't mind ?", she inquired.

"No, I'll be right back.", I answered, jumping up and grabbing my keys.

I drove two blocks down to a really nice deli, I was surveying what they had. I bought one tuna salad, one corned beef and one egg salad, along with two large iced teas. I was back at the unit in less than twenty minutes. We sat down and enjoyed a late dinner, even though I could tell she was exhausted, Alexis seemed to enjoy herself. About an hour later, she went home, and I immediately hit the bed.

Four games into the season we remained undefeated, game after game piling up huge numbers on offense. Josh was averaging three hundred twenty five yards a game, we had the number ranked offense in the entire league. I had already caught twenty six receptions for close to four hundred yards and five touchdowns. At the pace we were going, I could eclipse a thousand yards receiving, possibly fifteen to twenty touchdowns. But the biggest blessing after four games was that we had no serious injuries to this point. A few dings, a few bruises, but overall we were all relatively healthy. The Hyper Dunk craze had caught on, the shirts were finally going to be available at this week's home game. We would be facing New England, a very good team, who like us were undefeated. The game would be a nationally televised night game, in fact it was the game of the week. I knew everyone back home would get to see it, always giving me that extra incentive. I arrived at the stadium four hours before the game, going out onto the field and stretching, trying to stay loose, clear the butterflies. I started running a few routes, I caught a few passes from the trainers, going back into the locker room about two hours till kickoff. I was taped up quickly, dressed and was ready to hit the field, in less than an hour. You could feel the electricity in the locker room, everyone knew this was a big one.

Once again, we started off quickly, scoring on our first possession, the rookie Scott Douglas taking a short screen pass sixty six yards for a touchdown. He was so much fun to watch, so explosive. Physically he didn't belong on the field, he was too short, not heavy enough, not powerful enough to punish defenders. But somehow when he got into open space, he was pure magic. On the ensuing kickoff to New England, the returned man fumbled the ball at the nineteen yard line, which we quickly covered up. Josh threw a quick post over the middle to one of our wide outs, he was tackled at the ten.

"Split right, Scat Right, 639 Y, Power Right Angle", Josh called.

This play overloaded the right side of the formation, with most receivers moving from right to left. As the play developed, I was held in as an additional blocker until both the wide outs crossed the field. I would then release my block and drive hard right for the corner pylon, with the running back swinging out of the back field on or near the goal line. What that usually did was cause the linebacker to choose between covering me, or picking up Scott on the short wheel route. I was still engaged in my block with the linebacker, when Scott circled out of the backfield. The linebacker read the play wrong, he had no help over the top. I broke off the block headed straight to the back right corner of the end zone. As usually Josh made the right read and lofted an east touchdown to me, no one within five yards. There were barely five minutes off the clock, we were up 14-0 already. By halftime, the score was 21-7, we had held our fourteen point advantage, although I had dropped one pass that could have gotten us a late second quarter field goal.