Chapter 29: professional

The first preseason game is about to begin. On his way towards the field Zach catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror, it stops him dead in his tracks. He stares at himself in silence until Sam's voice emerges behind him.

It hits you hard when you see yourself in full gear for the first time, doesn't it?

You can say that again. I saw the light reflect off of the gold number on my chest...

It reminded you of your dad, didn't it? When I saw your name and number a second ago I almost called you Jeremy out of instinct.

Let's hope I do his name and number justice.

Trust your instincts, listen to Lauren and everything will take care of itself.

I'll do my best, see you afterwards.

Being the highly anticipated new commodity means Zach has to wait in the tunnel until last.

When his name is called through the speakers, Zach jogs onto the field under the thunderous roars of the fully packed stadium.

The wall of sound is overwhelming, but Marcus puts his arm around Zach to distract him form it.

Are you excited to be playing together again or what?

Hell yeah! You and me, let's put the whole league on notice!

Jake walks over to Zach and Marcus after the national anthem wraps up.

Alright boys, this is it. I'm going to put my trust in you and coach Turner when it comes to the offense. To further show that I believe in you both and trust you guys with the future of this team I am naming you both captains of the offense.

Thank you for the vote of confidence coach, we won't disappoint you.

I'm going to hold you to that. Off you go, time for the coin toss.

Zach, Marcus and two players from the defense walk to the middle of the field to meet the captains of the opposing team and the referees.

The Marauders are the home team, you get to call it.

They all look to Zach.

...heads.

The referee tosses the coin up, it bounces around a bit and lands on tails.

The Broncos win the coin toss. Will you receive the ball or kick it to the Marauders?

Were kicking it, let's see how good this number one overall pick really is.

Zach looks him straight in the eye.

I'll show you, don't worry about that.

During kickoff Lauren calls in all the starters on offense to huddle up.

We put in a lot of practice on nailing our first sequence of plays. Just focus on doing your part and we'll put points on the board.

The offense heads onto the field, but because of the crowd noise Zach has trouble hearing Lauren through the headset in his helmet. Thanks to his extra time studying the playbook he makes it through the first drive relatively well.

Two runs and some short passes to Marcus and Lars later leads to them being only a yard away from the endzone.

We didn't practice this... Lauren, what do we do?

QB sneak!

What?! I can't hear you!

Their time together at ECU comes in handy and she improvises a hand signal.

Right, got it. Guys, huddle up! QB sneak, QB sneak.

As soon as the ball is snapped Zach follows a convoy of blockers and jumps over them.

He gets hit in mid air and flips over, landing flat on his back. As he's laying there staring at the ceiling of the stadium, Zach realizes that he just scored his first NFL touchdown. He jumps up filled with excitement and fist pumps towards the crowd.

Let's go!!!

The rest of the offense gathers around him to celebrate.

First of many guys!

On their way back to the sideline Zach notices the family that he and Rebecca met in the hospital. He points in their direction and tosses the ball he just scored with up to them. The entire Marauder fanbase erupts into cheers as the young boys raise the ball above them in celebration.

He sits down on the bench next to Marcus who hands him something to drink.

You really know how to play the crowd.

It wasn't an act. Rebecca and I met that family in the hospital when Lia was being born.

Oh, I see.

The youngest just recovered form cancer, so after suffering for such a long time I thought season tickets would cheer them up a bit.

Zachary Gray, the ideal son in law that every parent would want for their precious daughter.

What can I say? When you're right, you're right. Too bad there's only one of me.

Lauren joins them as they're laughing.

Good job out there.

Thanks coach.

Were going to send you starters out there one more time. After that you're done for the day, we don't want to risk you getting injured in what is basically a trivial warm up game.

Understood.

Zach and the other finish the first half after scoring one more time.

Once he's done with his shower, Zach gets dressed and heads out into the hallway where Jake is waiting for him.

Hey there coach, ready for the press conference?

I'm not a big fan of them, but they're part of the job.

I'll take the brunt of the questions then, all part of being the "face of the franchise". If they're going to keep calling me that, then I have to act the part.

Indeed you are. You were great out there by the way.

Thanks. It was only a handful of drives, but it was good to be out there again.

They walk into the press room and sit down in front of a dozen journalists and photographers.

Coach Rudor, how would you summarize todays showing from your team?

The starters showed good chemistry and we got a good look at the other players in the second half. Another step closer to building our team and getting ready for the season.

Zach, what was your first NFL game experience like?

Positive, there are still things that I'll have to get used to of course.

Could you go into a bit more detail?

Sure... with positive I mean that even though we haven't built up our full routine yet, we did manage to score two touchdowns in one half.

Was that because you have familiar faces from college?

That definitely helped. I've always had good chemistry with Marcus and Lars. Same goes with coach Turner, half the time we don't even have to talk anymore.

Speaking of Lauren Turner, can you talk about hiring the first female coordinator in the NFL?

Jake gets visibly annoyed.

There have been other female coaches in the league.

Yes, but not in such a high position.

What's your point? She's good at her job so I hired her. On top of that she coached our first overall pick for two years, it was a no brainer for me and our general manager. If you want to have a debate about equality or female rights, my evaluation process begins and ends with a person's competence. And that's all there should ever be.

Zach nods in agreement.

Very true, by the end of the season we'll shut up any doubters anyway.