Bright Lights
The Bluefins win the coin toss and choose to receive the opening kickoff. Washington proceeds to take the kick 105 yards for a touchdown. Gifford isn’t shaken for a second. With full confidence, Gifford and the Anglers answer with three straight scoring drives and go into the locker room up 17-7. Though Gifford generally tries to fire his team up only when they do not appear to be playing well, he gets emotional in the locker room.
“I’m sorry, but I’ma be greedy right now. I’m [expletive] self-centered right now. I don’t care what y’all want. I got beef with these guys. I wanna beat these guys and I wanna beat them bad. And you know what? Y’all gonna help me beat these guys up. Offense, defense, special teams – we’re gonna make them look JV. We’re gonna smack the Bluefins upside the head and then we’re gonna go home. Y’all are gonna hate me if we don’t win this game.”
The players have a look in their eyes that is a mix of “We can’t let this guy down,” “Our season isn’t ending tonight,” and “He’s probably going to be a jerk on the plane if we don’t finish this game off.” The second half begins, and on Gifford’s first drive, he throws an interception deep in Minnesota’s territory. Two plays later, the score is 17-14, Anglers. Minnesota’s kick returner fumbles the ensuing kickoff, but the Anglers recover the ball. That was the last mistake the team would make. Roger Gifford continues his MVP-caliber play by completing two more touchdown passes in the game. The Anglers win the game 34-21 and Gifford is interviewed on the field.
“Roger – your team seemed to turn it up a notch after halftime. What was responsible for that?”
“I just told the guys that we needed to hold this lead. I told them that next week means nothing if we can’t win this game.”
“Roger, with everything that was involved in this game, was it odd to step into Bluefin Park for the first time as the opposing quarterback?”
“It was weird, sure – but you have to overcome all of that. You have to shake it off and realize that there’s a game to be played, and you have to shut out the distractions. Thankfully, my teammates helped me out by playing a great game and we were able to get the win.”
The Anglers’ locker room is out of control after the victory. Coach Farnsworth delivers the short postgame speech and gives the game ball to Roger. The team cheers and dances around the coach for a full minute, and Roger realizes right then and there that all he needed was teammates who appreciated the game as much as he does. And it just so happens that in his short career, the stars aligned so that he could be traded to a team full of dedicated individuals who just wanted to compete. And once they had the opportunity to be good, they were great.
The Anglers would go on to beat the Green Bay Booze Hounds again by a score of 27-10 and end the season with a 10-6 record. With the season sweep of the Booze Hounds, the Anglers have won the division and are moving on to the playoffs. As Gifford is lifted in the air and sprayed with champagne, a television screen catches his eye. Roger sees that the Washington Bluefins have just lost an overtime game to the Philadelphia Finches to complete a 1-15 season.
Roger Gifford is overwhelmed with emotions, and he begins to sob uncontrollably. The tears streaming down his face are camouflaged by the droplets of champagne that are flying all over the locker room. The only question that the Bluefins are waiting to have answered is whether or not they will have the number one overall pick in the 2015 draft, because the Pittsburgh Alloys are in the process of losing their 15th game as well. Later that week, Roger Gifford is named the Offensive Player of the Season and the Comeback Player of the Season. What a turnaround for a guy who was thrown away like garbage less than a year ago. One team’s trash, another team’s treasure.
The Sky’s The Limit
The Anglers host the Tampa Bay Swashbucklers in the first round of the AFA Playoffs, and Minnesota’s defense holds Tampa Bay to a single touchdown in the game. Tampa Bay loses the Wild Card game to Minnesota by a score of 24-10, and it would have been worse if Roger Gifford had had a better passing day. Minnesota then travels to the West Coast to face the San Francisco Gold Diggers, and though the Anglers trailed for much of the game, they would go on to tie the game on a last-second field goal and then win in overtime, 26-20 by way of a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown.
Minnesota is one of the hottest teams in the league at this point, and they find themselves in St. Louis for a conference championship game against the 14-2 Mountain Goats. The Anglers are unable to keep up with the high-octane offense of the Mountain Goats, and they fall behind by 10 points at the half, trailing by a score of 17-7. Roger Gifford delivers yet another one of his inspiring halftime speeches, and the team is able to rally. The Anglers completely outmatch St. Louis in the second half, and Minnesota wins the game, 38-24 behind two touchdowns and 128 second-half rushing yards by Gifford, along with 243 second-half passing yards. Against all odds, the Minnesota Anglers are headed to Big Game XLIX.
Don’t Believe Me? Just Watch.
The scene around the University of Albuquerque Stadium in Santa Fe, New Mexico is out of control. Roger Gifford has gone from “draft bust” to “elite quarterback” in nine months. Roger cannot go anywhere in the city without being mobbed, and he is having a blast. He is loving life, but missing his wife, as Roger’s wife is pregnant and expecting any day now. Three days before game day, Roger receives a call while at dinner with his teammates. His wife is in labor.
The afternoon of Big Game XLIX, Gifford gathers the team around him, and talks almost in a whisper. Roger has become a different player over the past few weeks and this is a game unlike any other. There is no need for Roger to scream at his team – everybody in that locker room knows how important this game is.
“My wife just had a baby girl. Her name’s Rhonda Gifford. This is Big Game XLIX. You want that ring. You don’t want that confetti to rain down on you after a loss. We’ve worked too hard and come too far to go home empty-handed. I want to go home and give my daughter a kiss and tell her that her daddy won the Big Game. Let’s be selfish. That’s our game, and we want it now.”
The Anglers are quiet. Some of them walk over to Roger and pat him on the back. Others walk up to him and congratulate him on the addition to the family. They return to their spots in the locker room and sit quietly. Coach Shannon’s conversation reverberates in Roger’s mind, and he begins to sob. Coach Shannon was the only man who forced him to play well. Coach Shannon was the only one who asked him to be accountable for his mistakes. Coach Shannon made Roger the man he is today. Before the team takes the field, Roger grabs a pen and writes “Rhonda” on one shoe. On the other shoe, he writes “MS,” for Mark Shannon.
Roger steps onto the field and walks over to the sideline of their opponent, the Tennessee Olympians. Roger sees a familiar face. The Olympians’ coach is Mark Shannon’s son, Carl Shannon. Carl was the offensive coordinator in Washington when Roger was a Bluefin. Within days of Mark Shannon being fired by Stan Driver, Carl was let go by the team as well. Tennessee had an opening at head coach and decided to take a chance on Carl, as Tennessee had a ton of offensive weapons and needed a coach who had experience managing players on that side of the ball. The Olympians led the league in points scored in 2014 on their way to a 12-4 record, and scored 35 points in both of their previous playoff games.
Big Game
The Big Game begins. During the National Anthem, Roger Gifford looks like a man who is determined to win by any means necessary. The Tennessee Olympians are huge favorites, but Roger’s not worried about that. After Tennessee receives the opening kickoff and begins their first drive, it becomes evident that the Olympians want to drop 50 points on the Anglers. Minnesota’s defense hangs tough and is able to keep the game close at the half. The teams continue to trade blows in the third and fourth quarters, and after 58 minutes of play, the game is tied at 17.
Roger Gifford gets the ball with 1:40 to go and two timeouts. It is 1st and 10 from the Anglers’ 20-yard line. Gifford hikes the ball, keeps it, and
runs out of bounds at the Minnesota 44-yard line. 1:12 to go. Seventy-two seconds will define Roger’s career. Roger calls the next play.
“BLUE DISTRICT FIVE ELEVEN! FIVE ELEVEN! DOWN! SET! HIKE!”
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