Delay of Shame: Roger's Story

Delay of Shame: Roger’s Story

  Part 1 – False Start

  Roger has just begun his life as a quarterback in the American Football Association, in the nation’s capital. After weeks of bad performances and a minor scandal, the coach feels the need to move on and explore other options, leaving Roger a broken man. He is given a fresh start in Minnesota. Will he take advantage and prove his doubters wrong?

  (Delay of Shame is a three-part series. Part 1, “False Start,” explores the developing relationship between Roger Gifford, his teammates, and his bosses through the beginning of Roger’s second season in the league.)

  Preseason

  A Bentley rolls up into a cul-de-sac and makes its way toward the driveway of a beautiful house in lovely, cozy Ashburn, Virginia. The neighborhood is bathed with sunshine, with only a few stray clouds in the sky. The Washington Bluefins’ starting quarterback, Roger Gifford, steps out of his automobile in a gingerly fashion and limps ever so slightly to the passenger side door. He opens the door for his wife and extends his hand to help her out of the car. They walk together to the front door of their mansion and they enter their home. His wife opens the refrigerator and pulls out leftover fettuccine alfredo from the Olive Orchard. As a very grounded individual, Gifford knows that it’s not practical to eat out at five-star restaurants every night. Sometimes, Olive Orchard is all you need.

  The microwave beeps and Gifford’s wife sets down two plates, dishes out the leftovers, and sits one plate in front of Roger at the table. She carries her own plate over to another chair and they chat, mostly about how each other’s days went. She brings up Roger’s practice.

  “How did you feel out there today, Roger? Did everything seem all right?”

  “I felt good. My knee wasn’t too much of an issue. It was nice to get a few more reps with the guys on the first team. The coaches let us know that even though we had an amazing season last year, we have to stay focused. But enough of that – how was your day, sweetie pie?”

  That’s what makes Roger Gifford who Roger Gifford is. He’s a guy from a small town who was raised to open doors for ladies; raised to ask how others were doing instead of waxing poetic about his own day. He believes that we were born with two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak. Unfortunately, as Opening Day grows closer and his popularity increases, his relationship to the values with which he was raised weakens.

  Rough Start

  Roger wakes up, gets ready to go to the stadium, and kisses his wife on the forehead. She wipes the sleep out of her eyes and whispers “Good luck, honey” as he leaves the bedroom. “Thanks, babe. I’ll do my best,” he replies with a smile on his face. Roger gets in his car and heads out to the stadium, as confident as he ever was last season. “Time to make it happen,” he whispers to himself at a red light.

  Roger is the first player to arrive at Bluefin Park for the first game of the season. Coach Mark Shannon has already been in his office for two hours. Roger decides to have a conversation with Coach Shannon about his plans for the team in 2013.

  “Coach, how are you feeling about the season?”

  “You know, Roger – I feel like we can shock the world again. They didn’t expect us to do anything last season, and we went on a run. You’ve been very good in practice, and I’m glad we made sure you were at 100% for this game and this season so that we could make some noise in the playoffs. We’re gonna be good. Really good.”

  Roger leaves Coach Shannon’s office and sees players begin to file into the locker room. He tries to pump the players up and tell them all, one-by-one, that he knows they’re going to make this city proud. He does this with every player, except for the kickers, right up until they get ready to get on the field. He delivers a pregame speech for the ages and nearly loses his voice when he begins screaming about how every man needs to give their all for the team. “’Team’ on three! One! Two! Three! TEAM!”

  The Bluefins lose the coin flip and struggle from the opening kickoff. The Dallas Conquistadors come out firing on all cylinders and go into the locker room up 20-3 at the half. Gifford has two interceptions and has been sacked and hit numerous times. Gifford drags himself and his grass-stained uniform into the locker room at halftime. Gifford and the rest of the team have their heads down in disgust when Coach Shannon comes in and starts tearing up papers.

  “You know what this is? How about this? This?!? This was my game plan for the day! I missed my daughter’s birthday to work on these plays! And you go out and embarrass me, but worse, you embarrassed yourselves in your OWN STADIUM! I should cut everybody who stepped on that field right now!”

  Coach Shannon tosses the untorn pages on the floor and storms out. Gifford stands up, picks up the pages, throws them in the trash, and looks at the team.

  “That was terrible. I was terrible, and if you want to tell me that you weren’t terrible too, you’re a [expletive] liar. Get your [expletive] heads in the [expletive] game! You all need to do better. I need to do a LOT better. Let’s go out there and show Dallas what happens when you try to win in Bluefin Park!” The newly rejuvenated team runs onto the field ready to maul Dallas.

  The Bluefins rally right after halftime and the score after three quarters is only 20-17, Conquistadors. Last year, Roger Gifford would win this in the fourth quarter with great plays. This year, sadly, is different.

  The first play for the Bluefins on offense in the fourth quarter is an interception by Gifford which is returned to Washington’s 12-yard line. The Conquistadors go up 27-17 and win the game by that same score. Shannon is very disappointed in Roger’s performance, but he understands that Roger is still recovering from a knee injury suffered in the previous season. The coach is very dejected in his office. The owner, Stan Driver, walks into Coach Shannon’s office.

  “Mark, that was a tough loss. I just wanted to pop in and make sure everybody knew that it’s all right. I’m glad they showed heart for as long as they did. Just please, Mark, try to show Roger some support – it will go a long way.”

  Stan Driver leaves the coach’s office and closes the door behind him gently. Coach Shannon sits for a moment with his hand on his chin while nodding. Though the team lost and played poorly for a full half, he clearly appreciates the effort that the team put forth in the second half and he is pleased with Roger’s leadership during halftime, which led to the near comeback. Mark refuses to forget that Kurt Cutcliffe, the very talented backup quarterback, is waiting in the wings, just in case Roger continues to falter.

  Gifford regains his mojo in Week 2 in San Francisco, wins the game 40-30, and plays like an MVP candidate. Stan Driver assures Coach Shannon that this is the real Roger Gifford and that he has taken many steps forward in his second season. Shannon cannot deny that he was impressed by this performance against a good San Francisco team and praises Gifford in the press conference after the game.

  The support from Coach Shannon is short-lived. The Bluefins drop the next three games and they do not look competitive in any of the three. They lose to Atlanta and Philadelphia at home by a combined score of 61-10, and then travel to Buffalo, where they lose to the winless Bison, 24-11. The team is 1-4 going into Week 6, their bye week. Shannon is beginning to question whether Gifford should be playing at this time, when Cutcliffe is waiting in the wings. Shannon believes in Gifford, but wonders if Cutcliffe might help the team more at this time. Cutcliffe is a team player who shows a ton of promise, but the coach does not want to make a change too early into the season unless it is necessary, for fear that the chemistry within the locker room may be thrown off.

  Bye Week

  The majority of the team takes a vacation, including Mark Shannon. In Orlando, Shannon spends quality
time with his family for the first time since the season began. A nice, relaxing vacation ends with a minor scare on a flight back to Ashburn, but it is revealed to be nothing but turbulence. The plane lands at the airport and the Shannons head back home. Everyone, that is, except for Mark. Coach Shannon now needs to go work on the game plan for Week 7. They need a win, but more importantly, Gifford needs to play well – otherwise, it might be time to make a change at quarterback.

  Facing Adversity

  The team has one win and four losses, and the bye week was a time for healing the bumps and bruises accrued during the first five games. This team should be as ready as ever for their Week 7 matchup. This is where the turnaround begins. Unfortunately, the Miami Manatees came in ready to play as well, sacking Gifford four times in the first half. The Washington Bluefins go into the locker room down 19-0.

  Gifford walks out of the locker room for the second half and throws two more interceptions in two consecutive possessions before Coach Shannon calls Gifford and Cutcliffe over to his spot on the sideline.

  “Gifford! Cutcliffe! Over here!” Both quarterbacks jog over to the coach. The third-string quarterback, Rusty Grover, sits back and takes another sip from his water bottle. “What’s up, Coach?” the two quarterbacks ask, almost in unison. “I’m going with Kurt to finish the game. Get in there, Cutcliffe.”

  Kurt Cutcliffe runs onto the field ready to show Coach Shannon that he has made the right choice. Gifford, on the other hand, walks over to the bench, removes his helmet, and shakes his head as he takes a seat. His teammates come over to show support, but all he wants is a moment to himself.

  The team plays as if it has gotten its second wind as soon as Cutcliffe takes the first snap. Cutcliffe hands the ball off to his running back who sprints 69 yards for a touchdown. The defense forces Miami to punt on three straight possessions, and on the third punt, the Bluefins return the kick for a touchdown. Washington continues to move the ball well, and on their final possession, Cutcliffe throws a perfect pass in the back corner of the end zone for a touchdown. The Bluefins go up 28-22 and the defense sacks the Manatees’ quarterback to end the game. Stan Driver has been taking note of Gifford’s body language from the owner’s box and confronts Coach Shannon after the game.

  “Mark, you can’t take Roger out this early. You have to give him some time to get back to form. You can’t do that this early in the season.”

  “Stan! Were you watching that game!? We got a win and Kurt looked great. Roger didn’t care – he wasn’t even watching the game half the time. I can’t have somebody who isn’t a team player playing quarterback for my team. The guy was useless out there…what am I supposed to do? Let him drown out there?”

  Stan Driver stares at Coach Shannon for a moment, and then storms out of the office. As Driver walks into the hallway, he screams out, “Get it together, Mark!” Coach Shannon looks down at his playbook and sighs.

  “Get It Together, Mark!”

  Gifford takes the team to Didgeridoo Steakhouse for dinner the night before the game, for team-bonding. In an extremely strange move, Gifford points out that he will not be covering Cutcliffe’s bill. Kurt has no problem paying for himself, but Gifford and Cutcliffe do not even look at each other for the rest of the meal. The team leaves the dinner in worse shape than it was in before the meal. Coach Shannon finds out about the minor rift between the quarterbacks from an unnamed source. This source was later proven to be Rusty Grover, the third-string quarterback.

  “How’s it hangin’, coach? Did you have a good weekend?”

  “Nothing special, Rusty. Just looked over some game tape, went to dinner with my wife last night. How about you?”

  “Went to dinner with the team. Gifford paid for everybody – well, pretty much everybody.” Rusty chuckles.

  “What do you mean, ‘pretty much’ everybody?”

  “Ehhh, I think I’ve said too much…uhhh, but I gotta go. See ya!” Rusty darts out of the coach’s office.

  Coach Shannon isn’t dumb. He knows Roger’s M.O. and he knew it all along. A few minutes before the game, he tells Stan Driver about the incident that took place during the team dinner.

  “I told you, Stan! This is what he does! I should suspend Gifford for the next game for pulling that stunt! I’m telling you – I don’t need guys who don’t want to be a part of this team. Roger isn’t helping the team. It’s crystal clear!”

  “Mark, you don’t know what happened at that dinner, but you want to suspend the starting quarterback for not covering Cutcliffe’s bill? What has gotten into you? Look – Gifford is the starter, and he’s going to be the starter until we absolutely need to put somebody in for him. If you can’t deal with that, then we’ll have to make some…well, some other moves.”

  “What do you mean by that, Stan?”

  “Just make sure you’re doing what helps the team win. I want to see that stadium filled with happy fans. Filled!” Driver walks off fuming. He runs into Gifford in the hallway. Stan locks eyes with Gifford.

  “Go get ‘em, champ.”

  Will Roger “go get ‘em”? Is Coach Shannon going to make a change? Is Stan Driver going to make changes? Will there be a federal investigation? Find out in Part 2 of Delay of Shame: Roger’s Story.

  Delay of Shame: Roger’s Story