The Starter (58 page)
Late in the fourth quarter, down by three touchdowns, the home crowd booing the Krakens once again. Well, not the
entire
home crowd. At least ten percent of the stadium was filled with Sklorno females, clad eyestalks-to-toes in orange and black wrapping or robes. Those Sklorno squealed, chattered, and chirped every time Quentin touched the ball, which — considering he was the quarterback — happened on every Krakens offensive play.
Apparently, the Church of Quentin Barnes had traveled en masse to Ionath. No matter what Quentin did, they cheered. Many season-ticket holders in those sections had dressed in rain gear or outdoor wear — they were prepared for ten thousand Sklorno females in religious rapture, raspers dangling long and flinging drool when the females jumped with joy at each completed pass.
The city streets were full of Sklorno, and not just the females. Bedbugs, the male of the species, were all over the place, an estimated five thousand of them milling about with the females and generally getting underfoot. For Quentin’s safety, Gredok had confined him to the Krakens building and the stadium for the entire week. Quentin hadn’t minded that edict at all — the whole thing was overwhelming, embarrassing, and a little bit frightening.
He walked back to the forming huddle. He’d just thrown another incompletion, forcing a ball into coverage. The pass probably should have been picked off, but Hawick had knocked the ball out of the defensive back’s tentacles.
The Criminals kept five defensive backs in — a “nickel” package — instead of the normal four. They were playing the pass, making sure the Krakens couldn’t get a long ball for a quick score that might put them back in the game. Quentin had already given up two interceptions, throwing into double and even triple coverage as he tried to make something happen. With only four minutes to play, the odds of a three-touchdown comeback were slim.
“
Barnes!
” Coach Hokor popped up in the heads-up holo display. “Stop forcing the ball. We can’t win if you just give them the ball back.”
“Coach, we need points.”
“We also need to work for the rest of the season, and not needlessly put our receivers in jeopardy with the kind of passes you are throwing. X-set formation, run the draw.”
“A draw play? You wanna run the ball?”
“That’s right.”
“But Coach, we need to pass, we—”
“
Run the plays that I call!
”
Quentin kicked the ground, then walked to the huddle. Hokor had given up on the game and wanted to turn the last four minutes into real-time practice. The Krakens would try to put a drive together, see if they could get one more touchdown, build experience for the next three games so they could score when it mattered, score in a game they could win.
“X-set draw,” Quentin said to the huddle. Tired faces looked up at him. His teammates didn’t want to run the ball, they wanted to go for the win no matter how improbable it might be.
“Just run the damn play,” Quentin snapped. “X-Set draw on two, on two, ready?
Break!
”
Quentin walked to the line. The X-set put four receivers on the field — two wide to the left and two wide to the right — with Ju Tweedy as the single back behind Quentin. The defensive backs moved into woman-to-woman coverage, with a good seven- to eight-yard cushion off of Hawick, Milford, Mezquitic, and Halawa. The linebackers spread to the sides of the line — they would be playing a short zone, trying to disrupt inside slant patterns. If Quentin audibled, he could get Hawick or Halawa to sprint out ten yards and turn on a hook pattern, then hit either of them right there.
But a ten-yard pass wouldn’t get points. So, he might as well just run the plays that were called.
He looked over the Criminals defense. White jerseys with purple numbers and purple splashes on their shoulders. White helmets decorated with their purple “ball-and-chain Sklorno” logo. Purple leg armor. Shoes that had started the game as white were now streaked with stains.
“Red, twenty-two!” Quentin called out. “Red, twenty-two! Hut-
hut!
”
Quentin dropped back and raised the ball to his ear, eyes scanning for a pattern. The four receivers sprinted downfield, forcing the defenders to move back as well. The linebackers also backpedaled into their zone positions. Five steps into the drop, Quentin stuck the ball out to his left, where Ju Tweedy tore it out of his hands.
The linebackers had to stop their backward momentum before they could come forward. In that brief pause, Ju reached the line. Michael Kimberlin had let his defensive tackle penetrate past the line of scrimmage, but had pushed him to the right, to the outside. The tackle couldn’t stop his momentum as Ju ran inside, keeping Kimberlin between the tackle and himself. Ju shot through the line at full speed. A Quyth Warrior linebacker attacked, but a head-and-shoulders fake left that linebacker grabbing at air as Ju went by him, cutting outside and heading for the sidelines. A cornerback angled for him, trying to shake off Halawa’s downfield block. Instead of cutting, Ju just lowered his head and shoulders and ran her over. He high-stepped through the tackle, reached the sidelines, and cut upfield.
Quentin watched, hearing the home crowd roar as Ju chewed up the yards. The safety and strong safety’s speed let them quickly close the distance. Ju reached the 10-yard line, then slid out of bounds just as the strong safety hit him.
Quentin felt a rage wash over him. Ju could have lowered his shoulder, taken the strong safety on, tried for the touchdown. But instead, Ju slid out of bounds just ten yards shy of a score. In one play, Ju had shown his moves, his physical power to run sentients over,
and then
showed that — sometimes — he chose not to use that physical power. His team was down by three scores and needed a big play, yet he ran out of bounds.
• • •
THE KRAKENS GOT THAT TOUCHDOWN
three plays later when Quentin hit Crazy George Starcher for six. With only two and a half minutes to play, down by two touchdowns, Arioch Morningstar tried an on-side kick. The Criminals got the ball back. They then notched two first downs and proceeded to run out the clock.
Once again, Quentin had to watch the opposition’s victory formation, their quarterback taking a knee to end the game.
Quentin shook hands with the Criminals players, a rage building inside of him even as he nodded and passed out the obligatory good game congratulations.
Ionath was now 2-and-7. Two games behind the next closest teams, the Mars Planets and the Hittoni Hullwalkers, that were 4-and-5. Three games remained in the season. The Krakens had to win at least two, if not all three. Quentin’s bold claim that they would stay in Tier One looked like just that — a bold claim.
Something had to be done. Something drastic. Ju wanted a man-to-man fight, winner take all? Well, then maybe that had to happen. But before it could, Quentin needed to take Ju out of his game.
He needed to get inside Ju Tweedy’s head.
GFL WEEK TEN ROUNDUP
(Courtesy of Galaxy Sports Network)
The drama continues in the Planet Division. With just three games left in the season, it’s a four-way tie for first between teams with matching 6-3 records: Coranadillana, Isis, Themala and To. Isis stayed in first by knocking Alimum (5-4) down to second-place with a 22-13 win. Themala also knocked a team down to second, thanks to a 28-7 win over the Lu Juggernauts (5-4).
New Rodina (8-1) won it’s sixth in a row to stay in first place. The Astronauts recorded their highest point total of the season, winning 63-10 against the Spider-Bears (1-8). Both Jupiter (7-2) and Neptune (7-2) remain hot on New Rodina’s heels for the Solar Division title.
And speaking of things on heels, the relegation monster is closing in on Ionath. The Krakens (2-7) are two full games behind the Planets (4-5) and the Hullwalkers (4-5).
In the Solar Division, four teams remain on the relegation bubble: Bartel (2-7), Vik (1-8), Chillich (1-8) and Jang (2-7). The Vanguard and the Spider-Bears go head-to-head next week. The winner is guaranteed to avoid relegation.
Deaths
Alimum Armada wide receiver
Tenny
, who was killed on a late hit from Mars Planets linebacker
Doug St. Cyr
. Cyr was injured in an altercation following the hit, and will be out for the rest of the season.
Offensive Player of the Week:
Dreadnaughts quarterback
Gavin Warren
, who threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more in a 28-7 win over the Lu Juggernauts.
Defensive Player of the Week
Neptune free safety
Tulsa
, who had three interceptions and four tackles against the Bartel Water Bugs.
PLANET DIVISION
6-3 Coranadillana Cloud Killers
6-3 Isis Ice Storm
6-3 Themala Dreadnaughts
6-3 To Pirates
5-4 Alimum Armada
5-4 Lu Juggernauts
5-4 Wabash Wolfpack
5-4 Yall Criminals
4-5 Mars Planets
4-5 Hittoni Hullwalkers
2-7 Ionath Krakens
SOLAR DIVISION
8-1 New Rodina Astronauts
7-2 Jupiter Jacks
7-2 Neptune Scarlet Fliers
6-3 Bord Brigands
5-4 D’Kow War Dogs
3-6 Sala Intrigue
3-6 Shorah Warlords
2-7 Bartel Water Bugs
2-7 Jang Atom Smashers
1-8 Vik Vanguard
1-8 Chillich Spider-Bears
Excerpt from
“Third Best: A Comprehensive Catalog of the GFL’s Tier Three Franchises.”
“In the short and violent history of interaction between our sentient races, there has never been anything approaching the phenomenon of gridiron football.”
— Ratak the Postulating, 2664
Ratak said those words on the eve of the third GFL expansion, which took the league from fourteen teams to eighteen. That was nineteen seasons ago, and his words have never rung more true. While broadcasts of Tier One and Tier Two gridiron football dominate galactic sports culture, the game’s real spread is seen in Tier Three. To the uninitiated, the numbers are shocking — 23 individual T3 leagues contain 288 teams.
The “Grandaddy of them All,” as it’s known, is the National Football League, or “NFL.” The galaxy’s longest-running professional football league, the NFL has operated with almost no interruptions for seven and a half centuries. Originally founded as the American Professional Football Association in 1920 (ErT), the league changed its name to the National Football League in 1922.
In 1922, there were eighteen teams concentrated in an Earth area known as the “American Midwest.” Today, the NFL is the largest T3 league, boasting 51 teams across four planets: Earth, Mars, Jones, and New Earth.
But of course, gridiron football is not limited to just Human-centric worlds. Both the Ki Gridiron League (KGL) and the Chachanna Football Collective (CFC) boast eighteen teams, and another thirteen T3 leagues each have ten teams or more.