War of the Roses: Redux Edition

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Caesar
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 23 Nov 2021, 21:31

Eyes Up

Caesar stared at the overflowing garbage can next to Devin’s desk. The trash had been on the verge of falling onto the floor for days and Devin had done nothing about it. The smell was beginning to become noxious enough that Caesar was sure that Devin would finally make the effort to try to be a little cleaner in his space.

Yet, there he sat on his laptop, completely ignoring it.

Sighing to himself, Caesar stood up and walked to the desk to pick up the garbage can. Devin glanced up with a look of confusion on his face.

He removed an earpod from one ear. “What are--”

Before Devin could finish his sentence, Caesar turned and poured the trash onto Devin’s bed. He gave the can a few shakes as a mixture of water and old soft drink poured from it then used his foot to press the mélange of refuse into the sheets before tossing the empty can onto the bed as well.

“Now, maybe you’ll clean that shit up,” Caesar said.

“What the fuck is your problem?” Devin asked as he stood up and whipped the now-filthy sheets off his bed, in the process flinging a half-eaten bagel across the room.

Caesar snatched it up from the floor and threw it at Devin, who smacked it down before it hit him. “My problem is you live like you sleep under an overpass. Have some damn pride and clean this shit up for once. It’s already starting to smell like a high school locker room in here.”

“Yeah, let me just call my cleaners. Oh, hold on. They’re on vacation. Do you want to send me the number to yours so they can just come knock all of this out today?”

“Using me not being poor as an insult isn’t going to help you not be a fucking slob, King. It costs exactly zero dollars to not have the standards of someone living in Bon Jovi Trailer Park. I understand you’re going to move in there when you get cut here, but that’s some on the job training stuff. You can at least pretend to be a decent member of society until then.”

“Fuck you, man. I’m not trying to have my room looking like the inside of a psych ward. Do some shit like that again and--”

Caesar shoved Devin. “And what? You know I’ve already kicked your ass once before and you don’t have anyone to save you around right now.”

Devin stepped back and took a moment to collect himself. He waved away Caesar’s threat and started to take everything off his bed. “You’re not even worth it. I’d just be wasting my time sinking to your level.”

“That’s what I thought, bitch.”

Caesar waited for a response from Devin, but Devin ignored him and went about packing his bedding up to take it to wash. Shaking his head, Caesar grabbed a pair of shoes from the line of them along the wall by his bed and left the room.

“Childish motherfucker,” Devin said to himself when he heard the door close.

-*****-
Devin sat on a bench in one of the campus’ laundry facilities, watching his sheet tumble around the washing machine. A few other students were nearby, working on their laptops as they also waited for their loads of laundry to finish.

Once he’d gotten over the anger of Caesar’s blatant disrespect of his stuff, he’d put it out of his mind. It was easy on that day, because he had other issues clouding this conscious since the win over Auburn. There was one elephant in the room that he couldn’t shake.

He really wasn’t an unknown any more, and the pressure to continue to perform was already starting to weigh heavily on his shoulders.

His social media following, which he already considered fairly large, seemed to double every night as more journalists tagged him in articles they’d written about Tulane’s fast start to the season. It didn’t help that some people assumed that he and Caesar were friends given they were from the same city and graduated from the same school.

There were more than a few keyboard warriors taking swings at him because of things Caesar had put out into the open one way or another.

It would’ve been unlikely for him to go his entire college career flying under the radar. He knew that. Especially once he was named a starter as a freshman. That put him in a different echelon of college athlete, even in the SEC.

But the pressure was immense.

There had to be some way to deal with it, but he hadn’t figured it out yet.

The washing machine with his sheets in it beeped a melodic tune and he got up to put them in the dryer on the opposite wall.

As he was swapping everything over, Kwame walked into the room with two laundry bags hanging from his shoulders.

“What’s happenin’, bro?” he asked, offering his fist to Devin to dap him up. He started to pour his clothes into an empty washing machine, glancing at Devin out of the corner of his eye. “Just washing your sheets? You must’ve had a wild ass fucking night if you just washing that. That’s why you gotta have a fucking set of sheets and a sleeping set of sheets.”

“Thanks for the advice, I guess?”

“I’m just letting you know, man. I know you football playing niggas be out here running through these girls, especially them white ones and you don’t want to be sleeping in your own nut so before you call her for the sneaky link, pull off the sleep sheets and put on the cheap sheets. Get some from Wal-Mart or something.”

Devin shook his head. “I don’t think I’ll be in need of that, but I’ll keep it in mind if I ever do.”

Kwame sat down on the bench that Devin had been sitting on and pulled out his phone. “I’m surprised you even down here doing that shit yourself. I don’t think I ever came down here and seen no one here for ball washing their own shit. Figured that was a perk y’all get or something like that.”

“Not one that I know of. Only person washing my shit is me.”

“Sounds like you got the game messed up then, brother. If I were you, I wouldn’t be washing, folding, cooking, nothing. You can’t be having me here playing football for your school and not providing me with no services, know what I mean?”

Devin shrugged as he turned on the dryer and sat down next to Kwame, also taking out his phone. He pulled up his messages and sent a text to Carla asking what she was doing before heading to ESPN’s social media accounts to see what was going on in the sports world.

“Say, you know anyone involved in the music industry?” Kwame asked.

“Nope. I know some people who tried to make music at cafeteria tables in high school, but I doubt you’re talking about that.”

“I’m trying to make it big, man. I’ve been trying to find someone who got some connections being this is fucking New Orleans but no one know anybody. Thought you would because y’all be signing them image deals and shit.”

“You ever heard of Faubourg Photography?”

Kwame raised an eyebrow. “No. Fuck is that?”

“That’s the beginning and end of my image deals.”

“My nigga, you know you play football for an SEC school, right?”

“I’m aware.”

“See that’s why you down here washing your own sheets instead of having the bitch you fucked on them doing it. You ain’t taking advantage of your status. Go find some music mogul to hook you up and help us both out.”

Devin leaned back and gave Kwame a side-eyed glance. “I’ve never heard your music. You could be trash for all I know. Why would I put my name on the dotted line so you can get a record deal? Sounds like a lose-lose situation for me.”

“One, I ain’t trash. Two, it’s win-win for both us.”

“There are a hundred people on the football team. I’m sure you can find at least one who has what you’re looking for.”

Kwame sucked his teeth. “C’mon, bruh. I thought we were cool. I ain’t even been getting in your way with fucking on Ella.”

Devin laughed. “I’m not trying to fuck her. If you want that, you can have it. You haven’t been doing me any favors there.”

“You just telling me that, nigga?!”

“I figured you knew that,” Devin said, shrugging.

“Man, I done missed weeks of putting in the groundwork behind yo ass.” Kwame looked down at his phone and pulled up the messages.

Devin shook his head and looked at his own phone just as he received an answer from Carla telling him that she was studying and she’d call him later. Sighing, he rested his head against the wall behind him and let the sound of the washers and dryers drown out Kwame’s rambling about what could’ve been with Ella.

-*****-
Caesar knocked on the door to Kaley’s room with his phone in the other hand, a call to her ringing on the screen. He angrily jabbed the hang up button with his thumb and shoved the phone into his pocket before knocking more forcefully – ignoring the odd looks he was getting from people milling about in the hallway.

The door opened and a bleary-eyed Gia poked her head through the gap.

“Why are you knocking on the door like you’ve lost your mind?” Gia asked before yawning.

“Because your roommate told me she was here and apparently is not here since you’re the one answering the door.”

She shrugged. “She was here when I got back, but I have no idea where she’s disappeared to. Maybe she just ducked out to get something and figured that you wouldn’t get here until after she got back?”

“I live across campus, not across New Orleans.”

“I’m just giving you suggestions to explaining your missing girlfriend, Caesar. No need to get all pissy with me.”

“You’re right. I guess I’ll just walk back and tell her to meet me in mine,” he said, reaching for his phone to send Kaley a text that he’d gone back to his room. “My bad for waking you up. I know I’d be pissed if someone did that to me.”

“You don’t have to do that. You can just wait in here. It’s not like you aren’t here as much as I am.”

Caesar raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, c’mon. I’d feel bad if you had to walk back and forth across the campus when you could’ve just waited for Kaley here.” She stepped back to open the door a bit wider, but she was still behind it. “Unless you plan to try something with me then maybe you should wait out there. I’m not the other woman type.”

He scoffed. “I think I’ve been around plenty enough pretty women that I don’t feel the urge to fuck them just because I’m alone with them.”

She opened the door to let him in. He walked straight to Kaley’s bed and threw himself face down onto it, getting comfortable.

“Define ‘plenty enough’.”

He rolled onto his back and saw it looked like she was wearing a slightly oversized t-shirt that barely covered her ass as she closed the door behind her. She got back into her bed and covered her lower half with the blankets.

“Are you asking me for my body count?” he asked, laughing.

“If that’s how you heard that then that’s on you. I just wanted to know what you meant by ‘plenty enough.’”

“What do you think it means?”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you.”

“I’ve hung out with enough pretty women alone without having sex with them to be able to do it again. That’s what it means.”

“So, you think I’m pretty?” she said, a mischievous smirk playing at her lips.

“I’m in a relationship, Gia, not fucking blind. I’d imagine that when y’all are around all those frat boys and shit there are a few that Kaley takes a couple extra looks at, but she knows she’s got the best already so why downgrade? All’s well that ends well as they say.”

“A confident man. I like that,” she said, adjusting the blankets. “So, what is your body count then?”

“None. I’m saving myself until marriage like a good Catholic boy.”

“Seriously? You do know I sleep across the room from your girlfriend who you’ve fucked in here while I was in here before.”

“Hearing things in your sleep.”

She rubbed her chin. “I’m guessing seven.”

“Seven? That’s just insulting. Minor league numbers.”

“Ten?”

“Higher.”

“Twenty?” she asked, her eyes squinting.

“Higher.”

“Now, you’re just lying. You’d either have something or a kid or ten.”

He laughed. “C’mon now. We’ve advanced far enough as a country that there are ways to prevent both of those things for the most part. I don’t see why it’s so hard to believe. I’ve been over six feet tall since I was 15. Women love a tall man. I’m a good looking motherfucker, I’m not picky, I’m willing and I got a lot of experience making women cum. That shit gets around, you know?”

Her eyes narrowed again. “How long have you and Kaley been together?”

“I don’t know. About a year and a half, I think?”

“How many in that year and a half then?”

“One. I don’t cheat, ma’am,” he said, shaking his head and grabbing his heart as though the question had pained him. There was that one time, but he was willing to take the Bill Clinton defense if anyone ever found out about that.

“You don’t or you haven’t?”

“Don’t. Why? Are you interested?”

She shrugged before raising her arms over her head to stretch. The shirt she was wearing rode up, exposing a bit of her stomach and fell over the blanket. “No, I’m just wondering. We all read the shit you get on social media. I’m sure the opportunity has presented itself.”

“I’m satisfied with who I have. I don’t need to go looking for greener grass. Life’s pretty good right now. Except when she tells me she’s one place and she’s not there.”

Caesar’s phone dinged in his pocket. Gia reached for hers on the nightstand, causing the blankets to fall away giving him a peak of what she wore under that shirt – or what she wasn’t wearing under the shirt.

He sighed when he read the text and stood up.

“Found out where she is?” Gia asked, now back under the blankets.

“Yep. Always fucking eating,” he said, starting for the door.

She laughed. “She is. I always ask her what it is that keeps her so skinny with all of the eating she does.”

“Multiple doses of 228 mm’s of vitamin CD. I’ll catch you later,” he said as he left the room.

Gia stared at the door for a moment, confused. She put ‘228 mm’ into Google and saw it converted to inches. Then she got it.
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Captain Canada
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Captain Canada » 24 Nov 2021, 12:46

They're going to fuck. I can't wait to see how you make this happen.
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 26 Nov 2021, 20:11

They Love a ‘Cock

’How many rows up are you going to be?’

’Why are you texting me right now? I don’t know. Like 4”

’Got it. Run down if I score.’

’What?’

Caesar tossed his phone into his bag before pulling on his gloves. He looked over his shoulder at the clock on the wall that was counting down to game time. Arion reached his fist out to Caesar, and he pounded it with his own.



“King whips Suggs to the ground and that’s a gain of five on the play for South Carolina to start this possession.”

“Expect the Gamecocks’ quarterback Ian Baxter to look Delvon Suggs’ way early and often. Last year, Christian Vaughn picked him off twice in Columbia and he may be a little skittish to throw at the junior, but as good as he’s been so far this season, Devin King is still a true freshman and a better option to test than Vaughn is.”



“Jabari Honeycutt takes the handoff and bounces it outside. He picks up a block and that’s a quick gain of fourteen on the play.”



“Baxter finds Dakota St. Patrick on the crossing route and that’s another first down pickup by South Carolina.”



“Baxter hands it off to Honeycutt and he takes it off-tackle for three yards before being brought down by Blair Volken for the Green Wave.”



“Rashad Reed checks in to replace Honeycutt for this one. Of the duo, Reed’s is the powerback and South Carolina lining up in the I isn’t surprising with him out there. He plunges straight through the heart of that Tulane defense and gains the first down for the Gamecocks.”



Devin’s hands balled into fists before his fingers extended as he opened his hand again. He repeated this motion a few times as he stood across from a South Carolina receiver. He took a few breathes as he listened for any changes to the coverage.

The quarterback stepped back from the line of scrimmage and barked out an audible to the offense, causing them to shift their formation.

The receiver jogged across the field and Devin followed him. The receivers lined up in a bunch of three. Christian tapped Devin’s hip and waved for him to give them a bit of a cushion so Devin took a few steps back.

The ball was snapped and the receiver Devin was assigned to man-up was the last one to start into his route. A perfectly timed release that had Devin running into a “pick” set by one of the other receivers. He fought through it, but the space was already there.

Devin was closing the gap just as the receiver caught the pass. Getting the right angle on him, Devin lined him up for the tackle.

And then the receiver came to a sudden stop, jumping backward, and Devin went flying out of bounds as he grasped at air.

He was able to stop his slide thanks to help from an angry shove from a Gamecocks offensive lineman, but when he looked up, the receiver was already 20 yards down the field. He sprung up to his feet to not give up on the play, but there was no catching him.

Ripping at his chin strap, he cursed to himself as he trudged across the field.



“Tulane’s offense takes the field and finds themselves in a position that they haven’t experienced so far this season – they are trailing for the first time this year with South Carolina holding a seven-nothing lead over them.”

“Fortunately for them, this offense has shown that it can score a lot. It’ll be harder for the Gamecocks to keep that lead than it will be for the Green Wave to put points on the board.”

“Darren Reyes is in the shotgun with Tyrone Frazier and Sonny Thibodeaux on either side of him. Caesar Jenkins and Nigel Conrad out wide with Arion Stanson in the slot. Here’s the snap and it’s a toss to Frazier who takes it for four yards before being brought down Carlos Milton and Miles Hood for South Carolina.”



“Jenkins hauls in his first catch of the day for the first down.”



“Reyes takes it himself and picks up another first down.”



“Reyes finds Frazier in the flats and he gains six. Taken down by Stewart.”



“Conrad on the receiving end of that one and he’s got some space! Huge tackle by Williams to stop what could’ve been a big gain on that play.”



“Thibodeaux picks up two on the play.”



“Dallas comes in and makes the catch for a gain of four.”



“Reyes drops back and scans the field. He’s flushed out of the pocket and has to run. He’s going to take it himself again. Monster block from Jenkins downfield to clear some space! Reyes is going to scoot! 40, 30, 20, 10, touchdown, Tulane!”

“You know for all the flashiness and bravado from Caesar Jenkins, you just know that NFL scouts are salivating over him being a willing and able blocker way down the field. That’s really doing the dirty work for your team.”



“South Carolina has ground the game down almost to a halt, but they’re going to be forced to punt the ball away here after Marquess McElhaney gets the sack, his third of the season, knocking them out of field goal range.”

“They held on to the ball for almost seven minutes. That could be the way to stop the Green Wave from scoring in bunches, but you just have to finish those drives with points.”



“A lot of bend, but don’t break defensive looks out there for the Gamecocks and they try to keep everything in front of them. They’re slowing this Tulane offense down, but they’re still moving the ball almost at will.”

“It seems like they are trying to make the clock a twelfth defender.”



“Stanson is stopped just shy of the first down and it’ll be third and one from the South Carolina 11-yard line.”



Caesar nodded to the line judge as he got set. He glanced inside to Darren as the quarterback went through his cadence. Darren stepped back into his position alongside Tyrone in the shotgun and called for the snap.

Releasing to the outside, Caesar made sure to stay in bounds as the corner gave him a shove when he ran by and immediately turned his head to look for the ball.

He leapt into the air, turning his body as he did. He caught the ball in the corner of the endzone on a perfectly executed fade. A safety had run over to cover it but was late and could only try to force Caesar out of bounds before he came down in the endzone.

Despite the contact, Caesar tapped both of his heels on the olive-painted grass before falling out of bounds with the ball securely against his chest.

He jumped up and exchanged celebratory handshakes with his teammates, extra little flourishes in a routine with Darren and Tyrone, as they ran off the field to the sound of the fight song.



“Suggs brings it in for a short gain.”



“Baxter hits Suggs on the slant route for a gain of four.”



“Honeycutt gets the first down.”



“Baxter takes it himself and slides down and the Gamecocks are back in the red zone with time running out here in the second quarter.”



Dropping back into a zone, Devin passed off the receiver in front of him to the next man then returned to his assignment. The quarterback climbed the pocket as it started to collapse around him. He pointed toward the back of the endzone

Devin looked over his shoulder and saw a Gamecock running toward the back corner of the endzone and sunk deeper to cover him. Doing so, left enough space in front of him for the quarterback to flick the ball to a receiver just as he was hit. Devin stepped up to try to force the ball out, but it was of no use as the receiver immediately fell to the turf to secure the ball.

Putting his hands on his head, Devin looked to the sky.

He felt a tap on the back of his helmet before Christian put an arm around his shoulder and ushered him off the field.

“Short memory, bro. It’s halftime. New game in the second half!” the older corner shouted to him over the din of crowd. “Just play your game. We got this.”



“Tulane takes over at their own 25 to start the second half and South Carolina has been giving them one hell of a fight so far with the score knotted at fourteen-all.”

“We thought this is what last week’s game between the Green Wave and Auburn was going to look like, but this is a real test for Tulane and a statement for their playoff credentials if they are able to find a way to get through this game with a win.”

“Reyes gets the snap and sprints to his left with Frazier the pitch man. He flicks to Frazier. Frazier jukes inside. Back outside. Hits the sideline. One man to beat! And he has no chance. He’s gone! No flags on the play! Touchdown Tulane! That’s what you call a first pitch homerun, ladies and gentlemen!”

“Well, wow.”



“The Gamecocks start the drive with a good pickup of 11 by Honeycutt as they look to respond to Tyrone Frazier’s 75 yard touchdown run.”



“Suggs makes yet another catch, brought down by King.”

“We’ve been saying those two’s name a lot and I think we might be seeing a change out there soon with Omari Alvarez or K.J. Talon swapped for Devin King.”



“Maze gets his first reception of the game. Vaughn had him locked down so far.”



“Reed crashes up the middle for a powerful, but short, gain of three on the play.”



Devin resisted the urge to put his hands on his hips as Delvon Suggs jogged out to get set opposite of him. Standing on the same side of the Green Wave sideline, Devin felt as if all eyes were on him as Coach Chavis gestured to his players from the edge of the boundary.

Getting into his stance, Devin bit down on his mouthpiece. The ball was snapped. Suggs stepped back and turned to the quarterback for a bubble screen.

Devin sprang into a full-on sprint as soon as the ball left the quarterback’s hand. He took one glance at it then zeroed in on the white and crimson jersey in front of him. The receiver brought the ball in. Turned to head up-field.

And Devin lowered his shoulder just as he did.

He could hear the grunt of pain as he drove through Suggs and slammed him to the turf. Then, he heard “ball, ball, ball!”

Scrambling on the grass, he saw the ball bouncing a few yards away and quickly dove on it before the quarterback could.



“Huge swing in momentum in this one over the last few minutes after Devin King’s huge hit and fumble recovery on Delvon Suggs. The stadium’s jumping and the Gamecocks look stuck in between gears as they need to make a stop, but they’ve played this entire game trying to just slow Tulane down.”

“I think Suggs has gone back into the locker room so we may need to get word from Jason down on the sideline as to his status.”



It was mid-way through the fourth quarter and the game had gone from an electric back-and-forth to a dull battle of attrition due to South Carolina struggling to get out of their original gameplan and switch to something else.

Caesar chewed on his mouthpiece as he jogged to the wide side of the field. He popped it into his mouth correctly as he got into his stance.

He glanced inside to watch for the snap. When Darren called for it, he released to the inside of the corner then immediately stacked him, running down the outside of the numbers. He threw his hand up to call for the ball.



“That’s. Going. All. The. Way! Caesar Jenkins into the endzone for his second touchdown of the day! You just can’t let him get that kind of position on you!”

“And he’s into the stands again, Doc. The Yulman Leap is back.”

“I sure hope he knows that young lady he just kissed or those yellow flags on the field are going to be the least of his worries.”

“Can we say this live? It doesn’t look to me like she minded.”

“Well, Coach Denver Shuman is beside himself down there because it looks like he’s being given two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, so he’s headed for an early shower.”

“He might need a cold shower, Doc.”



“How is that two?” Caesar asked as Coach Simmons ushered him toward the locker rooms to the cheers from the crowd, the Tulane fans in celebration and the South Carolina fans happy that he was done for the night. “It’s one for jumping into the crowd.”

“You took your helmet off for that kiss, kid,” the young receivers coach said, struggling to hold back a laugh. “They wanted to give you three but that’s unnecessary. Coach is going to have you running a mile everyday.”



“And that’s all from New Orleans as the Tulane Green Wave survive a scare from the South Carolina Gamecocks to improve to 5-0 on the season with a 27-14 win.”

“And this game will forever be remembered for a missed extra point from the 33-yard-line because a player decided to kiss his girlfriend after a touchdown.”

“Have we confirmed that’s who that was?”

“Who knows? Just making an assumption.”

“Well, it was an eventful game and we’ll see you next week for more SEC action.”

“Maybe don’t use the word action, right now.”
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djp73
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by djp73 » 27 Nov 2021, 08:08

:lol:
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Captain Canada
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Captain Canada » 27 Nov 2021, 16:04

This fucking guy :drose:
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Caesar
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 27 Nov 2021, 19:58

The Wind’s Swirling

“The shoe has finally dropped. Today, the NCAA announced that it is indeed investigating a pay-for-play scheme that could alter the landscape of college athletics for the foreseeable future. Our reporter Blanca Lowe has been following this story for weeks and she’s currently on the ground in Indianapolis with the latest on this. Blanca, could you elaborate on what you briefed us on just a short while ago?”

“Yes. I just spoke with a senior NCAA official speaking on the condition of anonymity, and they told me that while this investigation is still mostly in its infancy, it’s possible that universities will begin receiving notices of allegations within the next few days.”

“The big question will be what does that mean for this week’s slate of games?”

“One would assume that any player named in the allegations would be immediately benched to ensure that games don’t have to be forfeited for fielding an ineligible player. I don’t think we’ll get a sense of who has been named until Saturday when these teams announce who is and isn’t active. As for the other sports potentially involved in the scheme, it’s too early to say how those will be affected. As I understand it, this is primarily focused on football and men’s basketball.”

“Those are certainly the two cash cows of the college athletics world. Do you have any idea how many universities and players are believed to be involved?”

“I can’t say with any certainty, but my sources have indicated that there are irregularities in the recruitment of between seventy-five and one hundred and fifteen football and basketball players over the last few years. I would imagine we’ll be at or under the lower end of that, but that’s what I’ve heard so far.”

“Even fifty players would be a huge scandal.”

“It definitely would be. The NCAA, however, has been pretty tight lipped beyond that but remember that they’ve taken steps to speed up investigations over the last few decades so it’s likely that this will be concluded in a matter of weeks and not months. I’m sure that some ground work has already been done.”

“Thanks, Blanca. There you have it, folks. Watch this space for updates as the NCAA and the battle against the idea of amateurism in college sports go head-to-head once again.”

-*****-
Devin rubbed at his temples. His eyes felt dry, and he struggled to stifle the multiple yawns that his body felt it needed. Practice had been particularly grueling as things were stepped up to keep the perfect season going for as long as possible, but his body was still adjusting to the rigors of college football and the toll it took on his joints and muscles.

It didn’t help that instead of grabbing a bite to eat from the catering in the athletics lounge, he decided to walk across the campus to sate his hunger.

He sat down at one of the tables in the student center to rest his feet while he tried to figure out what he wanted. It always seemed as if there were too many options and not enough good options all at once.

“Hey, Devin,” a feminine voice called.

He turned in his chair and saw Kaley with a group of other girls. She excused herself and sat in one of the empty chairs at the table.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked, confused. Despite dating her cousin, Devin could count on one hand the number of conversations he’d had with Kaley. Most of them had been when he’d first met her before the ruckus with her ex and Caesar.

“Nothing much, really. I just saw you sitting here and thought I’d stop and say hi. You’d think we would talk more since you’re with Carla and Caesar’s your roommate.”

Devin nodded slowly, wondering if he’d said his thoughts about the oddity of this interaction out loud.

“To be fair, it’s not like I get along with Caesar and Carla doesn’t like him either because, well, you know that whole story. I’d agree with you if you took him out of the equation though. If you asked me, you probably should. There have to be thousands of better options here. Throw in the rest of the city and maybe out to Baton Rouge or Hammond and yeesh.”

She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “I know he’s a dickhead sometimes, and I’m not going to defend him on that but at some point we’re all going to have to get along a bit, right? I bet I could convince him to bury the hatchet.”

Devin thought about the fact that it’d only been a couple weeks since he and Caesar had come close to fighting in their room and shook his head. “I don’t know about that one, Kaley. I know he’s your boyfriend and you have to defend him and shit but Caesar’s a grade A piece of shit. I’m not saying that the two of us can’t be friends, but I’ll hit the lottery before he stops his shit. And I’m too young to play the lotto.”

“Well, then. We’ll just keep our new friendship between the two of us and Caesar can just be pissed off about everything. At some point, we all have to grow up. Maybe one day he will. Not that the four of us are going to be double dating. Carla holds grudges.”

“You trying to steal your cousin’s boyfriend, Kaley?” Devin asked, laughing.

She laughed as well. “Sorry, Devin, but you’re not my type. No offense.”

“If Caesar is your type, believe me when I say I’m taking absolutely no offense at not being in the same group as him.”

“Insulting your friends isn’t a good way to create a bond, you know?”

“I’d argue the opposite. The best way to create a bond with friends is to be able to insult them freely without anyone getting angry about it. Besides, you just called me ugly.”

“I did not!” Kaley said, swatting at his arm. “I just don’t think that you’re my type. I don’t know how that translates into ‘you’re ugly.’”

“That’s what it sounded like to me.”

One of the girls that Kaley had been walking with called her name and waved for her to hurry up. She stood up from the table.

“I have to go. Got a meeting, but I’m serious about the two of us actually being cordial if not friends. Carla would be happy that someone can be in your ear convincing you to head up to UNO to spend some time with here, too.”

“Don’t remind me about that,” Devin said, putting his hand to his forehead. “See you around, though. Oh, how does it feel to be a viral star by the way?”

She only rolled her eyes as she walked away.

As she did, Devin took the opportunity to compare her to Carla. They had some similarities, being family, but where Carla was on the shorter side and would be considered “curvy” by some, Kaley had a bit of height on her and wouldn’t be.

She was attractive, but Devin was an ass man and Carla had her beat by a mile. Sighing to himself, he got up to go order some food.

-*****-
Caesar’s car came to a stop in that familiar spot that he’d parked in so many times before in his family’s driveway. He yawned and stretched before shutting the car off and getting out of it. Despite it begin early October, it was an unusually cold night and the wind whipped through the trees causing the odd twig to snap and fall.

It was the first time he’d been back in Houma since the early days of the summer, and it had only gotten more eerie since then. He was used to all of the guys coming to his house or going to Ron’s to get wasted every night, especially after games. Now, they were all spread across the country in various schools.

And Ron had fallen, hit his head, and gotten into his mind that joining the Marines was something worth doing.

In the place of those days was an extremely quiet neighborhood and only a few cars in the driveway, all belonging to his parents.

“Ma? Dad?” he called when he stepped into the house.

“In here,” his father said, his voice coming from the living room.

Caesar walked into the room and found his father sitting on a couch that hadn’t been there a few months ago with one of his lawyers hovering over him. The elder Jenkins held a tablet in one hand and a glass of brown liquor, probably some expensive whisky, in the other. It was almost 9 p.m., but the man never stopped working even if it meant making other people work long hours to accommodate him.

“What’s up?” Caesar asked, sitting in a chair opposite his father.

“Do you think that it’s a good idea to get thrown out of games for the kind of stupid shit that you did this past Saturday?” Deion asked without looking up from the tablet as the thin, almost gangly, man pointed at something on the screen.

“I don’t think I should’ve gotten two flags for that.”

“Says the kid who has gotten an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in every fucking game so far this season. You know, in soccer, they have a rule to suspend players after they get a certain number of yellow cards.”

“Good thing I don’t play soccer?”

His father looked up for the first time. “Now’s probably not a good time to get glib with me, boy.”

“My bad.”

“People I know who know things like this say that by the end of the season, you’ll have a rule named after you. The ‘Caesar Jenkins’ rule. Suspending a player for a game if he gets three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Two games if he gets five. There’s nothing concrete in that talk, but at least you’ll have some kind of legacy if so.”

Caesar didn’t say anything to that, only picking at the skin around his fingernails.

Deion leaned forward and set the glass on the coffee table before handing the tablet to the lawyer. He nodded toward Caesar and the man walked the tablet over to him.

“I need to make some amendments to the contract you signed before you enrolled at Tulane. There are a handful of statements in there that you need to attest to. Don’t worry about reading through the whole thing. Just sign and initial where it jumps to,” Deion said.

“Attest to?” Caesar said as he took the tablet. The lawyer reached over and pressed a button to swap it from Deion’s signature to one that was stored for Caesar.

“I would hope that a college student would know what the word attest fucking means.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know what it means. I just, don’t—” Caesar trailed off as he sat confused looking at the legalese that was on the document on the screen. “I don’t understand what needs to be changed. I thought everything was squared away already.”

His father ran a hand over his face before snatching up the glass as he walked to a small bar. He filled the glass to the brim and drank more than half of it in a few measured gulps.

“Caesar, I’ve tolerated you choosing to go to a backwater school because you were chasing pussy and ruining your draft stock by acting like a dickhead on the field but some shit that you don’t and won’t understand has changed and I need you to sign the fucking documents. Can you just do what I tell you without opening your God damn mouth for once? “

“I mean, yeah but—”

“Caesar.”

Caesar put his hand up in apology, knowing that he was pushing his luck. He quickly went through the document, dropping his signature or his initials wherever there were highlighted spots for him to do so. It seemed as if there were dozens more spots for him to attend to than there were the last time he did this.

Nonetheless, after a few minutes, he handed the tablet back to the lawyer and stood up to leave.

“Is ma home?” he asked, pointing upstairs.

Deion didn’t answer him as the lawyer handed him the tablet and began to speak in hushed tones between the two of them.

Sighing, Caesar left the room and headed upstairs to see if his mother was home.
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Captain Canada
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Captain Canada » 29 Nov 2021, 19:05

Caesar being abused, goddamn.
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Caesar
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 01 Dec 2021, 20:01

Fox in the Hen House

Two men stepped out of a sedan in front of a run-down apartment block. Broken children’s toys littered the ground and people congregated on the balconies above them. Music could be heard coming from a car not too far away. They jumped as much as they walked to avoid the puddles of stagnant water that filled the potholes in the gravel. They looked at one another then headed for the stairwell.

The smell of marijuana wafted through the air. Long ago decriminalized on the national level, Texas still held out to dole out punishments for the plant, and while minor, Texas had no problem considering someone a repeat offender and sentencing them to a harsher sentence. The two men were also old enough to remember when it was still a debate.

They reached the top floor of the complex despite the strange looks they received from those hanging around. Knocking on the door of the last apartment on the floor, they waited a moment before knocking more forcefully. Moments later, the sound of locks and chains sliding could be heard before a woman’s head poked out of a crack in the door.

“What do you want?” she asked, eyes bleary as if she’d just woken up.

“Are you Sydney Miller?”

“I paid those bills. All of them. None of them are still overdue.”

One of the men, a balding bespectacled man, reached into the briefcase he carried and retrieved a card. “My name’s Alan Sullivan and this is my colleague, Michael Thomas. We’re investigators with the NCAA. Do you have a moment to answer a few questions about your son?”

“My son?” she asked as she took the card and looked at it with a scrutinizing eye.

“Yes, Erik Jenkins. He is your son, correct?”

“Yeah, that’s my boy.”

“Can we come in? It won’t take more than 15 minutes and it goes faster if we’re all sitting when going through things,” Michael Thomas, the other man, said.

Sydney gave them the same scrutinizing glare she’d given the card as she tapped the piece of stock paper against her hand. She stepped out of the apartment and looked down the breezeway then out to the “parking lot” before finally retreating into the apartment and giving them enough space to walk inside as well.

The inside of her apartment had the same vibe as the outside of the building. Concrete walls were adorned with chipped paint and tapped up kids’ drawings. The carpet had seen better days and the laminate pretending to be wood was on its last legs.

Moving a pile of clothes off a dingy couch, the woman motioned for the two men to have a seat. She tossed the clothes into an empty playpen before sitting in a recliner opposite the couch.

She picked up an ashtray and inspected a half burned through cigarette placed in it before relighting it and taking a drag.

“What questions you got?” she asked, blowing a cloud of smoke out.

Michael reached into his briefcase and pulled out a tablet. “I’m sure you’ve heard the news that we’re looking into some improprieties—”

Alan cut him off. “It’s simpler than that. We understand that Erik was offered large sums of money during his recruitment to attend certain schools. Were you present for all of the times that any of the times that coaches visited him?”

“Yeah, I was.”

Alan nodded to his colleague, and he held the tablet out to Sydney who took it. On the screen was a list of all the documented visits Erik had or had taken.

“Do you recall those names?”

The woman scrolled through the list. “This ain’t all of them.”

The two men looked at one another.

“Pardon me?” Alan asked.

“It ain’t all of them. Coaches used to be knocking at that door like I was the candy lady,” she said as she gave back the tablet. “That’s why he went to LSU. They didn’t hound him like the other schools were doing.”

“What is it that you do for work Mrs. M—”

“Miss.”

“Ms. Miller.”

She shrugged as she took another drag from the cigarette. “Same as everyone else around here. I work at the store down the street and one of the stations just around the way. I don’t know what that has to do with Erik and any ball.”

“We look at patterns of spending. Stuff you can find on social media is usually the easiest to spot,” Michael said. He flipped to another screen on the tablet showing a picture of Erik and his mother in front of a car with a red bow on it. “No disrespect meant but this is a $20,000 car even if it’s older. This is from May. How could you have afforded that? Was it a gift from a school?”

“You can tell you ain’t no cops. That wasn’t from no school.”

“Do you mind elaborating?”

“Everybody got a mama and a daddy. Erik, too.”

Michael looked to his colleague as he swiped his finger across the screen until he reached another document. He showed it to Alan who shrugged.

“Erik’s financial aid information doesn’t list a father and neither does the birth certificate that we were able to access.”

“Let me see that,” Sydney said.

She took the tablet from them and looked at the screen for a moment, ashing the cigarette into the tray absently before taking another drag from it. She crushed it against the ashtray before setting the tablet on the coffee table and getting up and walking to the back of the apartment.

The two men sat awkwardly on the couch, looking between one another and checking the time on their phones while they waited with the sounds of an argument out on the balcony the only thing they could hear.

After a few minutes, Sydney returned with a folded document. She stopped short of handing it to them and looked at it for a moment in contemplation. Shaking her hand, she flattened it and handed it to Alan who was closest.

His eyes ran over the paper before he took a pair of reading glasses out of his pocket and looked it over again. Turning to Michael, he handed the document over. After he had a moment to inspect it, Michael sighed deeply and handed it back to Sydney.

“I think we need a bit more of your time, Ms. Miller,” Alan said. “Tell us about any interactions you had with Oklahoma State.”

-*****-
“That was delicious. Thank you, Mrs. McCoy,” Danny said as he stood up to bring his plate to the sink.

Mrs. McCoy waved for him to sit down as she stood up instead and grabbed all of the plates from the table with the skill of someone who had done at least a couple years working in a restaurant. She left the mat in front of the McCoy’s son, Emerson, for him to keep playing with a pair of peas that had seemingly captured his attention.

“Don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t be a good host if I had you washing the pots and pans after feeding you, now would I?” she asked with a joking tone to her voice as she walked to the kitchen.

“Smart move to offer,” Coach McCoy said quietly when she was far enough away. “If you don’t learn anything else from me, always make sure that you are at least showing the effort to help. Everyone remembers that. Let’s go out back for a bit.”

The coach stood up, ruffling the few strands of hair on his son’s hair before walking toward the backyard with Danny following behind him.

Coach McCoy grabbed a couple logs from a pile and tossed them haphazardly onto a fire pit. He walked over to a grill and lit a piece of paper, placing it between the two logs. After a few minutes, one of the logs caught fire.

“Still ain’t got the hang of that. Of course, I wasn’t a boy scout. You know how to build a fire?”

Danny stuffed his hands into the pockets of his letterman’s jacket and shook his head. “Nope. Never had a reason to learn.”

“Guess that makes sense. You been watching the film for Friday? East St. John’s pass rush is nothing nice this season.”

“Yes, sir. Their linebackers aren’t good in coverage, I think. They always give up quick shots over the middle. If you can get the time to let the receiver get open, I mean. It could be dink and dunk all night but I’m going to have to pay a lot of attention to what I’m seeing or it’s going to pressure from start to finish. I don— Sorry, I was rambling.”

Coach McCoy laughed and patted his quarterback on the shoulder. The coach had Terrebonne going from strength to strength in his second year as its head coach. After a 15-1 state championship run in year one, the Tigers led almost exclusively by a much improved – and significantly taller -- Danny at quarterback were 6-0 so far with a win over Texas powerhouse Austin Westlake in the Border Showdown.

The 5A champs from Louisiana knocking off the 6A champs from Texas had created a lot of buzz around the team. Guys who were hoping for JuCo offers were suddenly looking at FCS offers.

Danny had shot up from a one-star prospect to a three-star potential diamond in the rough for some services and a borderline four-star for others. Regardless of where you put him, he was now a top five quarterback in the state.

And his transformation was having eyes casted toward Pierce McCoy as a quarterback whisperer who could do wonders with college resources.

“It’s good you got all of that in your head already,” the coach said. “We got a target on our back and everyone’s trying to be the one that stops our run. Just don’t get too in the weeds with it or you’re going to be in your head when the lights are on.”

“Yes, sir.” Danny bent down and moved the log that wasn’t burning so it sat on top of the one that was.

“You start hearing from any recruiters yet?”

Danny shook his head. “I’ve gotten some e-mails and stuff, but no one’s actually talked to me or anything like that. I didn’t think they were allowed to yet?”

“No one cares about any of that. When I was coming up, coaches were coming around to the camps I was going to when I was 13. They’ve been doing that for decades. They know how to do it without getting the wrong people looking at them.”

“I guess so.”

“On a serious note, don’t get caught up in the bullshit when it does start coming in. You see all that stuff going on right now, right? I know how it is. Y’all get big eyes behind that shit. What’s a car here or a computer there? Everyone’s doing it. The NFL still requires you to be 21 to declare for the draft and unless you want to go to Tijuana, you need to be in college for those three years to have someone looking at you if that’s what you want to do with your life.”

“Go to Tijuana?”

“What?”

“If what you want to do with your life is go to Tijuana?”

The coach laughed. “No, son. If you want to go to the league. Just don’t start doing stupid shit to jeopardize your future before you have a chance to really get going. All the perks someone will offer you now are the same things that you can get as soon as you get on a campus, whether that’s money, girls, gifts, whatever. Trust me.”

“Will do, coach.”

Coach McCoy walked back over to the grill and grabbed a bottle of lighter fluid, dousing the logs in it. The fire roared to life instantly.

“Should’ve done that from the start, maybe,” Danny said, nodding to the bottle.

“The brains of the operation are in there,” McCoy said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder. “I’m just the muscle. You’ll learn when you get married.”
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Captain Canada
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Captain Canada » 02 Dec 2021, 13:21

Damn, shout out to Danny :blessed: Forgot about his ass already
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Agent
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Agent » 10 Dec 2021, 22:40

She bout to spill the beans on OKST.
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