War of the Roses: Redux Edition

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Caesar
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 25 Jan 2022, 19:58

Taken

Caesar’s car rolled to a stop in one of the reserved spaces in front of the athletic facilities. There were only a handful of cars in the parking lot, but it was expected as the sun had yet to make its ascent over the horizon with only a few rays starting to brighten the sky.

Stepping out of the car, he walked to the trunk to get a duffel bag and a pair of shoes. It’d been a week since he’d done any type of intense workout and he was beginning to get stir crazy with only going to class and going back to his room. It felt odd, unnatural. If the powers that be expected him to only go to class like other students, they might as well rip up his scholarship and send him packing.

And it was that need for physical activity that got him out of bed early that morning.

He let his key card dangle from the lanyard wrapped around his wrist and waved it in front of the pad for 24/7 access. He heard the telltale beep and reached for the door, but it remained locked.

He swiped the card again, heard the beep and tried the door, but it was still locked.

Running his finger across the back of the card to remove any dirt or stains that might have been interfering with the signal, he tried the card a third time but yet again, the door didn’t unlock after the beep.

Screwing his face up in anger, he waved the card repeatedly in front of the pad while yanking at the door but it was all for naught as it wouldn’t open.

He threw the duffel bag down and leaned against the door to peer into the building. Spotting someone cleaning, he banged on the door to get their attention. After what felt like an eternity, they looked up and removed their ear pods before walking over to the door.

“You need to swipe your card!” the guy inside shouted, pointing to the pad.

Caesar obliged, swiping his card then pulling on the door to show that it wasn’t working for him.

“Just let me in,” Caesar said. He held his card up so that the guy could see that it was his picture on it. “You know who I am.”

Confused, the guy pointed to the pad again. “Sorry, bro! But you have to swipe your card to get in before eight! If it’s not working, that means they deactivated it for some reason! You’ll have to come back then!”

“Open the fucking door!” Caesar shouted, smacking his hand against the glass. He yanked on the handle a few more times before hitting the glass again. “Open it, bitch!”

The guy stepped away from the door and walked back to where he had been cleaning before and picked up his cell phone, coming back while dialing a number. He glanced at Caesar as he brought the phone up to his ear.

Growing angrier, Caesar pounded his fist against the door to get the guy’s attention.

“Open the God damn door!” he yelled.

Stepping back to the door, the guy showed him the phone. “Hey, man! You might want to leave. I just called security.”

“Fuck security! I’m not worried about any damn rent-a-cops!”

Moments later, a couple of campus police officers in a golf cart pulled up next to Caesar’s car. They got out and took a look at the car before walking over to Caesar.

“What’s the problem here?” one of them asked, putting his hand on his belt near his tazer.

Caesar gave them both a once over before waving his hand dismissively. “We don’t have a problem here. This fuck won’t let me into the fucking building even though he clearly sees that I have a card but the shit is broken.”

“He said it’s probably because your card has been deactivated,” the second officer said, walking around so that he was behind Caesar. “If that’s the case you’ll need to leave and come back later when there is someone here that you can talk to about that.”

“But after this, you’ll need to let us know when you’re coming back so that we can escort you through the building,” the first cop said. “Just to make sure that everyone’s safe, you know.”

“Fuck out of here with that shit. No one’s going to do anybody anything as long as this fucker opens the damn door. All three of you know who the fuck I am. I don’t understand why you’re giving me a hard time right now. It’s too early in the morning. I just want to work out. That’s it.”

“You want him to leave?!” the second officer shouted to the guy inside the building who shrugged and then nodded. The cop turned back to Caesar. “Sounds like you have to leave, kid. I suggest you do or we’re going to have to have you trespassed.”

“I just want to work out,” Caesar repeated as he picked up his duffel bag. “I don’t know what’s so hard about that.”

“Go run the levees like they used to do in the old days if you want to work out so bad, but you’re going to have to leave,” the first cop said, unclipping his tazer.

Caesar rolled his lips into his mouth and glanced at the cops. A part of him wanted to continue to argue his case. Another part of him told him that he could take them, tazers and guns or not. Sighing, he swiped his card once more and tried the door only for it to remain locked.

“We’re not going to tell you again.”

Throwing the card in the direction of a nearby garbage can, Caesar walked back to his car and threw the duffel bag into the trunk. The two cops followed him and stood waiting for him to get in and leave.

He reached into his pocket for his keys and stood at the driver’s side door for a moment. He remembered the stories his father had told him about how players in the NFL found out they’d been cut during preseason.

The same way he was just denied entry to the building.

Feeling the angry at the thought bubbling up, he punched the rearview mirror, bending it back.

“Hey!” one of the cops shouted.

“Fuck off. It’s my shit,” he said before getting into the car, cranking it up, backing up and driving off back to his room.

-*****-
Devin kicked his feet up on a second chair as he sat in one of the library’s study rooms with Kwame, Ella and two of their other classmates, Stuart and Jessica. Tapping his fingers aimlessly on the tablet on his lap, Devin listened as Stuart tried to explain the process for some equation to Kwame for what seemed like the fourth time.

“This why no one majors in math,” Kwame said when he still couldn’t understand what was being explained to him.

“No one majors in math because there aren’t any jobs for someone who majored in math,” Devin said. “Other than being a teacher and wouldn’t it make more sense to major in education at that point?”

Kwame shook his head. “All that wasn’t needed, bruh. I just need the answers to this midterm and I can crush it and go on with my life.”

“If one of us had the answers to the tests, we wouldn’t need to be sitting in here trying to figure out how to solve this stuff,” Jessica said. She looked at Devin. “But one of us in here should be able to get the answers to a test pretty easy.”

Ella looked up from her phone. “Aren’t you in a sorority? I’m sure there are cabinets of tests somewhere for y’all to look at whenever you need to pass a class.”

Jessica shrugged. “Yes, but I don’t know if that stuff’s old or not. Devin can just go pull some strings and get whatever he needs so they know that he’ll be playing Saturday.”

“This is Tulane, not Alabama,” Devin said. “They do like to at least pretend that we’re students first. I think we’d have a better shot at getting the answers from you than we would getting them from me.”

“I don’t have a problem with doubling our chances with both of you trying to get the answers and seeing where we end up,” Stuart said. He glanced at Kwame. “Not that I’m really struggling with understanding all of this, but I wouldn’t mind it being a bit easier.”

“Man, fuck this. Let’s just finish tomorrow. I’m trying do something more entertaining then looking at a bunch of numbers and letters,” Kwame said, dropping his laptop into his backpack.

Stuart shrugged and started packing his stuff up. “I don’t have to be told twice to find better to do than this. I’ll see y’all later.”

He was out of the door before anyone could return his well wishes.

“Are you going to try to get the answers to the exam?” Jessica asked Devin as she stood up.

Devin shook his head. “Nope. Not really my thing. You can ask around and see if any of the other guys can help us out, though. I’m sure they’ve all taken this class already so one of them is bound to have something.”

She rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything as she left.

“So, what y’all getting into?” Kwame asked Devin and Ella.

“I’m just chilling here, man. Sometimes, it’s good to get out of your room and do absolutely nothing somewhere else,” Devin said.

“And you?” Kwame asked Ella.

“I have something I need to do in 30 minutes so I’m just sitting here until I need to go back to my room and do that,” she said.

“Why don’t the two of us go back there now?”

“Yeah, no. That’s not going to happen for you,” she said, laughing. “I have a boyfriend.”

Kwame sat back in his chair, shaking his head. “Well, damn. I thought I had a chance to see what that mouth do.”

“Not a lot if you’re wondering.”

He stood up, still shaking his head. He leaned over and offered his hand to Devin who dapped him up. “I’m going to see y’all tomorrow when we pretend we not all going to fail this midterm Friday.”

“See ya around, man,” Devin said before returning to idly tapping on his tablet and staring at the wall ahead of him.

“You’re really just going to sit there doing fuck all?” Ella asked a few moments after the door closed.

“Yep. If you knew who my roommate was, you would understand why I’d choose sitting in here with you over going back to my room.”

“Damn, Devin. You don’t have to make it sound like I’m such a bad person to hang out.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, he sighed. “Shit, my bad. I didn’t mean it like that. I was just saying that being around anyone else is better than that.”

“I got you. My roommate went to rehab or some shit right after the start of the semester so she hasn’t been around. I guess being in New Orleans makes everyone go a little crazy, you know?”

“Yeah, seems to be something of a trend.”

Devin looked over as he heard Ella start shuffling her things into her bag.

“Your thing get moved up?” he asked.

“No, it starts when I want it to. I just wanted Kwame to fuck off. Never did like the nagging type,” she said as she stood up from the table. “You could join if you want or come with me and join in person.”

“Join what?”

She held up a finger as she tapped out a message on her phone. His phone dinged a few moments later with a text from her containing just a link. He clicked it and had to do a double take before looking at her then back at the phone.

“This is you?” he asked.

“Yep. Could always use a stunt dick if you’re interested. I’m in Decou. Just text me,” she said before leaving the room.

He glanced back over his shoulder as she left before taking one last look at what she’d sent him and deleting it. He figured he was better safe than sorry given Carla had free reign of his phone whenever the two were with one another.

He leaned back in the chair and decided to use the rest of the blocked off time to catch a few z’s.
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Captain Canada
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Captain Canada » 26 Jan 2022, 12:15

"Stunt dick". That's where we at, huh.

Solid update, I'm into the consistent descent into madness that is Caesar Jenkins.
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djp73
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by djp73 » 27 Jan 2022, 15:37

where them swears at bruh?
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Agent
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Agent » 28 Jan 2022, 09:12

Sounds like Bro gonna shoot his head off soon
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Caesar
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 28 Jan 2022, 12:16

Speed Bump

The fans in attendance at Yulman Stadium seemed to collectively inhale as Darren stepped up and launched a bomb down field. The ball spun through the sky on a beautiful New Orleans afternoon with not a cloud in sight.

It arced toward the Earth and past the desperate dive of a James Madison defensive back trying to make a play on it before the ball fell perfectly into Nigel’s hands. The senior had acres of space all around him and jogged into the endzone, turning back to celebrate with Arion.

“What a throw by Darren Reyes! What a call by Coach Shuman! On the first play of the game, they take a shot and boy do they get it!”

“The Dukes are in for a long day if that’s a sign of things to come because it doesn’t look like Tulane’s going to be taking any chances with a potential upset for homecoming.”



Devin brought his elbow down on the receiver’s forearms and stepped around him. The receiver tried to keep a hold of Devin’s jersey as he got by, but all that did was make Devin turn his shoulders to get free from his grasp.

The running back, initially taking the ball to the outside, planted his foot to turn up the field and try to make something out of the play but Devin got to him before he got back to the line of scrimmage.

Wrapping his arms around the back’s waist, Devin used his momentum to spin him to the turf for a loss on the play. Feeling the energy of the crowd, he sprung to his feet and celebrated his first big play of the game with Blair.

It wouldn’t be his last.



“Reyes pitches it out to Frazier, who won’t have a lot of room to make anything happe – Wait, he’s reversing the field! He steps back and makes a man miss! He’s going to get brought down in the ba—He breaks another tackle, gets to the opposite sideline and he’s gone! 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, touchdown Tulane! It was almost like he was in a video game out there!”

“That was shades of Reggie Bush from the early part of this century! You could see Denver Shuman on the sidelines shouting for him to go down and save the yardage but that went from no, no, no to yes, yes, yes in a hurry!”



“Mindel steps up to throw and it’s picked off by Vaughn! He’s immediately taken down but it’s Green Wave ball on James Madison’s 42. Tulane could go up twenty-one to nothing before the end of the first quarter!”

“Christian Vaughn read the quarterback like a book on that one. He broke on the ball just as it was leaving Mindel’s hand and there was no way he wasn’t making that play.”



“Backup running back Sonny Thibodeaux dives for the pylon and they’re signaling touchdown! It’s not too often that he gets into the endzone, but if ever there was a game when everyone on that Tulane sideline had a chance to pad their stats, it’s this one!”



“Mindel hands it off to Baxter up the middle. Wait, it’s a flea flic— Holliday lays a huge hit on Baxter and the ball’s loose! Mindel dives on it. It’s going to still be James Madison’s ball, but they’re going to have to punt it away.”

“I think that was the play that’s going to break the Dukes’ spirit. You shouldn’t have nose tackles hitting your back on a flea flicker but Lawson McCurdy got completely blown up off the snap and you can see that Coach Blaser on that JMU sideline isn’t too happy with the junior.”



“Randle has a step on his man. Reyes finds him! And he’s into the endzone! That’s another score for the Green Wave!”

“Over the last two weeks, J.R. Randle has been the biggest beneficiary of Caesar Jenkins’ suspension and we still don’t know when Tulane’s leading receiver will be back on the field but Randle can still play in the next two games and still save a year of eligibility. He’s definitely giving the coaching staff something to think about!”



“Down goes Mindel! Mario Miles on the sack and that’s another drive that’s sputtered to an end for the Dukes!”



“Ironic cheers from the fans who made the trip from Virginia down to Louisiana as Darren Reyes misses his man on that third down attempt meaning that Neal Cooper is being sent out to attempt a field goal from the 31-yard line.”



As Devin jogged to his spot on the field, he noticed he still felt as fresh as he did when the game started – something he’d never experienced before in his short football career. But he also had never been halfway through a college football season and the training regimen that came with it and slapping around a D1 opponent that was putting up absolutely no fight.

He settled into his stance and listened for any coverage audibles. The ball was snapped, and he dropped back into a zone, shoving the receiver that ran by him to throw him off his route before passing him to someone else.

The quarterback reached the end of his drop and started shuffling from side to side as he went through his reads. He stepped up and flicked the ball toward the middle of the field and a receiver running a crossing route.

Devin broke toward the ball to be in position to assist on the tackle as the receiver brought the ball in.

But he – nor the receiver – saw Marcus flying in to lay a thunderous hit on the opposing player.

The hit separated ball from player and sent it bouncing along the turf.

Devin made a split second decision to try to scoop the ball up instead of diving on it. Running toward it, he put his hand down and was lucky to get there just as it bounced up.

Collecting the ball, he spun off an attempt to hack him down at the waist with a poor excuse for a tackle. He hit the sideline and saw nothing but green ahead of him.

He glanced over his shoulder as he sprinted toward the endzone and only saw blue jerseys close to him.

“Touchdown Tulane! Marcus Freebird with the big hit to force the fumble and Devin King with the scoop and score!”

“That’s it. Throw the towel in. Throw it in. It’s about to be 38-0 and it might get worse before halftime!”



“Mindel mishandles the snap and it’s loose! It’s rolling into the endzone. There are a lot of blue jerseys ready to jump on that! He’s gotta fall on it! He does and that’s going to be a safety!”



“Reyes throws a laser to Howard over the middle and the tight end falls down in the endzone for a touchdown! Tulane makes James Madison pay after that safety and it’s 46-0!”

“I think Denver Shuman’s about to pull his starters out of the game. Tulane’s backup quarterback Michael Hammond handed over the headset to Willie Rhodes during that drive and has been warming up.”

“Well, this lead is definitely safe.”



“That’s intercepted by Darius Dodson and Tulane has forced another turnover!”

Devin was one of the first players to mob Darius, who was struggling to contain the smile on his face as he was smacked on the helmet by all of his teammates, when he got to the sideline after getting his first pick in college.



“Hammond hits Bendbrook on the crosser and that’s another Tulane touchdown!”



“Judge fights through a pair of tackles aaaaand touchdown Green Wave!



“James Madison have finally put together a drive after benching James Mindel and are threatening to score. Freshman Tyrone Sung has been decent over the last few plays. He drops back here and he’s got a man wide open on the boundary. Gavin Coulter hauls it in and walks into the endzone to make it 61-7.”



“Donovan Judge doubles his touchdown tally on the day as he breaks it for a loooooooong run straight up the middle.”



“A fourth Green Wave tailback gets his name on the scoresheet today as freshman Tyson Kearns reaches for the pylon and is given the touchdown.”



“Hammond takes a knee and that’s going to be the end of this absolute drubbing by the Tulane Green Wave who’ve smashed the James Madison Dukes, 75-7. Mike, have we learned anything about this Green Wave team from this game?”

“I’m inclined to say that we haven’t because James Madison haven’t won all year, but these mid-season money games have been a staple in the SEC for decades and give the teams what is effectively another bye week. They have a tough Texas A&M team next week, but this result can give them a shot in the arm to get through that one with their undefeated record intact.”

“And an easy opponent in a week when they’re still trying to find out the fate of Caesar Jenkins.”

“They’re two and oh without him, Greg. I don’t see why they can’t make it three, four, five, whatever.”
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Captain Canada
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Captain Canada » 28 Jan 2022, 20:07

Devin really feelin himself now that he who must not be named isn't around.
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djp73
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by djp73 » 31 Jan 2022, 08:34

addition by subtraction
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Caesar
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 03 Feb 2022, 17:57

War Footing

Caesar stared at the stop light hanging in front of his car as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. The streets of Houma, as they tended to be on Sunday afternoons, were mostly empty save for the few people returning from after-church brunch or going get the last few supplies before they settled in to watch the Saints.

A cop pulled up alongside him and glanced over. Caesar looked back then down at the open bottle of vodka that was sitting on the floor on the passenger side.

Fortunately, the light turned green, and the cop pulled off. Reaching over, Caesar shoved the bottle under the seat until it got stuck there figuring that it be better safe than sorry.

Some time later, he pulled into the long driveway outside of his family’s house. It hadn’t been long since he was last there, but it didn’t feel the same as it did even then. It seemed emptier and more imposing compared to the homes that surrounded it. The set of lawn chairs that had been discarded at the end of the driveway serving as the only sign that it was even inhabited – or that it was in process of being cleaned out.

He parked at the top of the driveway, closer to the house, instead of where he’d been parking since he got his first car. As he walked into the house, through the side door to the kitchen as he’d done so many times throughout his life, he noticed that there were no plants or flowers next to the door and wondered if his mother had gotten a new landscaper for a brief moment.

He found his mother standing at the sink, holding a bottle of wine by the neck as she stared out into the backyard. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she wore a t-shirt, jeans and no makeup, a rarity for Candice Jenkins.

She glanced over her shoulder at the sound of the door closing. Her expression was hard for a moment before it softened at the sight of her son. She placed the bottle in the sink and turned toward Caesar. “You should’ve called before you came. I would’ve fixed you something to eat.”

Caesar only shrugged as he took his sunglasses off and walked to the island. He sat down on one of the stools and looked at number of bottle of spices that had been left there. He carefully nudged them, one by one, into a straight line.

“I saw that the team wo—”

“I’m still suspended, ma,” he said, cutting her off.

She sighed and nodded. “I know, honey. I hope everything gets sorted out soon. How are your classes?”

“Wouldn’t know. Haven’t been going.”

“Caesar, you have to go to class. I get that you’re upset, but you’re only going to make everything worse if they pile on you with being academically ineligible. It’s not like you’re taking tough classes right now, right? You should be able to breeze through that stuff even if you’re a little distracted.”

He moved a bottle of paprika back and forth between his fingers before returning it to its original spot in the line. “Is it true?”

His mother’s forehead wrinkled as confusion overtook her. “Is what true?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Is that Erik Jenkins kid actually dad’s son or is someone just trying to cash in on some bullshit?”

She leaned against the counter behind her and looked down at her feet, shaking her head. But she didn’t answer the question.

His mother’s silence was all the answer that he needed as he angrily smashed his fist down on the spice bottles sending them spinning onto the floor. He ran his hands down his face, ignoring the stinging as some of the powder on them got into his eyes.

“There’s a lot that I tried to shield you from. A lot of stuff that I thought that I’d never have to deal with. Which I guess was the wrong thing to do,” she said.

“He gave the fucking kid our name!” Caesar shouted, jumping up from the stool, knocking it over in the process. “He’s one fucking month younger than me. One. Fuck, it might not even be a full month. I guess he had to hedge his damn bets in case I didn’t live up to expectations, huh?”

“That’s not what happened.”

“Sure as the fuck seems like it to me.”

She walked around the island and picked up the stool. “Look, just sit back down and we can talk.”

She put a hand on his shoulder to guide him to the chair, but he pulled away from her.

“Okay, okay. You don’t have to sit down,” she said quietly before walking back to the opposite side of the island. “It’s hard to explain. Believe me. I’ve thought about telling you so many times. So, so many times.”

“But you didn’t so I found out because we both got suspended for the same bullshit. What a fucking coincidence that we both ended playing D1 football. If one of us had been a bum, we would’ve never known about each other. So, what? He’s the kid of some jersey chaser that dad cheated on you with?”

“I don’t know where he met her. In Dallas, obviously.” She reached for the bottle of wine that she’d put in the sink and took a lengthy drink straight from it before placing it on the island. “Caesar, it was a rough time for us, your dad and me. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to live like this. We were still living in Oklahoma City back then. Then when…”

She trailed off and took another drink of wine before taking a deep breath.

“Then I had a miscarriage, and another one. We thought I couldn’t have children. Things were bad. I think we both had divorce papers ready to file. Then you came along,” she said with a sad smile. “I didn’t tell him until he got back from Dallas because I was afraid.”

“Oh, okay. So, he went to get an insurance policy bastard in case I didn’t make it. Got it. Perfectly rational fucking decision. I don’t see how that makes shit fucking better, ma,” he said.

“I’m not defending your father for what he did. He shouldn’t have. I’m just explaining to you where we were in life. I’ve only met his mother a few times. I figured things were so bad for them that we’d always be in two different worlds. Even with Deion giving them money every so often. I think your dad wanted to tell you after he got you both to Oklahoma State. So you could get to know each other, I guess. I was so happy when you decided not to go to Stillwater.”

“Man, fuck that kid. I wouldn’t piss on a fire to put him out. And y’all kept this from me for 19 years?” he paused and shook his head. “I gotta go.”

She moved toward the door as he did. “Caesar, why don’t you wait here until you’re not as upset before you go driving anywhere?”

“Y’all already got a bonus son to replace me if I run into the bayou.”

“Caesa—”

He shut the door behind him, cutting his mother’s pleas off.

His phone started vibrating with a call as soon as he got to his car. Glancing down, he saw it was Kaley. He rejected the call. She called again. He rejected the call again. After the fifth time of the same back-and-forth, he tossed the phone onto the floor on the passenger side and started the car.

-*****-
A light fog rolled over the White River as the sun rose over Indianapolis on a frigid fall morning in the Hoosier State’s capital. A few brave souls jogged along the river or took their dogs out before heading into work for the day.

Four SUVs swung into the parking lot of the NCAA’s national office, not bothering to find an empty parking space and instead parking right in front of the building. A dozen or so men and women stepped out of the vehicles, in suits and overcoats and carrying briefcases.

Deion Jenkins walked to the front of the group, waving for them to follow him.

An administrative assistant still on his first cup of coffee looked up at the group of people walking into the office only three minutes after it’d opened and glanced at his tablet to see if he’d missed a scheduled meeting.

Deion looked at one of the people with him, who reached into her briefcase and pulled out a tablet.

After flicking through some files on the screen, she said, “Enforcement.”

“You heard her,” Deion said to the man sitting at the desk. “I need to see someone in enforcement. Someone important. Preferably immediately.”

“Well, do you know that you’re com—”

“No, they don’t. You can tell them they were supposed to be meeting me in New Orleans on Friday, but I’m a busy man and I don’t have time to make time for this. So, pick up your phone and find out who’s coming down here.”

The man took a second to gather himself before he picked up his phone and pressed a pair of numbers. He repeated what Deion had said before putting the phone back down.

Moments later, another man came all but jogging down a flight of stairs. A woman followed behind him, in a bit more of a confident gait.

“Mr. Jenkins,” the man said when he got to the desk, struggling to catch his breath. “This is highly inappropriate. We’ve set the time for our investigators to speak with you and your office agreed to that time.”

“I’m here now. We can speak now.”

The man looked to the woman who only nodded before turning toward a hallway.

“Very well. Right this way.”

They walked to a conference room at the opposite end of the building. The two NCAA employees sat across from the other group.

“Mr. Jenkins. My name is Krystal Sandoval,” the woman said as she set a tablet on the table in front of here. “I’m an investigator here. This is my colleague Brad Rowe. As Mr. Rowe said, this is highly inappropriate and unusual. We don’t have many people we are investigating show up to the national office unannounced.”

“I’m not ‘many people,’” Deion said. He gestured to the people with him. “This is my legal team. I believe half of them are from Parsons, Steele and Rice in New York and the other half from Romano and Morgan in Los Angeles.”

“I don’t understand—”

Deion held up a finger to cut Rowe off. “I’m not finished. This is why you’ve bit off more than you can chew by destroying my name and my sons’ names and those of my colleagues with false allegations. Unlike most people that you scare into accepting whatever punishment you dole out, I don’t fear you. In fact, we’re prepared to take this to court if need be. We prepared to file a $1 billion defamation lawsuit should you continue this witch hunt. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

“Do you believe you can threaten us into not investigating allegations for infractions?” Sandoval asked.

“No, I don’t believe that it is even a necessary threat to make. I want to make you aware of where we are headed. I’m here to give you the answers you are looking for and when I walk out of that door today, I can ensure you that you will also understand that there are no improprieties involved with the recruitment processes of my sons or my involvement in that.”

The woman reached for her tablet and set it to record. “Let’s begin then.”

“Turn that back off for a second,” Deion said.

“Oh?”

“If you would,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow but did stop the recording.

He raised his pointed at them and paused for a moment before speaking. “Before we act all professional, you two motherfuckers and this whole cocksucking institution—”

“Mr. Jenkins!” Rowe shouted.

“--have some nerve to sit on your high horses and tell anyone to follow your code of morality. For damn near 200 years, you greedy sons of bitches have been getting fat off the backs of athletes, many of them poor, young black men, under the guise of amateurism and being a non-profit. And you have the audacity—the motherfucking audacity—to tell me that I shouldn’t be involved in my sons’ athletic careers because of my job? Do you go to Cornell or Brown or Harvard and tell those athletes’ fathers who are Congressmen and owners of Fortune 500 companies and just general legacy alumni that they can’t do the same? Don’t answer that because we know the answer is no.”

He sat back in his chair and glanced over at one of the lawyers.

“At the end of the day, NIL is bullshit. It’s been bullshit since you instituted it. I’m going to tell you why you have me sitting in this room right now and why you have my boys suspended. Your concern isn’t that I’ve broken any rules, which I haven’t. Your concern is that I’m the monster the NCAA has been afraid of since SM-motherfucking-U. My sons are showing that you can fucking earn, by the rules, as a college athlete. And if that’s breaking your code of amateurism then your code is fucking wrong. Because the NCAA is greedy. It teaches the athletes to be greedy. It’s in our fucking nature. You want to be a part of capitalism? This is our DNA. This is who we are. To not fucking earn is going against who you want to be. You fucking love it. You love every blood nickel that those athletes bring into your shitting ass coffers. It’s true today, it was true when I was in college, it was true when my father was in college and it was true all those decades before. Now, you’re scared they know that can get it without your punk ass universities. So, fuck you and your sense of morality because you don’t get the moral high ground here.”

Deion cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter.

“So, shall we begin?” he asked, waving his hand toward the woman’s tablet.
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Captain Canada
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Captain Canada » 04 Feb 2022, 10:58

:curtain: Damn, Deion.
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Caesar
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Joined: 27 Nov 2018, 10:47

War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 08 Feb 2022, 07:15

Ahem
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