It wasn't quite seven o'clock the next morning as Gabe made his way back to the practice field for the second time, only this time he held a clipboard. A day he would like to forget three years ago in Indianapolis took the breath from his lungs and pulled him from the game forever. In the second quarter against the Colts he was taken down by a bone crushing hit damaging his knee. As one surgery turned into three, for the sake of his body the hit caused an early retirement at the age of thirty three. Despite being told that he would never put on his cleats again, San Francisco hired Gabe without hesitation and he started his career coaching the first season as a non player. The uproar with their management brought him to Rockford where he finally found a groove that was manageable, and a budding team itching to claim a spot in history. The club was new but that didn't change anything. Gabe made a vow when he started coaching, he would never push a player to do something he couldn't do himself, even if that meant getting up at the crack of dawn running lines to the comfort levels of his knee and lifting weights until exhaustion. He understood the strength and determination it took to get the job done; he also knew when to listen to his body. If the players complained it was too much, he could fight them on it or tell them to take a break. In his second season with the Cougars, Gabe was finally finding a good place as a coach.
Up ahead near the thirty yard line, Tony Soliano was already setting up so the players could start their drills after warming up. The coach was a tall and thick man in his mid-fifties. For the practice, he donned a knit polo embroidered with the Cougars' logo on the right breast. Soliano retired before Gabe entered the league and he could remember how the ex-quarterback played even if they weren't working together. He had been in a freshman in high school when Soliano played his last season for New England. Gabe had been sitting in the front room of his parents' house, shouting at the small screen with his father as he broke Len Bowman's passing record by twelve yards.
"Mornin' Russ, you stop by your desk yet?" Tony tossed a roll of tape to the turf as he spoke to Gabe.
"I dropped off the folder on Jennings this morning before working out but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Should I be looking out for something?"
The man shifted slightly and folded his arms across his chest, looking beyond Gabe he shrugged his shoulders and waited. On the side of the field, Gabe saw Deitrichs running sprints and remembered the post it note Tony had left on his phone."He's fast I'll give you that, but I don't know if he's ready yet to take it from the bench..."
Tony interrupted whatever else Gabe was going to say. "Put him in and see if he can take it, you've been pushing him hard this week. I think he could fill in the gap."
Gabe's eyebrows shot up, he stared incredulously at the man next to him before his mouth twitched at the corner. A rusty smile denied for the rough playing fields showed itself for the shortest of moments. The man was no fool and completely agreed with Soliano, he saw Deitrichs' potential and was glad he wasn't the only one.
"Was there something else I should be looking for?"
"Game film came in. I was watching it pretty late last night and think there's a break in the defense that we can work with."
Gabe rubbed the back of his head, his watch rattling as it moved along his wrist. Several players made their way out onto the field to stretch but Gabe didn't see any of it. In his head he was running plays and figuring positions, clipboards be damned. "I'll take a look after we're done and see what we're looking at."
Soliano rolled his eyes and blew out a gruff laugh. "You already knew didn't you? Damn it, sometimes I think you eat and sleep football."
Gabe grinned broadly. "It's my life."
Tony smacked his shoulder before throwing his head back and laughed. "Yeah it is, if Maggie didn't have her set of rules I'd prob'ly eat and sleep football too but seeing as my wife is the ruler of the household, it's not allowed in the bedroom."
Gabe had to laugh at that, a few of the players turned in their direction surprised to hear the sound rumbling from his chest and he quickly sobered. He remembered when he was married to Bree, something that was an afterthought of a misguided view of growing up. She would always complain about his shuffling papers while in bed studying up on plays, or how the flickering of the television bothered her. He should have known that the day she bought a mask to wear at night, the honeymoon had ended.
They married young at the start of his career. He was in love or so he thought, she wanted the lifestyle she thought would be automatic. Only to realize two years into their marriage that Gabe was a quiet man, he didn't need the bright lights. Looking back, he married her because then he would have had it all. A career, a wife and a home. When she didn't fight him over the cottage they'd shared, he knew he'd made the right decision in moving on. The last he'd heard was that she had attached herself to a defenseman in Indianapolis, wherever the ball landed he supposed.
Just then the rest of the players flooded the field and the athletic trainers started running the first thirty minutes of practice. Gabe tugged the hat low on his head and gripped the clipboard tightly to his side. As much as he should be focusing on the guys on the field, he started to get flashes of Samantha from the night before.
"Someone had a good night." Ernie smacked Gabe's back as he stood with the rest of the coaches.
Gabe nodded his head. He did have a good night, probably one of the better ones as of late but he was not in the mood to discuss that with Ernie considering where they were. Chalking off his time with Samantha, he focused on his break from the meetings. "Thanks for getting me out yesterday, I needed a break."
Ernie shook his head in disapproval. "That's not what I meant and you know it. Who's the lady?" The two men started to walk around the players as they were listening to the instructions from the trainers.
"Just someone who was meeting up with her friends." Ernie tossed a sideways glance at Gabe before hunching down next to Jamal Wallace, putting a hand on his back and pressing the player forward a little further to really stretch his muscles.
"That's interesting." As Ernie stood back up and walked on with Gabe. "I've never seen you pay the tab for 'just someone'."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothin' just seemed a lot like she wasn't just some lady you met in the bar."
"I told you, she fell and I helped her out. There's nothing more than that. " Gabe started to feel flushed in his cheeks and hoped that the change in his tone only made it look like they colored in frustration.
Ernie saw right through him but decided to play him and push a little further. "So what does she do?"
Gabe answered casually as his eyes were trained on Jennings and Phillips who were making their way to the lanes. "She's a teacher out in Hinsdale. Third grade. She said that her students last year made her throw a party for when the Cougars made it to the playoffs as long as they passed one of their tests." He smiled, remembering how her face had been filled with embarrassment when she told him how she'd rather them celebrate for the sake of them passing their tests not for some football team winning a game.
Ernie's mouth twitched before turning and heading out to the other side of the field. "
Just someone
."
****
