Free Go Long! by Ronde Barber

ball.
    But no—Cody would throw it up there, trying to hit Fred or Joey Gallagher way down the field.
    â€œCody, man, give me the ball !” Tiki begged midway through the fourth quarter, with the Eagles still behind by seven points.
    Cody shook his head. “We need to get the ball down the field in a hurry,” he said.
    â€œCome on, dude!” Tiki moaned. “I’m wide open in the flat. Trust me, I can score off these guys!”
    Cody sighed and looked Tiki in the eye. “This just isn’t your day, Barber. You’ve got butterfingers. I’m going with what’s working.”
    â€œYou think this is working?” Tiki asked him. “We’veonly got seven points, and we got those on a running play!”
    â€œYeah— with me running ,” Cody said, and that was the end of the discussion.
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    Meanwhile, Ronde and the defense were keeping the Eagles in the game, holding the Patriots scoreless.
    With only three minutes left to go, and the Eagles on their own forty-yard line, Tiki finally persuaded Cody to look for him on the next passing play. “Okay, but don’t drop it this time, Barber.”
    Coach Wheeler sent Fred Soule in with the play. “Penn State, on three,” he told the huddled Eagles.
    Penn State?
    Tiki tried to remember what Penn State was. The Eagles hadn’t used the play since last season and had never run it in practice. Tiki thought he remembered that it called for a fake handoff, followed by a quick pass to him in the right flat.
    Tiki pulled off the fake, then turned to his right to receive the pass—only to see it whistle behind him.
    â€œBarber! You idiot! You were supposed to cut left !”
    â€œNo, I wasn’t,” Tiki muttered, distinctly remembering he was supposed to cut to the right.
    But it didn’t matter, because now it was fourth down. With time running out, and no time-outs left, this play was their last chance to win the game.
    Joey Gallagher ran the play in. “Miami, on four.”
    Uh-oh , thought Tiki. Miami was a trick play, a flea-flicker. It called for Tiki to take the handoff, then lateral back to Cody, who would throw a long bomb past the confused defenders to Fred Soule.
    Tiki took the handoff without a hitch and got the ball back to Cody. But with defenders blitzing him, Cody didn’t catch the ball cleanly. By the time he got the pass off, he was about to get creamed by a two-hundred-pound lineman!
    The ball fell ten yards short of its intended target, and the Patriots took over with only fifty seconds left. Their quarterback kneeled down twice, and the game was over.
    Incredibly, the Eagles had lost again!
    And this time, Tiki was the goat.
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    The bus ride back to Hidden Valley School was miserable. Tiki and Ronde sat next to one another, but neither had much to say.
    Ronde had played well—one of the few Eagles who had. But Tiki knew his brother couldn’t enjoy it when the whole team was so down.
    The season was only two games old, but it was already a terrible mess. How were they even going to make the playoffs if this kept up? Beyond losing, Tiki felt even worse about his own play. He knew he and Ronde werethe most talented players on the team. But he also knew he hadn’t played up to his potential.
    Looking over his shoulder toward the back of the bus, Tiki could see Cody Hansen talking to a bunch of kids who were leaning in close to hear what he had to say. Every few seconds, one would turn and look at Coach Wheeler, just checking to see if he could hear them.
    Tiki didn’t need to hear—he knew they were all dissing the coach, blaming the team’s terrible start on him.
    Well, Tiki didn’t think this loss was Mr. Wheeler’s fault. Sure, maybe he wasn’t doing a perfect job—he was new at this, after all. Tiki could understand why Mr. Wheeler might feel a little