Free Gang Tackle by Eric Howling

and Carlos too.”
    “Are we all going to play Football Freakout ?” Darnell asked hopefully.
    “No, something better.”
    “Play it again!” Darnell’s eyes were glued to the computer screen in Jamal’s bedroom.
    “It’s awesome!” Carlos said.
    “I can’t believe you made this yourself.” Rico grinned at Jamal. “You’re a computer genius, man.”
    “I’m still working on the game,” Jamal said, his fingers flying over the keyboard. “You’re looking at a beta version. That means it’s almost finished.”
    “It looks finished to me,” Darnell said. “What else do you have to do?
    “A bunch more coding,” Jamal explained. “Things to make sure the game runs smoothly every time it’s played. Don’t want it to freeze or anything like that.”
    He clicked the Play button again. The screen showed two football teams lined up against each other. The players were simple red and blue cartoon figures. When the ball was hiked, Jamal clicked on the left and right arrow keys to rush the four defensive linemen against the quarterback. When the linemen sacked the quarterback, the game was over. It all took Jamal about ten seconds.
    “Let me try,” Rico said. “I bet I can sack the QB faster.”
    He pushed Jamal to the side. He clicked Play and started rushing the linemen. “This isn’t so easy. I keep getting blocked.” Rico finally sacked the quarterback after twenty seconds. “How did you do it faster?”
    “Practice, practice, practice,” Jamal said.
    Rico laughed. “Yeah, but I hate practice.”
    “No kidding,” Carlos joked. “We can see you dogging it on the field when you’re supposed to be doing your drills.”
    “What do you call the game?” Darnell asked.
    “Sack the Quarterback ,” Jamal said. “Do you like it?”
    Darnell stroked his chin, thinking for a minute. “I like the sack part, but I’m not sure about the quarterback part.”
    Jamal wrinkled his brow. “Why not?”
    “You know how there are lots of football games out there?”
    “Yeah, hundreds.” Jamal nodded.
    “Ours needs to be different, so people will want to pay the ninety-nine cents and download it.”
    “Yeah, we need money and we need it fast,” Rico said. “I don’t know how much longer we can wear these crappy old uniforms.”
    “So I have an idea,” Darnell said.
    “Bring it on,” Jamal said. “If we can make it better, let’s hear it.”
    “What if we changed the name to Sack the Coach ?”
    “So the game would stay the same,” Jamal said, nodding, “but instead of sacking the quarterback, you’d sack the coach.”
    “Exactly.” Darnell fist-bumped with Jamal.
    “Now that would be different,” Rico said. “Even I’d pay money for that.”
    “I could change the quarterback to look like Coach Fort,” Jamal said. “Dress him in a black suit that was too small for his big belly.”
    Carlos broke out laughing. “That’d be hilarious, dude.”
    “And people would know about Coach Fort getting sacked because the story has been all over the sports news,” Carlos said.
    “Yeah, I must have seen the video clip of him flipping out on the sideline a hundred times,” Darnell said. “It’s already got thousands of views on YouTube.”
    “So, what do you need from us?” Darnell asked.
    “I need you guys to bounce,” Jamal said with a smile. “I’ve got a long night of work ahead of me.”

Chapter Eighteen
    “Why is it taking so long?” Darnell asked, sitting on the bench beside Jamal. “We need some cash fast.”
    It was halftime during Southside’s next game. The Don Mills Lions were mauling the Saints to pieces. The score was already 21–0, and it didn’t look like the Lions were going to pull in their claws anytime soon. They were out for blood.
    Jamal knew they should be focused on the game, but he too couldn’t wait for money to start rolling in from Sack the Coach .
    “Like I told you, it takes a while. First I had to submit the game to iTunes for them to approve