Free The Extra Yard by Mike Lupica

lift you so you can sit up.”
    They did that. Teddy looked at Jack’s mom, whose eyes were very wide. Coach Gilbert took Jack’s helmet off. Teddy could see the pain on Jack’s face. Then Dr. McAuley was between Teddy and Jack, speaking quietly. Teddy saw Jack nodding. Then Dr. McAuley said something to Coach Williams, who ran back to the oversize first aid kit behind the bench that reminded Teddy more of a cooler and came back with a sling.
    To Teddy, it already felt as if Jack had scored his touchdown an hour ago.
    After Jack’s arm was in the sling, he stood up. The people in the stands and players on both teams applauded as he walked slowly back toward the Wildcats’ bench.
    Once Jack and the adults with him were off the field, the refs motioned for both teams to line up for the conversion. Teddy took another look back at their bench and saw Danny Hayes, the backup quarterback, running onto the field, fastening his chin strap as he did. He knelt down, talking fast, told them the play was a fake to Jake and a pass in the left corner to Mike O’Keeffe. The pass fell way short of Mike and was nearly intercepted. It was still Wildcats 13, Bears 7 at the half.
    By the time they came off the field, Jack was already on his way to the hospital for X-rays.
    Coach Gilbert gathered the team around him right away.
    â€œListen,” he said, “we all know this isn’t the game we thought we were going to play. It might not even be the same season we thought it was going to be. We’ll know more about that later.”
    They had made a big circle around him. Coach kept turning as he spoke, as a way of talking to all of them at once.
    â€œBut as great a player as Jack is, and I really believe he’s a great player, one guy is never a team. And Danny here”—he pointed at Danny Hayes—“wouldn’t be on this team if I didn’t think he could do the job at quarterback.”
    Teddy could see some of the guys nodding their heads in agreement, even though nobody had any idea how Danny was going to do in the second half.
    â€œI’m not one of those guys who tries to tell you what somebody else would want,” Coach said. “But I’m pretty doggone sure, knowing Jack the way I do, that he wouldn’t want you to be worrying about him right now. I’m pretty sure he’d want us to go win this game.”
    Teddy could see him smiling. “And since we’re all here, and there’s still a whole half left to play, why don’t we just go ahead and do that?”
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    But the Bears scored the second time they had the ball in the third quarter, after the cornerback covering Gus had intercepted the second pass Danny tried. Five plays later their quarterback found their tight end wide open in the end zone. The quarterback ran it in himself on the conversion, and the Bears were ahead 14–13.
    As nervous as Teddy had been trying to make the Wildcats, Danny was even more nervous trying to replace Jack at quarterback. He nearly fumbled a couple of simple handoffs, one to Jake and one to Brian. And when he did try a couple of throws on their next drive, they didn’t come close to connecting. Teddy wanted to tell him to relax, the way Jack was always telling him to relax. But he wasn’t sure, in the first game he’d ever played, that it was his place, as much as he wanted to be a good teammate. On top of that, he barely knew Danny Hayes.
    The first time Danny threw a ball Teddy’s way, a simple slant pattern on the Wildcats’ last drive of the third quarter, the ball was so far behind Teddy it nearly got picked by the cornerback covering Gus. The only reason the kid dropped the ball was because he seemed shocked it was anywhere close to him.
    The Wildcats punted again. They held the Bears again, three and out. The Bears punted. Another three and out for the Wildcats, still down a point. And the deeper