Page 27 of The Game Plan

If that’s not social media worthy, I don’t know what is.

Reese sat out for a play to catch his breath but swapped back in after that play ended in another first down for the Kings.

Before he walked onto the field, Magnus called him over.

Reese could still feel the sting from Magnus’ words the morning after his first date with Sutton. Magnus saw the Instagram post and had given Reese the talking to of his life, and it wasn’t only about football.

The disappointment from his coach hurt the most, though.

“What’s up, Coach?” he asked, tugging his helmet on.

“Be careful out there,” Magnus said. “We’re up, but there’s still plenty of game left. They’re going to be gunning for you, so pay attention to the defense. And keep that personal stuff off the field.”

“Yes, sir,” Reese replied, shaking his head with a chuckle. Magnus clapped him on his shoulder, dismissing him, and he trotted onto the field to join the huddle.

“You good?” Eli asked.

“All good,” Reese replied.

“Good to hear,” Eli replied, looking around the huddle. “Okay, boys, Manball 34 right on one.” He looked around to confirm everyone had heard it before he called, “Break!”

They lined up at the line of scrimmage, their fullback, Eric Danes, in front of Reese to help put a hole in the defense so Reese could get through.

“Set hut!”

Reese followed Eric toward the hole between the right guard and the right tackle as Eli passed him the ball. He tucked it into his elbow and took off as Eric blocked for him, creating a hole for him to pass through.

He darted to the right to avoid a Corner, narrowly avoiding being tackled. He saw a Safety head for him, and he pushed farther to the right to the sideline, making sure to keep his feet in bounds.

His heart raced as he pushed down the field toward the end zone, the hair on his neck rising when he realized the Safety was closing in.

He heard a tackle and turned his head to see Carter and the Safety on the ground, the stadium bursting into cheers when Reese crossed into the end zone for the touchdown.

He held his arms out and drank it in, laughter spilling out when he was tackled by Spenser and Carter, Eli not far behind him.

“Let’s fucking go!” Spenser called, smacking him on his helmet.

“Great job, brother,” Eli said, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, I had a lot of help,” he said, pointing at Carter who gave him a thumbs up. He looked around for Eric and ran over to him, giving him a fist bump. “Great block, man.”

“That’s what I do, baby,” Eric said, doing a little dance.

They gathered on the sidelines and watched as Preston and the special teams went for the extra point. The holder received the snap and instead of holding it, he tossed it to Preston and took off to the right to block as Preston rushed the end zone and dove in for two points.

Reese leaned over to Eli. “Did you know they were going to do that?”

Eli shook his head in amazement. “I didn’t.”

They looked over at the coach, and Magnus gave them a shrug, the two of them bursting into laughter.

Reese looked around the field, welling up at the sea of blue and silver in the crowd. The support from Knoxville was unmatched in his opinion, and he felt their excitement and anticipation at the possibility of the outcome of this game.

First the championship, then onto the big game.

A vision of him holding the silver trophy flashed in his mind, Sutton standing next to him as he held it up.

Whoa.