Chapter 4

Larry Simon knew he needed to stop by a drugstore and purchase a stomach acid-reducing medicine. His stomach was seriously upset as he was worrying if he still had a job. It was obvious that Dan Fagan the television station manager for Channel Four was doing major changes as it pertained to the main news team.

The rumor was going around that Dan Fagan was going to ask Paul Conners, the newspaper columnist who was doing commentaries three times a week on the news broadcasts to become a newsreader on the main news team. The rumor started when an employee said it was a logical thing to try and do because of Paul Conners’s popularity. The rumor gained credence when Walt Epson who was one of the main nightly newsreaders after walking out of Dan’s office commented that he was going to retire.

It wasn’t long after that, that a pissed-off Irene Dercel coming out of Dan’s office was heard to say, “I will get that bastard if it’s the last thing I do.”

Larry thought it looked like a merry-go-round because soon after Irene’s exit, Paul Conners and Burt Radisson were seen going into Dan’s office.

Since Larry Simon was part of this news team, he was waiting to be summoned to Dan’s office which was why he was so nervous. He was thinking he was going to be the next person to get the axe and be told his services were no longer needed.

Larry was a gifted athlete when it came to football. He had gone to SMU on a football ride and in his senior year he had made second team All-American. He was drafted in the fourth round by the Cowboys which both surprised and at the same time pleased him.

Being a good-looking jock made Larry a popular person when it came to meeting women. In college, he had no problem in dating many of the many good-looking coeds. Most of these coeds in his opinion were looking to find a marriage partner. Larry was not looking for a life partner as that thought did not become a serious one till he was out of college. He had to admit that in college he was just looking to get laid and was fairly successful in doing that.

Shortly after entering college, the affairs he had started with his dating Liz Thompson who was a freshman just like him. It was after the second date when they were back at the dorm, and Liz’s roommate was gone for the weekend, that their lovemaking proceeded to the ultimate act. Liz was no virgin and while she was not the instigator in them making love, she wasn’t resistant to that happening. She was on the pill which had her tell Larry not to worry when he climaxed.

He dated Liz for most of his freshman year. She was from Houston, Texas but for some unknown reason, she never came back to the school after her freshman year. Why that was Larry didn’t know. She never made any effort to contact him nor did he try to contact her. Because of Larry’s popularity, he had no problems finding a replacement for Liz.

For the next three years, he dated several coeds, but he never dated anyone for a long time. It wasn’t that he was the type of guy that once he made love to a girl he would drop her and look for someone else. There might have been some of that in his dating habits but more of it was that there wasn’t one particular coed that stood out in his mind of the coeds he dated. He could only wonder why it was that he didn’t find what he was looking for in these coeds. Maybe he was too choosy and expected bells and whistles to go off when they made love, but that didn’t happen and that was just the way he felt.

Playing professional football was an interesting endeavor for many reasons. The first one was that the popularity he had in college among women carried over in playing for the Cowboys. There were parties and get-togethers where he was able to meet attractive women who gravitated to football players. That was probably because the women thought the football players were receiving good salaries and could treat a woman right. Larry did notice that most of the football players he knew that were married, were married to attractive women.

Larry was fairly good-looking with a handsome face and wavy light-brown hair. He didn’t have a problem in hooking up with women who were attracted to him. He was now changing his attitude and was starting to look to find someone to be his life partner, but so far that hadn’t happened. Maybe his standards were too high in finding this woman, but he hoped he would find that special woman.

In playing professional football he had some good, highlight type of moments. He started his professional playing career by being one of the players who returned kickoffs and punts. He did manage to return a few of them when the kick-off or punt wasn’t into the end zone. Because his speed, he progressed to being put in on certain plays as a flanker back. In playing that position he caught several passes for sizeable yardage gains.

It was in his third year of playing professional football that on a passing route over the middle, he didn’t catch the football but as a sports writer said, “He caught his lunch.” Just as the thrown football touched his hands, he was hit high by one player and hit low by another player. The high hit of helmet to helmet caused him to have a concussion and the low hit ripped his left knee apart. He was carted off the field somewhat groggy, yet he could feel the pain in his knee and hear the applause of the spectators.

While he was operated on and the knee reconstructed, he was never able to fully regain the speed he once had. Larry was told by the team’s physician that if he had another hit to the head as severe as that first one, it could be lights out for him. Hearing those words told Larry it was time to look for another way to earn a living.