Chapter 52: Judson vs. Roosevelt

Tim Murphy, his father Raymond, and Roosevelt Head Football Coach “Big” John Fontana were the last people to arrive for the morning meeting in a conference room in the Administration building of Judson High School. Judson Head Football Coach Jim Baker called Big John back approximately an hour after Big John told Coach Baker about the possibility of someone from his team or school had thrown a bag of feces at Tim Murphy’s house the previous evening. Coach Baker told Big John that Rodney Valentine professed his innocence at being anywhere near the Murphy household ever in his entire life. He also had to end his call to Big John when Valentine’s parents demanded to know why their son was getting charged with something he obviously could have never done.

“Coach Fontana, Mr. Murphy, Tim, it’s a pleasure to meet you all. Please come in and have a seat,” the Judson Principal greeted the Roosevelt contingent with a handshake and the Cheshire grin of a used car salesman. “Now let’s see if we can figure out what happened the other night. First of all, I am sure I speak for everyone here that we are all genuinely sorry for your family having to deal with something as disgusting and barbaric as what you have experienced. I hope you can put the entire issue out of your memories.”

Tim was watching Rodney Valentine and noticed the slight smirk on his face when the principal said the word sorry. In Tim’s mind, the entire investigation was over at that moment. “Yes. Thank you for your kind words. First of all, I’d like to have it known on behalf of all of us from the Roosevelt family that we are not, and I repeat not accusing young Rodney here of dong anything wrong. We are just here to ascertain whether or not he or anyone at his behest is guilty of befouling my, excuse me, I mean our home,” Raymond said while putting his hand on Tim’s shoulder. “For the record, after we finished cleaning up the disgusting scene on our front door, Timothy remembered the many different fan sites on the internet devoted to him and his exploits on the football field. Please allow me to be blunt, but the inspiration is setting the hearts a flutter in high school girls - and even a few older women, I’m sure - everywhere.”

Rodney Valentine fumed at Coach Baker for calling his parents with the accusations from the Roosevelt coach. But Coach Baker felt he did not believe Rodney’s assertions that he was at home when the incident occurred. Baker called Rodney’s parents with him seated across from him. “Mr. Valentine, it’s Coach Baker at Judson High. How are you doing, sir,” the coach asked while on speakerphone?

“Just fine, Coach. Just fine. Is there something wrong with Rodney?”

“No, Dad, I’m right here. But don’t believe anything coach is saying, I didn’t have anything,” Rodney answered.

“Please, Rodney, let ME talk to your dad,” Coach Baker announced with a higher volume nearing a yell. “Mr. Valentine, do you know where Rodney was last night at about seven o’clock?”

“Tell you the truth, Coach. I don’t know. I didn’t get home until nearly nine last night myself. Let me ask my wife,” Mr. Valentine offered. The two in the coach’s office could hear a muffled conversation over the speakerphone. Mr. Valentine put his hand over the microphone part of the phone. An audible click came over the speaker, and Mrs. Valentine was now on the line.

“Good evening, Coach. Um, if I remember correctly, Rodney came home a little bit after seven, almost half-past. What’s going on? Is Rodney hurt or something,” she asked, getting a little bit rattled.

“No, Mom. I’m fine, but Coach has some wild story about me that ain’t true. It ain’t true at all,” Rodney had stood up and nearly screaming to protest his innocence.

“Sit down, Rodney!” The Judson football star was still standing and heavily breathing like he wanted to start a physical altercation. “Sit. Down. Rodney.” The coach put on that stern, authoritative voice all coaches perfect from years of getting hormone riddled high school boys to concentrate on something other than seeing a real live, naked girl. It took another second before Rodney sat back down, and he did so in a mechanical form without any other movement. Like he didn’t do it, his subconscious forced him back into the seat.

“Coach, what’s going on? Is Rodney in trouble,” his mother asked?

“Um, I beginning to think he just might be.” Coach Baker began to lay out everything he had head about the attack from Coach Fontana. He also included that Tim had found pictures of an off-white almost pink 1960s Volkswagen Bug speeding down the street away from the Murphy home. “Put all that along with how Rodney seems to lose control whenever anyone mentions Tim Murphy, and I think Rodney may have done this.”

Rodney’s mother began attempting to cover up for her dear sweet boy who would never do such a wild and uncouth thing. It must undoubtedly be someone trying to cause trouble for her boy and ruin his chances at a college scholarship and professional football dreams of the family. Rodney’s father started to agree with his wife and demanded that Coach Baker immediately apologize to his son and also for even thinking their son could be a part of something like that. Rodney was smiling while he looked at the floor of the coach’s office.

“Okay, then I think we need to get everybody in a room, and we can talk out what happened and see the evidence. Because frankly, I won’t let Rodney play until we can prove that he had nothing to do at all with any of this.” Rodney jumped up out of his seat, suggesting the coach was crazy for even thinking about keeping him out of the game. Rodney’s parents were equally apoplectic, and their rants featured words like lawsuits and firings via the Rockets Sports Booster Club. “Listen, everybody,” Coach Baker yelled while trying to get control of the conversation once again. Rodney, this time, dropped into his chair like a little kid told he could not have his dessert after dinner for being a bad boy. “Let’s all get into a conference room here tomorrow, and we can go over the evidence and see if we can figure out what happened. Right now, we have the story contained. Coach Fontana said he did not want the story to get out to the media. That was no good for either side. So I can get Tim Murphy and Coach Fontana to come here tomorrow morning, and we can see if there is any validity to Rodney having done this at all. I also really advise you against bringing in legal help because that will take this to a whole other level, and right now, we need this solved quick and quiet.”

After a few minutes of hand-holding Rodney’s parents, Coach Baker let his star running back go on back to class. When he was gone, Coach Baker called Coach Fontana and got him to bring the Murphy boy and his parents for a little conference between the two schools and two families.

They sat around the table and listened to the ins and out of what happened two nights before.

“I first want to say I’m sorry about what happened to your family, but I also want to assure you that my Rodney did not have anything to do with the vandalism of your home. My boy was home early after practice because he is on restriction, and we’ve got him coming home right after practice, which ends at about six o’clock, and he comes through the door either right at half-past or depending on traffic and couple of minutes after that. I have been keeping an eye on him for the last couple of weeks to make sure he is home at that time,” Rodney’s mother said to everyone in the room. But she did not look at Coach Baker after she finished lying about what time Rodney was home that night. Coach Baker was staring at her, and he saw the same smile Rodney had on in his office.

After several minutes of back and forth and accusations countered by rebuttal and counter-accusations, the Judson Principal got the meeting again under control. “The way I see this, there is not enough evidence to prove that young Rodney here was the person who befouled your home as the picture does not show anyone’s face in the picture and the color of the car is still in question.” Raymond and Coach Fontana began yelling at the principal for obviously siding with his student. “Well, sir, I have never had a disciplinary problem come across my desk wit young Rodney here. Everything I know about him shows he is a sweet and compassionate young man who quite frankly is destined for great things after he leaves our school.”

Tim had had it. “Enough,” he yelled as he stood up to his full six-foot five-inch frame, and it was at full attention. There was an audible rip as his arm muscles tore through the sleeves of the t-shirt Tim was wearing. But he ignored them. “Let. Him. Play. Friday.” He leaned over the table and pointed his finger at Rodney. “See you then.” He then stood straight up again and took a few steps toward the door. Coach Fontana and Tim’s father Raymond was taken aback by what they had just seen but quickly gathered up the evidence they had brought with them and followed after their star football player. Rodney was still wearing his Cheshire grin as he had just gotten everything he had always wanted.

Coach Baker rolled his eyes to the ceiling, kissing his perfect season goodbye. The Coach was well aware of how well Tim could play and had secretly suspected the Roosevelt Rough Rider defensive lineman could probably perform even better.

When the door closed behind them, Rodney answered, “I’ll see you then.” The meeting broke up then, and Rodney returned to class while his parents returned home. Everyone confident they all got what they all wanted.

It was Friday morning, and no one knew what was wrong with Tim for the last couple of days. The few people who had seen the video and had heard about something happening at Tim’s house were not sure of what it was. The rumor mill was running rampant.

Tim went about his regular day but kept any extraneous talking to an absolute minimum. There was an aura of ’stay away’ around him. When in class, he was one hundred percent in that class, and it’s associated work. When walking to the next class, he remembered the game film of Judson he had seen. Even at lunch, when he should have been kidding around with his friends, they could not pull him out of his current obsession of knowing everything about the Judson Rockets’ possible game plans. At practices, he was quiet and performing every drill to military precision and without the normal gabbing with his teammates. They, in turn, took on his aura of preparation, and soon each player was preparing each second of the day while they were not doing classwork. Each member of the first and second string varsity football team was ignoring everything else about life except class and beating Judson.

After school, on game days, there was a pep rally in the gym for the student body to give support to the football team before there game. It featured the typical cheerleaders performing their cheers and practicing their shared yells between them and the audience. With the importance of the game, there would be either the full marching band surrounding the rear of the stage. Or just the drumline using time-honored beats to help raise the spirits of the football team.

Today, the full marching band was backing up the full cheerleader squad as well as all the dance teams on the side of the stage. The football team would come out from the locker room and walk to the gym wearing their jersey for the night and enter in front of the stage but for a few team captains and the head coach. Coach Fontana put Frank Robinson, Troy Williams, and Tim on the stage behind him for the pep rally. Tim never participated in the pep rally other than standing in front of the stage, but this was the first time he was on the stage. “Welcome, Roosevelt Rough Riders,” Big John exclaimed to appeared to be the entire student body. I just wanted to reiterate what the announcement from this morning. The school buses are going to hold back for about twenty minutes for you students who take the bus home after school, so you to can enjoy our pep rally!” Big John paused a few moments while the applause died down. “Alright now without further adieu, please welcome the offensive captain of your Rough Rider football team, the quarterback, number twelve, Troy Williams!”

Big John pulled away from the microphone, and Troy walked up to it. But before he started speaking, he spotted Rob Newsome away from everyone else and hiding off to the side. They made eye contact, and he jumped out from his hiding place, and Troy fired the football right to him. It was a fast throw and a fantastic jumping catch. Troy had almost overthrown him, but Rob was a great receiver. Troy mimicked wiping the sweat off his forehead, and Rob jogged back to rejoin the teammates watching the show. “Tonight, we have an opportunity to show Judson that we mean business, and we are coming to take away their dreams of a perfect season!” The student body appreciated the positivity coming from their starting quarterback. Troy stood back away from the microphone, and Big John stepped up again.

“And now the all-district, all-city second-team selection and the starting middle linebacker for the second year in a row, number 45, Frank Robinson,” Big John shouted into the pep rally microphone!

Frank had no trouble speaking in front of people. “Roosevelt High!” The students all cheered. “I said Roosevelt High!” They cheered again a little bit louder. “Now that’s more like it. We started the year smelling like a fart in a classroom.” The laughs took a few moments to die down from his joke. “But we are coming out the other side smelling like roses. Now we were supposed to play against these fools a couple of weeks ago, but God must have wanted to see a slaughter since he sent a hurricane to come down and give the Rockets a few more weeks of life before they got that ass-whoopin’!” The cheers took much longer to die down, and Big John looked admonishment at Frank rather than saying anything. Frank nodded his head and put his hands together like he was praying and stepped back from the microphone.

“We got one more person up here that I’m sure we would all like to hear from, but I have an announcement to make before he can say anything. Tim, take off that number 99, we have a new number for you.” Big John pulled the jersey that was over his shoulder and tossed it to Tim. He unfurled it and smiled at the significant number one on the white home jersey, with the number one on red lettering and a blue border to finish off the school colors. Tim pulled off his jersey, and his under t-shirt came off as well. From the stage around where Frank was standing came a piercing wolf whistle and a “YEAAAAAAH, BOYEEEEEE!” came from somewhere in the football team standing in front of the stage. Several other girls loudly cheered as Tim put his t-shirt back on and then pulled over his new jersey: number one.

“Wow, I guess I get a new number!” was the first thing out of his mouth when he reached the microphone. But he quickly got his faculties centered and looked out over the faces of his other teammates. As well as the faces of the student body, a lot of whom he had known since school started. He couldn’t help but remember the way he used to be before his changes. He grabbed the microphone as it was still in its stand. “I’m gonna show those losers what they ain’t never seen before! Judson, we’re coming for you!” For some reason, Tim thought the moment in Rambo Part two, where he is on the radio calling his superiors and promising to return after they had left him for dead, was an appropriate line to help stir up the crowd a bit. It worked.

The students in the stands shouted like crazed fanatics, and they were spurred on by the cheerleaders and dance teams as well as the band who started up a rousing rendition of the school fight song. The teammates made their way back to the locker room where the freshman and the JV not dressing out for the football game, grabbed the school things, and left to allow the others to begin mental preparations for the game.

Tim’s freshman squad friends who had now been all promoted to the JV were going to be dressing up for this game. The coaches wanted to have more players just in case of injuries, and they did not want to look like a smaller school dressing, only about sixty kids when Judson dresses typically over one hundred players for every varsity game. Johnnie Boynes, Tony Parker, Jeff Green, and Mark Mazzurana had all been promoted a week after Tim. But now they were going to dress up for the Varsity game. They were probably not going to play, but if they dressed, then there was a chance. Each of his friends was excited, and the closer the game came to kickoff, the more nervous they were all becoming.

Tim sat on the side at the same spot he sat when he was playing freshman ball, and Johnnie sat down right beside him. “You nervous?”

“Anxious. I can’t wait to get my hands on Valentine.” Tim had told Johnnie about the meeting at Judson and about how he was sure it was him who had thrown the sack of shit at his family’s front door. He even told Johnnie about the way his parents were covering up for him. It was like they all allowed him to do whatever the hell he wanted.” Tim had promised he was going to get his revenge. Johnnie was worried about Tim taking out his aggression on Valentine. Even though he was also sure the asshole had done the dirty deed, he did not want Tim to kill or maybe even maim the guy. The horse’s ass didn’t deserve that. Johnnie didn’t tell Tim he felt the guy did not deserve to get injured, but he counseled Tim to be careful and to beat him within the rules.

The bus ride from the school to the stadium was where Tim started feeling a few butterflies in his stomach. But right when he was getting ready to put his tablet away, he got an email from his Dad. Raymond had sent a link to another video to get him excited. He sent them every game but was getting worried since his Dad had not posted a video yet. He had already sent a picture of himself in the new jersey and told him to tell his mother and Carmen about the change. In reality, Tim was expecting a possible number change just because traditionally receivers wore numbers in the 80s or even from one to twenty. Tim knew that teaching him how to run routes and catch the ball was something that might facilitate a number change. Also, the idea of him wearing number one was starting to appeal to him.

Tim opened the link and waited for the video to appear. He had heard this song before and instantly knew his Dad had picked another winner. He watched it and was blown away with the creativity of those who created the video. The video for The White Stripes’, “Seven Nation Army” video consists of one seemingly continuous shot through a kaleidoscopic tunnel of mirrored black, white, and red triangles. The triangle sides alternate between images of the White Stripes’ Jack and Meg White playing, interspersed with marching skeletons and an elephant. The speed at which the triangles move forward through the tunnel speeds up and slows down in unison with the dynamics of the song. During the video, when the song begins to intensify, the lights surrounding the triangles flash, and other effects build up as well. The basic riff pounded throughout the song is what makes it an excellent song to listen to before preparing for a football game.

I’m gonna fight ‘em off

A seven nation army couldn’t hold me back

They’re gonna rip it off

Taking their time right behind my back

And I’m talkin’ to myself at night

Because I can’t forget

Back and forth through my mind

Behind a cigarette

And the message comin’ from my eyes says, “Leave it alone.”

The piercing baseline was still ringing in his ears when he noticed the other players gathering up their shoulder pads and helmets to get out the bus. He paused the song before it was about to begin for a third playing. Coach Alvarez was standing by the door of the bus when Tim got off. “Hey, did your old man forget to send you a song?”

“Nope. A little late, but I got it on the bus ride. I’m glad I brought it along just in case.”

“If you like, I can hang on to it for you during the game. That way, you don’t have to try to hide it here in the locker room without actually locking it up away for your protection,” Coach Alvarez offered. Since he was the freshman football coach, he and Coach Barrett were sitting in the coaches’ box with an overhead view of the game and were the people on the other side of the coach’s headsets they wore throughout the game.

“That’d be great, coach, thanks.” Tim tried to hand it to him right then.

“No, hang onto it for now. We still got walk-throughs, and you can keep it for now. I’ll come and find you when it’s time for me to get upstairs and time for you to warm up. What song did your old man send anyway?”

Tim just showed him the opening frame of the video, and Coach Alvarez smiled. “Now that is a good song and a greater video. Your old man has great taste in music,” he said. Both walked into the locker room and were just able to get inside before the first players were leaving to get a feel for the field.

Tim sat his gear down in the usual place with the defensive linemen. He noticed his friends did not know where exactly to go. Tim pointed Mark Mazzurana to put his stuff on the outside edge of where the other defensive lineman stored theirs under a few shower heads. He led Jeff Green and Tony Parker to the offensive lineman and finally showed Johnnie Boynes where the running backs huddled. He gathered each of them up and left for the field. They saw their respective positions and joined them while Mark stayed with Tim. “Um, what do we do now,” Mark quietly asked.

“Anything we want for now. Most guys walk along the field to get a feel for the grass or in our case field turf. Check to make sure your shoes can grab hold if you need to twist or turn or if you need to step hard for something. Then look into the stands and see if your family is here yet.” Tim and Mark both looked at the same place, and both saw their families, not that far from each other. Tim looked at Frank and pointed to his family. Frank looked at the scoreboard, and the time showed they were ahead of schedule. Tim and Mark could jog over to see their families.

Carmen was waving and jumping like she was riding a sky-high sugar rush. She tried deciding to watch the cheerleaders or the dance teams who were now taking their seats in the stands. “Hey there, kiddo, are you okay? You’re jumping around like a Mexican jumping bean or something,” Tim told his little sister.

“Sorry, it’s just that my friend Briana has an older sister and she is in the Patriots and her family was going to come to the game. I hope I can see her so we can tell everybody we were here at the game. That would be so cool!” Not five seconds later, Carmen took off at top speed after seeing her friend and her friend’s parents enter the stadium. His Dad Raymond came down to try and get a hold of Carmen before she knocked someone down with her energy. “Timothy Murphy, come here please,” his father used his full name something might have been wrong. “First of all, don’t worry, there is nothing wrong. I just wanted to caution you. I still remember what happened out at Judson and I’m telling you right now, if you purposefully hurt that boy, I will yank your ass right out of football. Potential college scholarships or not. If you try to injure him or any of the other team,” he paused, and with a stiff and robust pulling motion, he mimicked. “Yank!”

“Yes, Sir. I’ll admit the idea did cross my mind.”

“I’ll bet it was when his mother started covering up for him, huh.” Tim looked up at his Dad and could not believe he knew that they were lying.

“Well, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that that boy has his family wrapped around his pinky, and I’m surprised they let slip he was on some restriction. I’ll bet there is some story there. Anyways. I’m not saying to play hard because these boys think you are going to take away their perfect season.”

“Their right. I am.”

“But cleanly and within the rules. Be so much better than them that they can’t believe it. I would not put it past them that they were the ones who sicced the state on us about drugs.”