Chapter 52

The girls were all wearing sun dresses when they went out on the field to watch the practice. "Where are your uniforms?" were the first words Ditka spoke to them. "Didn't you get the word? Now get your tails into the women's locker and change, damn it. You'll find turf shoes that fit at your lockers."

The girls were startled but followed an assistant trainer to a room with a sign saying, NFC Women's Lockers. Going in, they found a locker room with each of their names above a locker. Cindy had come along for laughs since Dan had some kind of business to take care of in Honolulu, but she wasn't laughing when she saw a name tag that read, Cynthia Burke, over it. She put on her shorts and the special shoes with a tread adapted to the requirements of the artificial turf on the stadium floor. There were also Chicago Bears T-shirts for them to wear along with their white shorts. They changed and returned to the field and Mike Ditka.

While he was waiting for them, he was talking to Kris who was sitting on the bench, watching. Ken Bradley had quickly filled Ditka in on Kris's condition and background. Cathy felt a lump in her throat as she saw the coach, a member of the Hall of Fame as a tight end, talking quietly to the poor girl. Kris had a look of adoration in her eyes.

He left Kris and joined her. "Coach Ditka, that was awfully nice of you. Did you see the look in her eyes? She absolutely adores you!"

"Me!" he exclaimed in surprise. "Cathy, you have to be thinking of three other people. No one could be that stupid! Everyone knows I eat little kids for breakfast." Then he looked embarrassed and said, "And besides, I have a daughter that age myself. The poor kid!"

Cathy winked at him and he said, "Now, Bradley, get your tail over there with the kickers. This is the day I get revenge. We all know you can kick barefoot, but I fixed you! Today you have to wear shoes!"

Cathy walked over to where the punter and the placekicker were practicing and just stood watching them. The punter, Sean Landeta from the Giants, saw her and recognized her from the TV coverage of the Super Bowl. Thinking he would have some fun, he motioned her over and asked if she would like to take a couple of snaps.

Cathy swallowed hard, thinking that this was like a real game. They even had a special center — termed a long snapper — to center the ball. He was centering from the fifteen yard line, while she was positioned at the goal line. Earlier she noticed that the wind — the normal Hawaiian trade winds — was blowing steadily from the east and she was kicking into it. Because of the wind, the kick returners — there were two of them — were side by side at about the forty-five yard line.

Taking the first snap, she boomed the ball in the same way she had ten days earlier. She looked up and saw them racing backward as the nose of the ball turned down to give her punt extra distance. It landed at the opposite forty yard line and continued to roll. The Giant punter just shook his head thinking anyone can get lucky once in a while. She continued to take the snaps and continued to boom the ball.

After a few minutes the special-teams coach came over and introduced himself. He, too, was from the New York Giants. They moved up the field as he asked them to try putting some out of bounds. The center positioned himself at the thirty-five yard line and they positioned themselves at mid-field. Sean Landeta, went first. His kicks went out of bounds between the five- and fifteen-yard lines, although four rolled into the end zone for touchbacks.

When Cathy took her turn, she put eight straight out of bounds between the goal line and the five. Most hit first on the field and bounced out, while one hit right on the sideline and the rest were low enough for an official to easily spot the point where the ball went out of bounds. Landeta's head was down as he went to the sidelines.

Then she was asked to do some placekicking. She started off at extra-point range and moved steadily backwards up the field. Cathy found she loved the physical and mental challenge of kicking. She didn't miss until the line of scrimmage was at mid-field, when a gust of wind took the ball just to the left of the upright.

Finally, they changed direction and she started kicking with the wind at her back. This time she made three straight field goals from sixty yards away. By this time sweat was pouring from her body and she jogged over to the sideline to get some Gatorade.

Meanwhile, Ditka was having some fun with his defensive secondary. He drafted Cindy into the game over her violent objection that she had never touched a football in her life. He just said that was tough. Since she was Cindy and they were Cindy's Slaves, she could damn well play football.

When the girls were taken by Ditka to where the defense was practicing, Ron Jackson saw them coming and grinned. "Guys," he said, "there's no reason why I should have all the fun. Since I've done this before, I'm just going to watch!" With that he signaled for a backup to come in for him while he went to the sidelines to introduce himself to Kristin, the girl he had heard so much about.

After introducing himself he suggested they go up in the stands a bit to get a better view of the field. He was going to carry her, but incredibly she climbed high up into the stands by herself. Sitting next to her, he told her what was happening on the field. "The girls are lined up in a slot-left formation. Kelly's on the line and April is inside her and behind. Cindy is on the right. Now we'll see what happens."

What happened was that Kelly went down ten yards and angled right, taking the cornerback with her. Meanwhile, April, following Kelly down, turned on a burst of speed straight down the field when Kelly cut over. Sue had apparently had her eyes locked on Cindy on the right side, but then unleashed a pass that caught April in full stride as she went in for the touchdown. The remaining defender was left in her wake. He hadn't been able to keep up with her.

Ron was laughing as he watched his teammates from the other NFC teams run ragged by the girls. When Cathy finished her kicking and joined as a fourth receiver, it just got worse. With the wind or into the wind, long, medium or short, it made no difference. Susan just picked them apart. When they played very deep, she completed passes in front of them. But when they cheated up toward the line, she burned them deep.

Cindy screamed with joy when she caught her first touchdown pass. She proved to be as fast, quick, and sure-handed as the others. Together with Sue's passing, they just overwhelmed the secondary. When Ditka blew the whistle and called for the defense to come over, Ron jogged down from the stands to join them.

He had been teased for most of the previous day for being unable to pass defend against a few girls. When he joined the group, his first words were, "That was fun, wasn't it? There were just a few girls, after all."

When practice was over, Ditka received a surprise. Both his kicker and punter had left the team. He called Mike McCaskey and then the League office. When they objected to his plan, he pointed out that Cathy was a party to a League contract as a result of a payment provision Ken had inserted in his. With the greatest reluctance his plan was approved. The girls were sitting on the sidelines soaking up the sun with their men when Ditka joined them. There was a malicious smile on his face when he looked at Cathy and said, "Bradley, now I really get even! Guess who's kicking for us on Monday?"

"Landeta and Mike Cofer," she replied, puzzled. "Who else would? They're the only two you have on the squad."

"Wrong!" he said gleefully. "I have you! They both just quit, so you're doing all the kicking. Now get your tail in the locker room. We have to get you a full uniform and only have a couple of days to get it. The League office just approved it and our equipment supplier can't wait to get your measurements in order to produce a pro football uniform in what may be the smallest sizes in history."

He gave Cindy a form indicating specifically which measurements were required and exactly where they were to be taken.

She looked it over quickly and then said, "Coach, I have one question. It asks for cup size. What's that? Cupping her breast with her hand she added, "Do you mean?..." Then moving it to her groin, "Or?..." The girls roared with laughter as Ditka turned beet-red.

When their laughter died down, he got — albeit ruefully — the last word: "Can't I even win one? Sometime?"

They took Cathy's measurements and gave them to Ditka who immediately sent a fax message to the uniform company. The whole group had dinner together that night with Kris continuing to eat as much as she could. With the cooperation of the hotels, they had made arrangements for a refrigerated cooler to be packed with food for Kris each day so she could nibble all day long. With her still-shrunken stomach, it was easier for her that way.

The kickoff for the Pro Bowl was scheduled for three in the afternoon on Monday. Because of the six-hour time difference between Honolulu and the East Coast, it was a nine o'clock television game. The girls continued to tease Cathy mercilessly as they helped her dress for the game. She was wearing a blue NFC jersey with the numeral one on the back, along with the legend, C BRADLEY However, she was wearing a Chicago Bears helmet. In the Pro Bowl, the players wore team jerseys and pants but used their own equipment and their own team helmets.

Before leaving the locker room Kelly insisted on putting blacking under Cathy's eyes to reduce the sun's glare. As she did, she could feel Cathy start to shake. Looking at her she dropped the teasing and said, "Honey, this is an incredible tribute to your skill. Do you know why those guys quit? Because you were so damned much better than they were and they knew it. You'll do just great!"

The NFC won the toss and elected to play with the wind at their back. The AFC elected to receive so Cathy trotted out to put the ball down on the tee. Fortunately, she thought, I've got the wind, so it shouldn't be too bad. Her kickoff was very high and very deep. With the wind it was carried beyond the end line on the fly so there was no chance of a runback.

She sat beside Ken on the bench, and he kissed her softly and then hungrily. "I've never kissed a kicker before. Do they all taste as good as you?" he asked with a grin.

"You better not try to find out," she warned him and then gave him another kiss.

Unbeknownst to them, the ABC coverage team had picked up and tape-recorded their kiss. Dan Dierdorf, a former offensive guard for the Cardinals and one of the Monday Night Football announcers, had interviewed Cathy before the game. He didn't know what to make of her presence on the team, but he could see that her warmup punts and kicks were assuredly not jokes. He had let out a low whistle as he watched them boom off her foot.

During the first half, Mike Cassidy was the NFC quarterback and had his two favorite receivers, Kevin Cavanaugh and Ken Bradley, on the field with him. Ken caught two touchdown passes and Kevin caught one. The result was the only kicking Cathy had to do were extra points which she made perfectly. Each of her kicks precisely split the uprights.

In the third quarter, though, with a new quarterback and new receivers on the field, the NFC attack stalled. The ball was on their own forty yard line, fourth down and two, when Ditka waved her into the game. She joined the huddle and grinned as all the men within reach patted her bottom. All she said was, "Thanks, guys!" and grinned.