The Extra Yard by Mike Lupica

Author:Mike Lupica
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

EIGHTEEN

The next week of practice for Teddy felt like starting school all over again:

Quarterback school.

As much as he thought he knew about the playbook—and he knew more about it than any player on the team except Jack—what he really found out over the next three practices was how much he didn’t know.

Halfway through Monday night’s practice he said to Jack, “Explain to me again why you’ve always told me playing this position is such big fun.”

“Because it is big fun,” Jack said.

Jack had promised Teddy that he was going to make as many practices as he could from now on, his way of trying to help Teddy figure things out on the fly. Teddy told him he didn’t have to do that. But he knew this was a way for Jack to contribute to the team.

But they both knew that Jack was only an assistant quarterback coach. Teddy’s primary coach was his dad. The other night Teddy had been watching ESPN and heard somebody talking about how fast things changed in sports. Teddy already knew that, because of what had happened during the baseball season. But that was nothing compared to what was happening right now. He’d gone from having no dad in his life to having a full-time dad, at least when he was on the football field.

And practices were different now, especially when they’d scrimmage. If Teddy did something wrong, with a drop or a read or how long he was supposed to hold the ball on a screen pass, Coach Gilbert would blow his whistle, and then Teddy’s dad would take the ball and show Teddy exactly what he’d done wrong.

His dad had tried to prepare him before practice.

“There’s going to be a lot of repetition,” he said. “Reps are how you get better.”

“I get it.”

“I don’t want you to feel like I’m calling you out in front of the team when you do something wrong.”

“Got it.”

“For real?”

“You don’t have to draw me a picture,” Teddy said, feeling himself getting irritated even though he knew his dad was just trying to help.

“I just don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

“You should have started worrying about that a long time ago.”

His dad stared at him before he said, “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Teddy was sure he wasn’t just talking about football.

Starting with Monday’s practice, he had a good week, learning a lot about the little things that went into playing the position. The footwork, even on handoffs, began to feel more natural to him, to the point where he didn’t have to think about it on every play.

And he kept telling himself not to overthink throwing the ball. It was the point that Jack continued to drive home, that he had to trust his arm.

When they finished with the last practice of the week on Thursday night, Jack said, “You’re starting to get something.”

“That I wish your shoulder would heal by Saturday?”

“You’re doing what my dad says you have to do in any sport,” Jack said. “Controlling the process and not freaking out worrying about results.

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