Backfield Boys by John Feinstein

Author:John Feinstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

PART 3

18

Jason woke up the next morning to find an e-mail from Ed Seaman, the TGP communications director, telling him that Tom Robinson had requested an interview with him for Sunday to talk about his “week as a hero.”

“As always, it is up to you whether to accept the invitation,” Mr. Seaman wrote. “He has also requested that Mr. Anderson and your friends Jefferson and Ames join you for a group interview. He can pick you up at one o’clock since, of course, we don’t allow nonfamily onto the campus on Sunday until then.”

Of course we don’t, Jason thought. He e-mailed back that he’d be glad to talk to Mr. Robinson. He was tempted to ask why Billy Bob rated being called “Mr.” and Tom and Anthony didn’t, but he resisted. His dad had a saying: “Choose your battles.” This wasn’t one he wanted or needed to fight. There were bigger ones ahead.

They passed a quiet Saturday, catching up on studies, staying inside for the most part because it was raining again. The campus felt empty with so many of the upperclassmen gone for the weekend.

Jason wished there was a way to talk to Jimmy Gomez and Juan del Potro before their meeting with the reporters to find out if they knew more about Mr. Gatch’s relationship with David Duke. He had accused Tom of jumping at shadows, but somehow he couldn’t get those same shadows out of his own mind.

* * *

On Sunday, Jason, Tom, Billy Bob, and Anthony skipped lunch in the dining hall since they were going to be eating with Teel and Robinson. Billy Bob and Anthony had changed from their jacket-and-tie church clothes to T-shirts and shorts. The rain had stopped, but it was another warm, dreary late-summer day in central Virginia.

Robinson was waiting for them on the same bench where they had met eight days earlier. Everyone quickly piled into Teel’s car. None of the coaches were working today—or at least none of their cars were there. Again the reporter’s car was the only one in the lot.

They small-talked en route to Charlottesville, Robinson filling them in on Virginia’s overtime loss to Richmond.

“Not a good start for a new coaching staff to lose at home to a I-AA team,” Robinson said. “They were beaten soundly.”

“Don’t they call I-AA something else now?” Tom asked.

He and Jason were in the backseat. Anthony, in deference to his size, was up front, and Billy Bob was in the way back.

“Yeah, FCS, which stands for Football Championship Subdivision,” Robinson said. “Typical NCAA. They don’t want anyone to imply that somehow there are different levels of college football—even though there clearly are.”

“So what do they call Division I now?” Jason asked.

Tom knew that one. “FBS,” he said. “Football Bowl Subdivision. Since the power schools play bowl games, they call it that as opposed to FCS, which has an actual championship tournament.”

“Sounds pretty silly to me,” Anthony said.

“You got that right,” Robinson said.

When they arrived, they found Teel holding the same booth in the back that they’d used on their previous trip to the Biltmore.

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