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Old 10-17-2005, 11:13 PM   #25
Blade
College Prospect
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
I was sitting in the conference room when John Mackey walked in.

“Hey Bear. How’s it going?”

I looked up at Mackey. He was wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt, with a pair of beige khaki shorts. He had sunglasses sitting on top of his head, and a tan.

“Not bad. Where have you been? I haven’t seen you around for a few weeks.”

“Off talking to some potential clients in the Caribbean. Owning a company can be tough some days.” He winked. “So, we are through a quarter of the season. How are we doing?”

I opened my folder and spread some papers around.

“Well, we are 2-2 right now. The team really surprised me to open the season with that win over the Steelers, but they were without their regular starting quarterback, so that played a role. The good news is that we have lost two straight, and this latest loss was to Houston, who had been winless going in to the game against us. We have lost some steam, and it seems like there is a lot of grumbling going on with the fan base. Things are setting up nicely for your stadium proposal to the city at the end of the season.”

Mackey smiled and sat down. “That is good to hear. It will be nice to make this team fully ours.”

I nodded absently. “We are going to have to be careful, though. It would not be great to make it obvious that we are setting the team up to be moved. We are already on somewhat shaky ground with the deals I made before the season started. We do not want to alienate the players that we want to keep after the team moves. That Woodson deal has really hurt the team, as our pass defence is second last in the entire league. Our rushing defence is about middle of the pack, too.”

“Ok, so, our defence is hurting us right now,” Mackey said as he grabbed a glass of water. “How is our offence doing?”

I took a deep breath. “Well, the news there is not as good, for you and I, at least. It may be very tough to justify trading Randy Moss to the media after this year. As it stands right now, he is leading the league in reception yards, and tied for the league lead in receiving touchdowns. On the upside, we both like Lamont Jordan, and he is leading the league in carries and rushing yards. Of course, that is good because we may want to hold on to him after the team leaves, but he may single-handedly win us some tight games this year.”

“I see. Well, maybe the fact that our defence is so bad will help keep this team out of some games. Plus, aren’t we like the second most penalized team in the league? I think if we can go .500 or worse, we will be in good shape for the stadium proposal.”

I nodded again. “We will have to see. The rest of our schedule this year seems to be against teams who could go either way. They could either turn out to be strong teams, or end up being weak teams. There are just too many question marks right now. But, yah, penalties are high right now. Shank and his staff have started to pull their hair out.”

Mackey sat back and took a sip of water. “Anyone else to note?”

“Well, other than last game, Gallery seems to be living up to his potential. He is going to be a great player, and seems to be alright in the locker room, so we should keep him if possible. Collins is also doing alright, but I still do not like him as our franchise quarterback. We will have to see who else is available in the next few years. Oh, and Chad Slaughter, a LT behind Gallery, is pissed about his playing time.”

“Is he any good?”

“Not really. And his contract is up at the end of the year, so I think we should just let Shank deal with him.”

Mackey laughed. “Sounds good. I saw that our division is still up for grabs. KC is 3-1, San Diego is 2-2, and Denver is 1-2-1. Still pretty tight.”

“Yah, but we haven’t had any divisional games yet, so things will start to become clearer. I am not too worried about it yet.”

Mackey stood up. “Alright, well, just keep on the way you have been. We may have to step in if we start on some kind of winning streak, but I just can’t see that happening right now. I am off to Florida now for some more meetings.”

I just shook my head. “Must be a hard life.”

Mackey turned as he was heading out. “Oh, it is. But it will be getting better soon!”

Mackey walked out. I continued to sit and look at my papers. “I hope it does…”
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Loyal fan of the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Eagles.
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