Pound Foolish Sample Chapter
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
37 min
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Estimated from transcript
Sep 1, 2026
Published
Tue, September 1, 2026
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Full transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Chapter 21. He's always loved it so much. Listening to sports radio call-in shows, talking with other middle school kids about the
0:09draft, Sundays, sitting in front of the TV wearing the jersey his parents got him for Christmas, throwing himself a Nerf football
0:18in the backyard, doing play-by-play out loud, chucking the thing as high as he could, then running to see if he could
0:28go catch it, making crowd noises by hissing like a cat.
0:32He made varsity as a high school freshman, loved everything about it, imagined getting recruited by pear-shaped men in pork pie hats.
0:41He played in a fantasy league and read columns and listened to podcasts and knew the players' stories and reveled in their success.
0:51His first time drunk was after his favorite team won a championship.
0:56His first time having sex started because she thought it was cute he had a league calendar hanging on his dorm wall.
1:05It became second nature. Wake up, roll over and grab his phone, scroll through player rumors, watch film breakdowns, chuckle at talking
1:15heads trashing superstars, get heated on social media and message boards.
1:19They started talking about him in college and he started getting recognized in class.
1:25His grades mysteriously improved, though he wasn't studying any harder.
1:29Soon he became a starter and his college team got good and he scored some touchdowns.
1:36And probably there was hype around him beyond the campus, but that wasn't his ecosystem.
1:42He grew up loving the pros, so he was largely shielded from what fans who watched him on TV thought.
1:51His phone wasn't set to receive updates about college ball.
1:55He never saw those clips. He practiced all week and played on Saturdays and then Sundays he'd clomp out to the dorm
2:04lounge and plop in front of a TV and watch for 10 hours, scrolling on his phone, looking at stats, shitposting about
2:13interceptions, proposing fantasy trades, loving everything about it. And then this past spring, he got taken in the fifth round.
2:22And the luxury he decided to afford himself was this.
2:26He wouldn't change. He'd do everything the team asked him, work out hard, practice hard, show up early, study, listen in meetings.
2:35But the rest of the time, he'd be himself.
2:39It would be a way to keep his ego in check so he wouldn't big time anyone.
2:46He would still listen to training camp reports from around the league, still read disquisitions on how offensive philosophies were evolving and
2:55how defensive philosophies were keeping pace, still post and post and post.
3:00The truth was he didn't want to change. He wanted to stay connected to the boy with the Nerf football and three
3:09bowls of sugary cereal in one sitting and crying after a loss and making his uncle laugh by reciting every starting player
3:19on every team and riding bikes to Pop Warner games and orange slices during workouts and marveling at how good masturbation felt
3:28and thanksgivings with all his grandparents still alive and the sweet lies his parents told.
3:34And coming into this weekend, everything is still fine.
3:38He has everything in perspective. His fantasy league with old friends from high school holds its draft Thursday evening and his best friend selects him first overall.
3:49And everybody on the Zoom call just goes wild.
3:53He can't stop smiling. These are his boys, the ones he sweated with and bled for and confessed to and they forever have his back.
4:04They hang out for a long time after getting drunk, suffused in memories.
4:09He wakes Friday clear-eyed and ready for practice and discovers his phone has gone crazy.
4:15173 texts. 27 voicemails. A national football show asked its panel of experts to predict one unexpected player who'd turn out to be a star.
4:26And a Hall of Fame receiver picked him. 274.
4:30Several dozen people sent him the studio clip. Speed, hands, I don't care, he's small.
4:36This dude comes into the league breaking ankles. Learn the name, everybody's gonna know it soon enough.
4:43His face feels hot. One of his heroes knows who he is.
4:48He scrolls and scattered among old friends and teammates, many unknown numbers have also texted segment producers requesting interviews.
4:56His stomach flops around delighted. He dreamed of football fame and now before he's ever played a meaningful game, it's already knocking on his door.
5:06His mind flips to the calendar. Is there time to say yes to all these inquiries before Sunday?
5:14Meetings and workouts will take up all of today.
5:18Tonight the receivers are supposed to have dinner together.
5:21Saturday he asked Coach McRae for extra film study.
5:25Plus, does his phone have a good enough camera?
5:29Does his apartment have good enough lighting? Or will the team let him use one of the broadcast rooms?
5:37Oh right, maybe he's supposed to clear all media appearances with the team's PR people.
5:43Absently, via muscle memory, he opens social media. And he has hundreds of mentions.
5:49This is sweet candy to his brain. It's really happening.
5:53He opens the first one and it features a Chicago helmet avatar and says, I hope you die, sick fuck.
6:02He coughs a laugh. Seven or eight years ago, this could have been him, rabid for the season opener, hating anyone associated with the opponent.
6:12He scrolls to his next mention. What a shock entitled asshole gets away with it.
6:18Further down, he does find posts teeming with heart and hug emojis from friends thrilled to hear his name on the national football show.
6:29But these are outnumbered by still more hateful messages.
6:32Brutal personal attacks. Altered photos. Some truly creative and wicked stuff.
6:37Over the past couple years, he got used to a little bit of good-natured online ribbing from rival college football fans.
6:46But nothing like this. Is this just what being a pro is?
6:51Finally, someone in this long vitriolic thread quotes a headline.
6:55He clicks the article and his blood turns to battery acid.
7:00He calls Dom Barrett, his dad's lawyer who got agent certification so he could handle the late-round rookie signing bonus, $300,000 before taxes, without taking a commission.
7:11And Dom says, I don't know what the fuck just happened.
7:15He's never heard Dom swear. What happened is this.
7:19Getting mentioned on the national football show sent enterprising reporters into the past, to something that happened four years ago when he was a college freshman.
7:30It was nothing. It was a misunderstanding. He was inexperienced with women and misread signals from someone who lived on the floor below.
7:40It's an awful memory. Waking up halfway between still drunk and hungover to a knock on his door, trying to explain to
7:49the RA how harmless it all was, how sorry he was, how out of proportion the woman's reaction seemed relative to the
7:58offense, even though, of course, he agreed. People are entitled to their reactions, and any incident with even a whiff of assault
8:07compelled investigation to make sure everyone's feelings were fully respected.
8:12But, of course, that included his feelings, too, because he knew what he had and hadn't done, and his side of the
8:21story was just as valid as hers, and he didn't want to be stereotyped as one of those jocks who parade around
8:30thinking they're God's gift, because that wasn't him. Ask anyone.
8:34He was, in fact, regularly nudged in the ribs by his jock friends about how little tomcatting he tended to do when
8:43he might have had something like carte blanche, at least among the freshman women.
8:49He always made sure to say women, not girls, to behave like a cad.
8:55Mr. Perfect, they called him, and, of course, he didn't consider himself anything like perfect, but he knew what happened, and it wasn't anything violent or aggressive.
9:07It lasted about 10 seconds, and it was mostly just embarrassing, and they hadn't even been partying together.
9:14He didn't even know her well. They happened to stray from the respective groups they were hanging out with at the same
9:23time and exchange a few words in the hall.
9:27It seemed weird to him, even as it was happening.
9:31He'd never really even noticed her before, had, in fact, at first believed she must be a friend of someone who lived
9:41in the dorm because he prided himself on learning everyone's name.
9:45That's just the kind of person he was, and he'd certainly learned to respect women.
9:51His mom would never let him get away with chauvinist behavior, let alone something that made a woman feel less than or unsafe.
10:01And if he could just talk to this woman, he was sure they could agree that what happened wasn't nearly as aggressive
10:10or frightening as the woman had apparently reported. And the RA listened to all this and seemed very calm, like he'd heard
10:19things like this many times before, and it would probably just blow over if everyone took a few hours to calm down
10:29and get some sleep and maybe talk just a little more to make sure everyone understood where everyone else was coming from.
10:38But then the RA said he had to call campus police and his heart fell out of his body.
10:46It dragged on for what now seems like a month, but was actually only a few days.
10:53He attended a formal hearing in an office in the provost's building, expecting at least to be allowed to face his accuser
11:02and hear what she was telling them. But she wasn't there.
11:07It was three people in stodgy clothing who read a long document out loud and asked if he understood, and he didn't, but said he did.
11:18Then a policewoman took him into town and put him in a holding cell and left him there for an afternoon, and he saw his life slipping away.
11:29And he kept asking to call his parents, and they wouldn't let him.
11:35And all this is now as dim to him as events from kindergarten.
11:40It's like he's recalling the first time kids laughed at him for mispronouncing the word rabbit because he wasn't making his R sounds very well yet.
11:51He didn't cry in the cell, but felt like it.
11:55It was hours locked up by himself, and he could hear cops out there celebrating someone's birthday, heard them sing.
12:04It's crazy how none of this has occurred to him even once over the past couple years.
12:11And he sat on a metallic cot with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, just trying desperately to wake up.
12:21But then a male cop came back to this holding cell carrying a paper plate with some cake on it and a
12:31plastic fork sticking out of the cake, and he was scowling like everything was still ultra-solemn, and then fortunately he couldn't keep
12:40up the ruse, and his frown broke apart, and he smiled and handed over the plate with the cake, and that's how he knew everything would be okay.
12:52The cops said they believed his side of the story and that a rape kit had been inconclusive.
12:59No charges were filed. Nothing appeared in the campus paper.
13:03The woman from the floor below moved out, and he never heard about her again.
13:10His friends and dorm mates never knew a thing about it.
13:14The RA still smiled and slapped him five. And yet, last night, someone had unearthed this whole thing.
13:22Someone with a contact at his university got a peek into a file that was very clearly meant to be kept private
13:31and posted a story, all because his name got mentioned on the national football show.
13:37Dom Barrett says the team's PR people will be calling him this morning.
13:43Dom says do not, under any circumstances, go to the facility until they call.
13:49Dom sounds shaken. I didn't do anything, he tells Dom, and finds himself irritated.
13:54Isn't Dom supposed to be a really good attorney?
13:58Shouldn't it take more than this to rattle his cage?
14:02He sits in the apartment hearing a clock tick.
14:06Carpet fibers float in a sunbeam. The rest of the team has presumably already gathered in the big amphitheater, and they're probably
14:15grab-assing, waiting for the coaches to tell them what to do.
14:20He wants to be there so badly. He believes the coaches every time.
14:26He's always done everything they've ever told him. He looks at his phone, sitting on a table, imagines the posts piling up inside it.
14:36What if it's over before it ever begins? He knows what a team will do when you're more trouble than you're worth.
14:45He hates the reporter who did this. He hates the fuckers posting about it.
14:51He's completely still, touching his eyelids. His parents didn't know.
14:55Dom didn't know. This thing hanging over him all this time that he almost forgot about.
15:02He feels he must be asleep, and suddenly thinks about killing himself, wonders the least painful way to do it.
15:10His ringtone is the sound they play on TV when someone scores a touchdown.
15:16This is Janet Slotsky, a voice tells him. You're not accepting any other calls.
15:22You're not talking to anyone you don't know. I don't just mean in the facility.
15:28I mean literally anywhere in the world. If you don't have a prior relationship with them, you smile and nod, and you get the hell away from them.
15:40You do not open social media apps, let alone post on them.
15:45This is your new way of life until we tell you otherwise.
15:50Tell me you understand. I understand. I understand. In a minute, I'm going to ask you another question, and your instinct will be to lie.
16:00I get it, because lying has served you well until today.
16:05This situation only becomes a problem if you're untruthful with me.
16:09Instead of practice this morning, you're coming to my office, and we're going over every detail in case the league decides to
16:19investigate, which I don't think they will. Youthful indiscretion, no charges filed, which doesn't mean we're not completely pissed, because how many
16:28times did the team meet with you before the draft?
16:32How many times did you get asked if there's anything from your past we need to know about?
16:40I can't help you if you're not honest with me.
16:44It collapses upon him that there are forces who want to destroy his dreams.
16:50With his phone still against his ear, he bends forward in this chair, stomach flat against his thighs, thinking when we make
16:59a mistake is when we need love most. He feels a freckle of dry skin on his calf and plucks at it,
17:08painlessly peels it off, but it bleeds a red line down his ankle.
17:14He thinks of saints pursued unjustly. Here's the question, says Janet.
17:18Is there anything else along these same lines we need to know about?
17:24He jabs a thumbnail into his Achilles. It too begins to bleed.
17:29He says, one other time. Junior year. It was nothing.
17:33It was a misunderstanding. And so he doesn't practice at all on Friday, and he doesn't go to dinner with the receivers,
17:42and he doesn't watch extra film with Coach McRae on Saturday.
17:47He meets with Janet Slotsky and a fat, piggy-looking guy who doesn't introduce himself, and for two days, they rehash the details of these two incidents.
17:58So many times, he thinks his head will explode.
18:01What happened? Did he ever confess anything to anyone?
18:05Who might have overheard? What can his accusers prove?
18:09Does he know where they live now? Has he ever tried to contact them?
18:15He doesn't answer calls from his parents or Dom Barrett, all of whom are coming into town for the Chicago game.
18:24The team lists him questionable for Sunday with a knee strain.
18:28The most painful part is that it doesn't feel like opening weekend.
18:33He doesn't obsess over the point spreads or read the hacky predictions.
18:38He doesn't examine the network schedule for which games will be televised.
18:43He doesn't second-guess himself a dozen times over his fantasy team's starting lineup.
18:49He doesn't dig into beat reporter inside scoops describing which star players might be battling injuries and who's primed for an unexpected breakout.
18:58What he wants most is simply to feel blessed by this early September ritual, this cycle of renewal that's defined him.
19:07To be himself, he needs to feel love for the world through his love of football.
19:14But even after he goes back to his apartment Saturday evening, having promised the piggy guy not to tie his shoes without
19:23consulting him first, and after he hugs his folks and eats the dinner they made and says goodnight and climbs into bed,
19:32he doesn't immerse himself in any of it. His phone remains across the room.
19:38He pulls the covers up under his chin and looks at the ceiling and feels nothing but fear.
19:46Sunday morning, he drives to the stadium not knowing if he'll be allowed to suit up.
19:52He parks in the player's lot. Twin smokestacks are excreting something bad into the world.
19:59He makes eye contact with everyone, thanks everyone. Network TV trailers and equipment hum all over.
20:05His body feels so good. He looks down and remembers he's carrying the gym bag they gave him freshman year.
20:14His phone is on silent. It's terrible and unfair.
20:18He's pissed off and swallowing it and most of all, it doesn't feel like football.
20:24There was always this movie frame way above him and everything he did was building to the moment when he could climb
20:33up and step inside the frame and now these stupid things that happened to him years ago with these stupid women are getting in the way.
20:44As he strides deeper into the stadium, he frets someone will grab his shoulder and escort him from these private hallways.
20:53But his ID card works and one more left turn.
20:57Here's the big painted stripe on the wall. Here are the rubber floor mats and various team officials milling around.
21:05The big double doors. And he's in. And everything flips over to Technicolor.
21:11The locker room is quiet and lurid and bevel-edged and poisonous in a good way.
21:17His locker is over in a disreputable corner reserved for new players, but his jersey is hanging on a hanger.
21:25His helmet is shined and polished. Still hours to go in which Janet Slotsky or the Pigman or any other team official
21:35could still come in here and ruin everything. But he'll sit here on his stool until they do.
21:42He removes his civilian clothes, puts on his socks and uniform pants, nods grimly at anyone he sees.
21:50His legs juggle. He tries to make time go faster.
21:54It's a few hundred feet to the tunnel and if he can make it out there, the drama will be over.
22:03But of course, no, that's supposed to just be the beginning of the drama.
22:09That's where it gets hard. He still has to perform.
22:13He's the number four receiver in today's game plan.
22:17He has to actually begin his career. He flips open his tablet to remember his responsibilities.
22:23Empty nub, quads, jet left, sweep north tunnel. He can't remember a thing about it.
22:30Bunch, right, razor, split, stick, pull, swing, shit, shit, shit.
22:34The plays he's been running since May. Two days ago, he knew this stuff in his sleep.
22:41Trips right, ace, Z, short gift, overbrown stub. He clicks the tablet to play the video and sees himself on a practice
22:50field executing his block on a slot press corner but sitting here now, he can't remember what he's supposed to do if
22:59the defense comes out in a different coverage. This can't be his story.
23:05He can't be the one who got derailed so early.
23:09He's the tough, undersized, scrappy dude who always fights through.
23:13He hears voices around the locker room as a few more players start arriving.
23:19Glance, left, flat X, wheel, rip, black, trap. Maybe they'd be right not to play him.
23:26He can't help it. Janet Slotsky, be damned, he checks his social media account.
23:32It's the only way he can make it real.
23:35He gets the little 100 plus icon. Why can't all these new mentions just be friends?
23:42People who wish him ill, Chicago fans, victim advocates, outrage creators, have sifted through his own posts from years ago, thousands of
23:51them, and they've reposted some back out into the world.
23:56To my teammates, can't let nothing get between us, not school, not life, not bitches.
24:02Chicks with pigtails horn me to fuck up. That's the real love handles.
24:07Atlanta beat that ass like a biatch. Don't tell no hoe where you go, then no hoe gonna throw yo flow.
24:16Ariana Grande licking donuts and hating USA. Someone gotta hold her down till she licking something else.
24:23Juvenile posts, because he made them when he was a juvenile.
24:28A few questionable comments extracted from many thousands. He wants to reply.
24:33He wants to put out a statement. These were performative declarations of masculinity from a confused boy that in no way reflect the man I have become.
24:44The worst part is, the better he performs out there today, the louder these trolls will get.
24:51If he drops passes or doesn't play, they'll forget all about him.
24:56A tougher man rises above this. A tougher man uses it for fuel.
25:02He looks up from his phone and the locker stools around him are filled.
25:08Everyone's dressed and he looks down at himself and he's dressed too.
25:13Shoulder pads, jersey, hip pads, cleats. This is a big room and non-essential personnel are gone.
25:19It's just players and coaches and trainers but it's somehow noisy in here which is weird until he realizes what he's hearing
25:29is a full stadium of 65,000 stoked to a boil.
25:33And now he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt he's going to screw up this game.
25:40Someone is standing at the room's center wearing number 52.
25:44Anyone around this perimeter of lockers who was talking or praying or reading a tablet stops.
25:51There's only this linebacker the Oklahoma vibe and the yammer and howl round beyond.
25:57You got permission says the vibe panning the circle to talk to everyone.
26:02You don't need it because y'all are bad motherfuckers but just in case you got my permission.
26:09Moorer says fuck yeah. You got my permission to have fun.
26:14Remember fun? Before all the bullshit started sweeping you up?
26:18Before you learned all the shit you had to learn?
26:22Before pressure and expectations? Do you remember fun? Hell yeah I remember says Gadsden from nearby.
26:29Just running because it's fun. A little kid feeling your legs like they'll never get tired.
26:36Smacking into a buddy knocking him down both of you cracking up laughing.
26:41It's a business I know it is and every other day of the week you gotta treat it that way but today you got a choice.
26:52The vibe's jaw works like a bicep. Blue ropes swell at his temples.
26:57I love the new coaches. I love the staff around here but to get you ready they gotta scare you.
27:06All them other days they gotta scare you to motivate you but today you got a choice boys.
27:13You can go out there and be scared or you can go have fun.
27:19Many of the men in here are going yeah and mm-hmm like church.
27:25Someone he can't see is growling. Worries and fear put them right over here.
27:31This is about L-O-V-E We've been together every day and you wouldn't ever get into this room if you didn't love playing.
27:40Running and jumping like a little kid just playing ball because your boys are with you and it's still light outside.
27:49Out of breath from laughing so hard. Surprised how fast you really are.
27:54Everyone is on their feet so he also gets up.
27:58Now men are shouting. The room is swelling. Real life is for some other time.
28:05They're paying you to have fun. The growling has turned to woofing.
28:10Teammates he can't see are barking like dogs. Let it loose.
28:14Let it loose. Do what you want to. Everyone drifts together.
28:19He feels himself pulled into their vortex. There ain't nobody to say no.
28:24Fuck him up cause it's fun. Fuck him up cause it's fun.
28:29The players shout and squeeze together and dance. Everyone has one arm up.
28:35He's dizzy and his face feels overstuffed with blood like he's been spinning on a carousel.
28:41Quiet down now someone new says a higher pitched voice.
28:46It's the first step men. Today's the first step.
28:49You gotta be greedy out there okay. You gotta be greedy for his abundance.
28:55You gotta be greedy for his glory. Greedy for rapture.
28:59They're motionless now. One arm up heads down. Let's go out there and be greedy for Jesus.
29:07Go out there and be greedy for Jesus. This afternoon is not better and not worse than all other slices of time
29:16though it feels like every other Sunday is bound up in it.
29:21A history of Sundays tempered into the agreed upon glorious shape.
29:25Dumb nervous excitement masquerades as happiness. There are joyous people up there endless tears of faces forgetting or remembering their pain.
29:34It's all been happening forever. Bodies straining together to see though occasionally one sways out of sync like a scrap of oceanic flora.
29:44A roar of disbelief like thousands before it umbrage followed by release.
29:49A man with a spray painted head waves his arms elbows locked conducting those seated behind him but then he's gone again
29:58as they all glimpse the projectile and stand and nothing else matters.
30:03It's really happening and nobody recalls it ever going this fast.
30:08Violent men are of course mixed in you might suspect them but never be sure the ones who would kick a stranger
30:17or hurt a child but maybe grievances are temporarily suspended for the common cause.
30:23It can go quiet and the stream of advertising is never ending but when they cheer there's nothing else.
30:31It's a sound born of disaster. On their faces everything reminds them of something they can't name.
30:38The first long pass the crowd inhales like an undertow a high pitched withdrawal and when the ball is caught they detonate into a crashing scream wave.
30:49The loud speaker voice announcing the play is like Charlie Brown's teacher.
30:54The spray painted head bobs in and out of view.
30:58A sea of upraised hallelujah hands and wrists twirling white towels.
31:03Twin 150 foot scoreboards above the end zones repeat the miracle.
31:08Double chinned strangers embrace. A woman in a Chicago jersey gestures bring it on and several men laughingly point to their privates.
31:17It's the electric shock of belief. All the past suffering and near misses all the hype that piles atop itself every year
31:26but nobody seems to notice is exactly the same.
31:30What if this really is the season? A blocker spins around angrily as though to fight a man from the other side catches himself before throwing a punch.
31:42A quarterback scratches his neck waiting for old zebras to render judgment.
31:47A defensive player makes an embittered juggling motion near the sidelines.
31:51A man somehow gathers his limbs into the tightest version of himself on the dead run with only one foot contacting the
32:00turf and bends a scene anixally and explodes off that one foot at a perfect 90 degree angle to intersect with the
32:10space he knows a receiver will soon occupy and his genius is in the bracing and the straightening and square unfurling like
32:19a stunt gymnast whose survival depends on perfect orientation because the contact he's about to generate is as likely to send him
32:28to September love but also unbearably fast as the defender's body telescopes out to its deadliest length and the receiver stretches for
32:37the ball but only half-heartedly because he senses a massiveness about to intersect with his own space-time coordinates and he alligator arms
32:47the pass too late because before he can curl away and before his neck can turtle and before he can fully close
32:56his eyes his entire person bewinds around the temporary access produced by 230 pounds of ill intent and the receiver's spine crimps
33:05in segments as his feet splay scowampus and his bearded chin blows ceilingward and his helmet comes detached like Robespierre at concord
33:14square and the ball rolls away innocent and the people don't know they're making a sound together but they are it's the
33:23letter o a tight end blows out an acl a cornerback walks off holding his injured shoulder like a sleeping baby chicago's
33:33star defensive end blasts the quarterback from behind the kind of side winding thunder shock that can end a career and the
33:42ball comes loose and it's a scoop and score and the qb gets up adjusting his rib pads then his hip pads
33:51then feels his knees and his shoulders and seems not to be able to tell what part of him hurts most but
34:00when the trainer tries to treat him he shakes his head and heavy foots away from the blue tent and within minutes
34:10he's back out there and he leads a crisp scoring drive that crystallizes the new coach's genius pre-snap motion and confusing route
34:19combinations and wide open receivers and you can hear the crowd falling in love with each individual play's success and with the
34:28momentum of seeing things work over and over and the crowd's own uvular levels get louder and more frequent and then the
34:37touchdown blasts the roof off the spray-painted head is momentarily above the heads of its roommates a kickoff is fumbled but recovered
34:46by the fumbling team a drone camera buzzes above the field and a teen tries to throw an empty bottle at it
34:56but only succeeds in getting himself ejected a recorded message from the president plays and a lot of people boo and a
35:05lot of people cheer two rotund gentlemen in the end zone front row think they're on tv and bump bellies everyone looks
35:14up and realizes it's somehow already the fourth quarter a rookie receiver drops a huge third down pass and detroit has to
35:23punt one entire stadium section has been given frozen pizza sized placards emblazoned with giant number threes and on an important third
35:33down they're all waving these placards and becoming frustrated with the people in front of them who are also waving placards and
35:42thus blocking their view of the important third down leading to a daisy chain of frustration and yet anyone in the section
35:51who doesn't wave their number three placard gets a sour look because that's just bad luck nervous people happy people furious people
36:00in aggregate it's a group accustomed to disappointment which somehow you can just tell from the sounds they make and then the
36:09score becomes insurmountable everything the past four months have convinced you of gone drunk men with slack jaws digital wallscapes insisting on
36:19more noise the realization that cheering for the same silly football team isn't common interest enough to create kinship boys and men
36:28standing around the stadium in a pose best described as surrender cobra cheerleaders with plucky smiles an assistant coach covering his face
36:37with a laminated play sheet booze that night the partial moon is a gouge among heaven's smaller wounds and the detroit police
36:46department finds another body
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Sep 4, 2026