The Lombardi Factor (Short Story) {Part IV}

                                                                                                Word Count: 586

    Dramatic improvements did occur, but from the most unlikely places.  Brian Chalmers had been the star quarterback for APA ever since his freshman season.  Now he was a senior and close to another run at the state championship. Kirby Henderson, relished the prospect of having  Brian as the trump card in his coaching hand, as did a few others.

     “6’4”, 228 lbs.,” said Henderson.  “Lightning reflexes, intelligence on the field matching his physical build.  Yessiree gentlemen, nice knowing I can fall back on Biff Chalmers if things start to look dicey.”

     “I doubt you’ll have to fall back this weekend,” said Stuart Van Houten, offensive teams coach and Igor to Henderson’s Dr. Frankenstein.  “The schedule makers put us up against St. Catherine’s clowns.”

     “Yeah Kirby, said Stanley Lampwick, special teams coach and squire to Henderson’s Black Knight.  “So sweet, we’ve locked up another successful season having Biff as our quarterback.”

     “And despite the fact that we lost our entire offensive line and a number of defensive positions to graduation last year,” said Riley Monroe, defensive coach and imperial storm trooper to Henderson’s Darth Vader.  Van Houten, Lampwick, and Monroe employee testament to the APA football team expenses being larger than their opponent’s entire athletic budget.

     “Indeed,” said Henderson.  “I’ve never asked myself why everything is perfect.  After all, we  deserve it don’t we gentlemen.”

     Biff Chalmers had only one weakness besides his level of arrogance which sometimes

surpassed even coach Henderson’s.  To call Brian Chalmers superstitious is like saying that most lawyers have limited morality standards.

     Before every game he ate the same entrée, a ¾ oz. T-bone steak, elbow macaroni, and a bowl of oatmeal.  Off the same chipped plate previously in possession of his grandfather, a member of the 1955 World Series Champion Brooklyn Dodgers.  Biff had his hair trimmed in the same manner every time too, a straight as nails buzz cut. 

     He also started dyeing that same head of hair yellow with blue stripes-the APA colors. This act of facial filament abuse began happening only after a class homecoming prank his junior year resulted in a 102-15 pulverization of APA’s opponent.

     A week before the game with St. Cat’s, Biff watched a documentary about the Green Bay Packer legend-Vince Lombardi.  Early in his career Lombardi struggled as a high school mentor at St. Cecilia High in Englewood, New Jersey.  Things started to turn around for him when he scored a dramatic victory over a far superior opponent.  This got Biff to start envisioning worst-case scenarios, and that night he had a dream involving a St. Cat’s victory over his beloved APA Cardinals among other Chalmers phenomena of nightmarish proportions.

     The next morning while sitting down to his bowl of Wheaties, Biff found a sports section story in the Philadelphia Enquirer describing the improvement of the lowly St. Catherine’s football program.  Stating that although St. Cats still hadn’t won a game yet, under the guidance of its new coach, Vigilio Lombardi, the team was inching closer to its opponents each passing week.  Biff smiled greedily when he got to the end of the article which stated that St. Cats. Knights probably wouldn’t achieve that elusive first victory until next season as their last game for the 2010 campaign was against powerhouse Arden Preparatory.  Once again Biff knew he could sleep soundly as he and his teammates were superior athletes.  This journalist confirmed it, and everyone knows that those in the fourth estate never fabricate their stories.

(End Part IV)