“You carry your own bags, you wait your turn, you hold the door for a lady, you’re polite to people, and you listen to them. I expect you to sign every autograph that’s asked of you, within reason. You’re a bright guy. Your parents raised you right. You know what you should do.
“Something else you have to do is you have to stop bragging about what you’ve been doing. I know you’re excited about going to Elite 11 camp. When you talk to the team, make sure they know they helped you get there. You need to be conscious of we and us, not I. It’s not just football, it’s modeling and the movie. Quit pulling out the Adrienne video or the latest pictures. You were never that guy before. I don’t think you want fake friends. I think you want friends who know the true you.
“One last thing,” she began, and I groaned.
“I guess I deserve this,” I complained.
“It’s good for you that I love you. The whole Cora fiasco should be a wake-up call for you. I think you completely missed the point. You do not mix sex and work. Devin made a complete fool of himself. You, my friend, have no room to talk. You spent time with both Sandy and Kara while we were in New Orleans. You thought him going after your girlfriend was terrible. How happy would he be if he knew you were sleeping with his sister? Didn’t you tell me that he’d warned you off of his sister in the past?”
“Yeah, in Chicago when I first met them.”
“Now think of it in a business setting. Two employees on a road trip hook up. It happens, but it’s never a good idea. Kara might be a bad example because you two have a history together. What would have happened if you slept with the twins and then Adrienne fired them the next day?”
“Oh, shit!”
“‘Oh shit,’ is right,” Tami said, and then smiled. “You bitched about me running your life. Do you think having someone around who can tell you things like I just did might be helpful?”
I didn’t even respond. She worked me into a corner on that one, and she knew it.
Chapter 8 – Alabama Football Camp
Wednesday June 24
Tami had finally decided she didn’t need to be around me 24/7, so I was going to the University of Alabama without her. I would meet up with Bo Harrington so I could get one-on-one training before the camp. He would come back with me after camp to help get me ready for Elite 11.
Traveling to Tuscaloosa, Alabama by air wasn’t easy. Their local airport hadn’t had commercial service since 1997. The sports teams had to charter flights in and out. The closest I could find was Birmingham, which was a little over an hour’s drive away. Luckily, Bo was arriving about the same time I was, so I was able to arrange a ride with him. I had collected my bags and was relaxing when I got the text saying Bo had arrived. I met him at the car-rental counter.
We finally escaped the Birmingham traffic and could talk.
“I’ve been doing some research on what you can expect when you get to the Elite 11 Camp. The day you check-in it’ll be around five pm. Then they’re going to take you out and challenge you physically. Last year they had a group who works with returning vets organize everything. From what I saw, you’d be able to handle the physical side without too much trouble,” Bo said.
“What kinds of things did they do?”
“They started out with a run where you had to wear a fifty-pound backpack. They then simulated people being injured, and you had to work as a team to carry them the rest of the race. They were looking to see who the leaders were. The campers then had a run where you carried an American flag. Nothing more than running occurred, but they did keep track of who finished first. Remember, everything counts at this camp. The coaches aren’t looking for the best athlete, per se, but if you’re not one of the best, you won’t make the final eleven.”
“They talked a lot about leadership and ‘owning the moment’ at the camp in Ohio,” I said.
“Big-time universities and pro teams want good citizens—players who are good role models. But more importantly, they want role models who can lead a team.”
“What else did they do the first day?”
“The next activity had them build a sandbag structure. Teams of six were made, and one guy was put in charge. The teams were given two minutes to see how a sample structure was made. The smart teams took a moment and worked out a plan. There was a pile of sand, some empty bags and two shovels at the bottom of a hill. You had to fill up the sandbags, carry them about a hundred yards, and then construct the structure. The smart teams rotated jobs so that everyone was fresh. The teams who didn’t plan were ahead early, but their bag runners were fading at the end and they lost.
“The next task was to take an inflatable boat, put in the water, and then travel around a buoy. Some of the guys either didn’t know how to swim or were weak swimmers,” Bo said.
“Why didn’t they put them in the boat and just use the paddles?”
“There weren’t any paddles. Part of the purpose of the exercise was to put everyone in a situation where they were uncomfortable. You also have to picture it was after ten at night, so it was dark. It was about seeing if you could quiet your mind and work through your fears.
“After the boat exercise, they had to run sprints. The campers didn’t get back to the dorms until two in the morning. Remember, that’s like four in the morning for you, with the time-zone difference. They were scheduled to have breakfast from six to eight the next morning and be on the bus by eight-thirty. I would recommend you fly in on the fourth and make yourself stay up. Then get as much rest as you can on the fifth. This will give you an advantage. Most of the guys will travel almost all day on Sunday. The East Coast guys will lose three hours traveling. They’ll be tired by the end of the first day and then have to get up the next morning with little sleep. It’ll hurt them the following day as well. I want you as prepared as I can make you because you aren’t getting any breaks.”
We spent the rest of the trip talking about what had happened last year at Elite 11. The alumni from the competition were impressive. A few of them were asked back to give short talks. Players like Johnny Manziel. Bo related how starstruck some of the campers were. He cautioned me to remain focused on what I was supposed to be doing because a couple of the guys snuck off to talk to the stars. Coach Trent chewed them out. As the only non-senior, I had enough going against me.
When we hit the city limits of Tuscaloosa, we switched to plans for the Alabama football camp. The goal was to get an offer. I already knew some of the quarterbacks who were coming. Flee Johnson, who I met at the Ohio State camp and was also an Elite 11 finalist, was coming, as was Roland Thibodaux, the number 5 rated quarterback, also an Elite 11 finalist. Tim Rogers, the MVP from the Elite 11 camp in Columbus and the automatic winner of a golden ticket, would also be there.
I shared with Bo how Tim had the best footwork I had ever seen. He said we would work on mine before the Elite 11 camp.
AFTER I GOT SIGNED in, I saw Flee, Roland, and Tim talking to each other.
“Mr. Thibodaux! How did you get past the border and into the great state of Alabama? I didn’t think they allowed your kind in,” I said loud enough to get several of the campers’ attention.
“Hush now, boy, or some of these ‘Bama lads will get riled,” he said in his best Cajun accent. “Now you can pick on Flee. He brought our favorite stripper with him.”
Flee shook his head. I figured that joke had gone far enough, but I had other things to tease him about.
“You know that beautiful woman only has eyes for our Flee. She likes them small,” I said as I wiggled my pinky.
“Screw you, Dawson!” was his snappy comeback.
Tim looked like he was ready to crawl into a hole somewhere.