Go Long! by Ronde Barber Read Free Book Online Page A

done it on purpose—but he figured it wasn’t his place to tell on a teammate, no matter how much of a brat Cody was.
    There were still five minutes left to play, Tiki told himself. Time enough to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. And so he stopped thinking about it and watched the defense work as he waited to get back out on the field.
    But as hard as they tried, the Eagles never got the ball again.
    When the gun sounded to end the game, the horrible truth hit Tiki full force—the Eagles, at least for this week, were just another losing team. And at 28–7, it wasn’t even close.
    Looking up in the stands, he saw Mr. Wheeler packing up what looked like a big pair of binoculars. Tiki wondered what it was. He wondered what Mr. Wheeler thought of his team’s first, disastrous game.
    Oh, well, he thought with a shiver. We’ll all find out soon enough .

CHAPTER FIVE
THE NEW WAY
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    RONDE AND TIKI WERE SUITING UP IN THE LOCKER room, along with the rest of the team, when Coach Wheeler came in. He was wheeling a TV on a tall stand, with another machine under it.
    â€œAt ease, gentlemen,” Wheeler said as the boys dodged the TV cart. “Before we go ahead with the same old practice routine, I’d like to try some new things with you. I like to think of it as a ‘new way’ of preparing for next week’s game.”
    He plugged in the TV and the other machine. “Gather round, team—we’re going to watch some videotape.”
    â€œVideotape?” Tiki repeated. “I’ve seen that on the NFL games. Replay, right? It’s cool—do you have slow motion?”
    â€œI do indeed. And I taped our game the other day,” Coach Wheeler said, turning on the TV and video player. “Let’s take a look and see how we did.”
    â€œWe lost , that’s how we did,” Cody said, and most of the kids laughed, even though it wasn’t really funny.
    Ronde could see that Cody was really beginning to get on Coach Wheeler’s nerves. But the coach didn’t call Cody out. He kept his cool, at least for the moment.
    â€œI’m aware of that,” Wheeler said. “But let’s look at how and why we lost—so we don’t do it again. At least this way, we won’t make the same mistakes we made the first time.”
    Wheeler had put together a tape of all the best—and worst—moments of the game. He would show a key play, then ask, “What went wrong there?” Or he’d say, “Now that’s good football.”
    Then he would explain, running the play over once or twice more, until everyone understood what he was getting at.
    In the beginning, the boys were really into it. Even Cody was quick to volunteer answers whenever Coach Wheeler asked what went wrong with one of his offensive players. “Barber let a flea tackle him,” he would say. Or, “Paco whiffed on the snap.” Or, “Soule had a brain cramp.”
    Most of the boys laughed when Cody made one of his comments. But Ronde didn’t think any of it was funny. He knew they were only laughing because they were relieved it wasn’t them Cody was making fun of.
    Well, sooner or later, Ronde was sure, they’d have their turn. Cody was an equal-opportunity joker.
    â€œHey, QB,” Coach Wheeler finally said, stopping the tape after one of Cody’s comments. “Why don’t you give it a rest?”
    â€œJust telling it like it is,” Cody said with a shrug.
    â€œNot in here, you’re not,” Coach Wheeler said. “This is my team, and I’m in charge. Got it?”
    â€œOkay, Coach,” Cody said, backing down. “Whatever.”
    Wheeler shot him an angry glance, then said, “How ’bout you give us a breakdown of what you did wrong, instead of criticizing everyone else?”
    â€œI said I was sorry, okay?”
    â€œLook. We’ve got a lot of tape to go through, and