Divine Celebrity 95

I had no doubt we were displaying a comical view, with me in the front, and fourteen men lined in front of me in a windowless room, apprehension covering their faces despite every single of them being bulkier — especially since they were wearing full pads. 

My reputation was growing. 

The book on the corner was the only thing that looked out of sorts, but luckily, with my reputation, none of them paid any attention to that. Lucky, because if they paid any attention, they would have seen the pages turning with a suspicious frequency that couldn’t be attributed to the wind — especially in a windowless room. 

“Now, I’m sure you know that I’m not allowed to tackle until the hospital report,” I said, which gave some of them a hint of hope, while smarter ones maintained their somber mood. “Sorry, seem to be tackling,” I corrected with a nasty smile. “Lucky for me, there are no windows here,” I said as I put on a helmet. 

“No padding?” asked one of them. 

“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t need it,” I answered viciously, which was enough to awaken their competitive spirit through the implied insult. Which was good, as for Sunday, my true hopes depended on them. 

There was a reason that not a single newbie was a part of them. 

“Now, the first task, we need to see who will create the offensive line, and who will be defensive linemen,” I said. “Let’s see how well you defend,” I said as I quickly paired them. “Jake, you’ll stand in for the quarterback for the moment, and I’ll attack either from the left or from the right, while the pair of you will be responsible for stopping me,” I said. 

It earned some suspicious glares. Doubling was the simplest way of handling even the most threatening rushes. With the advantage of the padding, it was supposed to turn it into a hopeless struggle. 

Luckily, I was cheating in a different way. 

“Take a position,” I said as I pointed to a pair of starting defensive linemen to take the first position, showing my intention to make a point. 

The structure of an offensive line was simple. It had five standard roles, left tackle at the outermost left position, usually tasked to protect against the attackers coming from the edge, or responding to breaches. The left guard between him and the center, is responsible for the interior attackers. The right side was the mirror image with a right guard and right tackle — though usually treated with less importance. 

And, at the center, stood the center, responsible for coordinating with the quarterback and commanding the rest of the line according to the expected form of attack, as well as handling the vital task of snapping the ball. Not to mention, they were still tasked with handling any interior attack as well. 

A surprisingly complicated role. 

The offensive line was a critical part of any team, yet significantly underrated by anyone but the true experts. Their underrated aspect came due to the thankless nature of their job. Their job was split between two parts, protecting the quarterback during a passing game, forcing open a corridor, and blocking the defensive players during a run game. 

In either case, their success led to the glory of the other player. The longer they maintained the protection, the longer the quarterback had the throw, converting to a spectacular play where he collected all the credit. And similarly, during the run, it was the running back that collected the glory. 

However, things changed when the failure happened. Every failure caused either a spectacular sack, or a painful tackle for loss, highlighting the nature of the failure — even if the failure belonged to the quarterback by holding the ball too long, or a running back, indecisive about which path to take.  

In comparison, defensive linemen had their glory when they succeeded, which made a much more attractive position for most with no further professional aspirations. 

Still, the selected players didn’t complain as they stood at the left side of the dummy quarterback, prepared to cut my blindside assault — which was the most dangerous direction to attack any quarterback as they turned to throw the ball, catching them unawares. 

I wanted to make sure the offensive line was as strong as possible to prevent our newbie quarterback to collapse from repeated hits. Their jobs would be difficult enough without that. 

“Ready,” I called, though my warning was not about playing fair. I wanted to remove any excuse for their failure. 

Only after they nodded I charged forward, ready to collide with the one inside. But just as they readied themselves with collusion, a footwork trick shifted me toward the outer line, a push enough for them to collapse against each other. 

Ending up with Jake examining the ceiling. 

“You can’t commit to a direction until the last moment,” I reminded them. “Don’t forget, you don’t have the luxury of the initiative as the offensive lineman unless it’s a run, you have to respond to what the defense is giving you.” 

“Understood,” they answered, making me glad for the Leadership trait. Without it, even with my achievements to date, I would have probably had to beat them for hours until I could drive the point forward — linemen were famous for their stubbornness, and for good reason. 

With Leadership allowing me to read them perfectly, a few dozen attempts were more than enough. 

“Good, try to trace their center of weight carefully. The way they position their legs gives more than they want,” I said, displaying a couple stances. “However, when you lean forward like this,” I said, perfectly replicating the position of the player that was playing the left guard, “you’re committing to the inner side early, preventing you from shifting to a sudden change. Even if the linemen had already committed, what happens if they bring an extra edge rusher?” I asked. 

“I see,” he said with a thoughtful nod while the next players took their position, determined not to experience the same problem. 

Unfortunately for them, that was not the only trick I had. I faked a right cut, then a left cut, leaving them indecisive until the last second. They reacted better than the previous pair, the guard focusing inside while the tackle focused outside. 

Unfortunately, after the previous display, they were too zealous on those aspects, allowing me to burst through the middle of them easily, throwing them to the side with a swim move, and reaching the quarterback. 

This time, I didn’t tackle Jake full-force, just tapping his shoulder. “Try not to focus inside too much,” I said. “Next!” 

With that, every single player took various roles on the offensive line while I tackled them again and again, forcing them to adapt to my attack in different combinations, sometimes a tackle and a guard, sometimes a center and a guard. Sometimes, I even made them test as a tackle and a center, trying to simulate how they would react if the protection broke in an unexpected way. 

It was a painful hour, one that I only managed to handle due to my extreme Recovery trait, while every single lineman looked at the edge of collapse. 

“Not bad,” I said as I quickly split into tasks. Ultimately, I assigned the eight players that could communicate the best, as the offensive linemen, while the remaining six stayed as the defensive linemen. 

Amusingly, Jake, the unlucky dummy quarterback turned out to be the best center among them. 

The team just chuckled. More than one of them was looking at me in shock, but I had no trouble revealing that much of my ability. After all, the constant attack of the shadows revealed that I was already a target, and I would prefer revealing more of my abilities than losing my only steady source of Intent. 

“A difficult game is waiting for us this Sunday, especially since it’s not certain if I could play,” I started, letting Leadership Trait free with its full power. “So, I want every single one of you to work more than humanly possible. We’ll have an amateur quarterback, new running backs, new corners, fresh receivers, everything. Do you think it’s a coincidence that we have no linemen candidates from the newcomers?” 

“No, sir,” they answered together, in a loud voice that would have made a drill sergeant jealous, Even my guide looked up for a moment before turning her attention back to her book. 

“Exactly. Every single one of you is experienced, because this Sunday, we’ll fight on the line, win or lose. Either way, we’re going to fight fast, and fight hard, until we make sure that, even if Coach Bill was here, he would have asked not to take it so seriously.” 

“Yes, sir,” they answered, though this time, they followed with a great chuckle. 

“Excellent, now you can disperse,” I called. “Take ten before joining the training.” I watched as they left, intending to check with the girls to see how things were going. 

Since there was no sudden intent flow, I wanted to make sure everything was going alright. But before I could do so, my guide spoke once more. “Why are you bothering that much with this.” 

“Because we need to win the game,” I said. 

“Why don’t you empower them instead,” she countered, and I froze. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but the implications were not hard to decipher. 

Sometimes, I really loved her, but hated her at the same time.