The Best Four Years of My Life.
The players were exiting the field and making their way to the locker room after the annual Spring Game known as the Scarlet and Gray Game. The Buckeyes loved this game because they had a chance to compete against one another on the field and the 95,722 fans loved it for the Big Beach Party held in the South Stands. Even the head coach opted for the Hawaiian OSU shirt rather then his normal sweater vest.
Tony was sitting on the training table as his teammates made their way back into the locker room. The student team trainer was examining the sprained ankle that the sophomore wide receiver had suffered a few weeks earlier making him ineligible for today's game. His two best friends on the team and fellow roommates, Josh and Steve were happy because they were on the gray squad today and gray beat the scarlet 23-3.
Tony smiled and was truly happy for his friends but at the same time, he was still mad that the ankle injury kept him from playing in the game today. He knew that this year he had a chance to really be noticed by his coaches. Especially, now that two juniors from last season decided to go to the NFL draft a season early. He knew he was ready to step up and contribute to the team, now he just needed his coaches to notice him and realize just how good he really was. He did not want to be buried in the depth chart as he was in his freshman year.
Being sidelined was not the way to get noticed and he verbally chastised himself again for getting drunk at the frat party he was invited to where he had to jump from a second story window as the father of the girl he was in bed with came bursting in the room to extract his wayward daughter from the house. How her father knew where to find her was still a mystery to him. The only thing he remembered about that night besides the intense pain in his ankle as he landed on the ground below was barely getting his boxers and jeans pulled up as he dove out the window as the girls father swung a baseball bat towards his head. He was lucky though, his coaches believed his story about turning his ankle while on a run and never did find out he was drinking under age, which could have had serious ramifications to his position on the team.
He was smiling and thinking to himself that he could lie his way out of any situation. He had even conned his mom out of a few hundred dollars telling her that with the ankle injury he was not able to work at his part time job at McDonald's and did not know how he was going to pay his third of the rent. This was not a complete lie, he had been worried about coming up with his share of the rent money but it was due to the fact that he had been fired from McDonald's for calling off the night of the frat party. He laughed again and thought aloud, "Yeah Anthony you have them all right in the palm of your hand."
The trainer looked at him and said, "What was that Tony?"
Realizing he spoke aloud he put on his biggest and brightest smile and quickly got the trainer off topic saying, "So how does the ankle look?" "It feels fine to me, I can put all my weight on it now and there is absolutely zero pain." To prove his point he jumped off the training table and started jumping up and down on the ankle.
The trainer smiled and said, "Relax Tony I was going to clear you for light practice anyway, just keep it taped and you will have to wear an ankle brace, but I will let the coaches know you're cleared to get back on the field."
Tony pumped his fist in the air and shouted, "YES!" He thanked the trainer and said, "Hey man some day you're going to make a great Veterinarian," then walked over to join his teammates.
The trainer, a fifth year medical student studying to be a heart surgeon glared at the retreating player and yelled, "Fuck you DiNozzo." Tony turned around, smiled, and said, "Sorry I already have a date tonight, maybe some other time."
The trainer shook his head but could not hide the smile on his face. The kid was a smart ass but that seemed to be what everyone including himself liked about him.
Just then Tony's cell phone rang, "Excuse me got to take this call; it could be the lucky lady after all." Without looking at the caller ID and with a big grin on his face he said in a very sexy voice, "Anthony DiNozzo man of your dreams, how can I service you this evening?" Suddenly the grin was gone and the trainer laughed when he heard Tony say, "Oh hi mom I was just fooling around, he-he", Tony nervously laughed into the phone.