Page 133 of The Backup Plan
The nausea came in bursts lasting only seconds, but the clench of his throat while he was still on his back was enough to make him wobble when Zack helped him up and Hakeem and several other linemen converged on Tennessee’s defensive end, menacing him for the late hit.
“I don’t care,” Cam said, even though no one asked him what he thought. “Where’s Benny? What a hell of a catch.”
Zack yanked Cam’s left arm toward the sideline. “You are getting your head checked before you go celebrate and knock helmets with your boy.”
“What are you talking about?”
“They heard your head hit the ground back in Indiana. I know crazy eyes aren’t always bad, but I always dragged Jordy to get checked like I’m going to drag you. Come on.”
The kicker nailed the extra point to set their lead at seven while Cam slumped forward on the bench and muttered responses to the athletic trainer’s concussion workup. He was ordered to stand, balance on each foot, stare straight ahead and side-to-side, and submit to a battery of other quick assessments before being allowed to sit again.
“My man, I am so sorry.” Trevon Stevenson dropped onto the bench next to him. “That’s on me. I let up too early. I should’ve?—”
“I shouldn’t have been staring at my pretty pass,” Cam said, knocking into Trevon’s shoulder pads. “Got too high on myself for a minute. You’ve saved my ass a thousand times. This isn’t on you.”
After another burst of nausea, the clock ticked down as his energy ticked back up. The results of the concussion algorithm were inconclusive because he only had minor symptoms. Tennessee had a long field ahead of them thanks to the penalty for the late hit, but they could burn time so UND wouldn’t get the ball back if they managed to tie the game. They could force overtime. Anything could happen.
He looked to his left and spotted Archie Hawkes warming up.
Cam jogged down the sideline. “Coach. I’m going back in.”
“Inconclusive results mean maybe no, but maybe yes.”
“I already feel better. I just got the wind knocked out of me. I did all the balance stuff and?—”
“Go give Archie a hug and tell him you believe in him to hold onto our lead,” Coach Keyes said, keeping his eyes on the field. “He needs that more than you need to go out there and get wrecked and miss the next two games. They already showed us they’ll play dirty with that face mask trick and the late hit.”
“The face mask was on me.”
“I’m still not taking that chance.”
“It’s my job to take the chance for this team.”
“And it’s my job to decide who takes the chance.”
“So Archie’s the sacrificial lamb now.”
The coach watched Ethan call a play, and still didn’t meet Cam’s eyes. “He is. Just like you were.”
Cam slammed his sports glasses into the bench and held his face in his hands, jaw clenched so tight he heard his teeth grinding over the roar of the crowd.
He startled at a tiny noise that rose above the rest.
Click.
The cameras.
Even without any glasses on, he felt his teammates’ eyes on him while the captain’s patch on his jersey burned through his pads and seared his chest like a brand. Swallowing thickly, he fished his regular frames and his UND hat out of his bag, brushing the orange Tennessee cap aside. He put them on and got to work slapping hands and helmets.
The nausea lessened but didn’t pass, and he battled the residual dizziness enough to stay on his feet pacing and screaming for every play as Tennessee marched down the field and Ethan threw a fifteen-yard pass to tie the score with seconds to spare, sending the game into overtime. He couldn’t indulge a look in Avery’s direction and risk seeing the worry on her face, but he wouldn’t concuss himself or make anything worse by doing the only thing he still could do for his exhausted team. Cam’s throat was raw when the final whistle blew, and he grabbed Archie and his sideline bag and headed for the fifty-yard line.
“You looked good out there, Hawkeye,” Cam said. “I hate that you got thrown in like that, but you took care of us.”
“No, I didn’t.” He nodded at the scoreboard.
“You did. You got up when your team needed you. You went out there with barely a warmup, and you saw it through. Tennessee had a more complete game today, and the loss is on all of us. We rise and fall as a team.”
“All I had to do was get us in range for Matty to kick the field goal.”