Fifth Quarter
The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter
Chapter One
Dinner, New Year's Eve, 1968
Dad sat at the dinner table, sipping his milk. We all watched him
sip his milk, his first and only drink of choice. Then he set his
glass down on the table where my three older brothers and I sat,
while Mom scowled as she stirred a pot of boiling spaghetti on the
kitchen stove.
"Listen," Dad said, "a guy who goes out after a loss and parties is
a two-time loser." Dad was referring to his ex-boss, Los Angeles
Rams owner Dan Reeves. "First, he's a loser for losing, and second,
he's a loser for thinking he doesn't look like a loser by partying
it up."
Dan Reeves had once said, "I'd rather lose with a coach I can drink
with and have fun with than win with George Allen." Reeves had been
drinking all Christmas night at a Hollywood bar when he called my
father at home from the bar telephone, the following day, at 8 a.m.
"Merry Christmas, George," Reeves had said. "You're fired!"
That was a week ago. Now, on New Year's Eve, Dad sat in his pajamas,
talking to us kids at the dinner table. Mom stood in her bathrobe,
clanging pots and pans on the stove. This was a rare dinner with Dad
since he had taken the jo ... read full excerpt from: Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter ebook
