“It does when you’re mentoring kids, Jackson!”
Tony, my agent, just told me everything I already suspected about why I wasn’t getting callbacks.People read some bad press, some crazy tabloid stories and they think they know me.Half that stuff is downright false, and the other half is so doctored it’s barely even close to the truth.
“Your record is impeccable, but your reputation is a risk. A dangerous risk they do not want to take. I warned you about this,” Tony says. “If we didn’t handle these lies when they first came about, it was going to get you in the end.”
“No one was going to believe me downplaying any of it. People saw me out when I first got on the team. I liked to party. The entire team did! That wasn’t a secret. I just don’t understand how they can use that against me now, especially since I’ve basically been in hiding for the last three years.”
After I got hurt and the Carolina Warriors and I severed my contract, I returned to Christmas and went into a depression.I knew nothing else but football, and that had been ripped from me. If it wasn’t for Adam and his whole family, honestly, I don’t know where I would be right now.They helped pick me back up, dust the dirt off and got me the head coaching job at our old high school.If I couldn’t kick ass on the field, I could kick other asses on that same field, as Adam put it.
I just don’t know how to clear up the image I used to have. Hurt or not, sympathy for the millionaire bad boy only goes so far.
“I’m sorry Jackson. If you’re really looking to get out of the high school rut and make your way back up, you need a college team to take a good look at you. My advice—work on your image. No one knows you’ve changed if you don’t put yourself out there.”
“I haven’t changed, Tony. I’m still me. I changed when I got to the NFL. That’s the difference.”
Life changed me, and I let it. Like a puppy let loose in a ball pit, I was a stupid kid let loose on his own for the first time, with money, women all around, and no one keeping tabs on me. It was a recipe for disaster, and I played right into that losing hand elegantly.
Well, more like I played into it like a bull in a China shop, but you get the idea.
I fucked up.
“Then I suggest you introduce the world to the real Jackson.”
I sigh. “How do I go about doing that?”
I hear his papers shuffling on the other end, knowing he’s probably tiring of my shitty attitude.“Listen, go update your social media. Talk about the kids you’re coaching. Hire a PR firm. Get a girlfriend and make yourself monogamous.” He laughs a little too hard at that but continues right on. “That town of yours is a social media gold mine. Make it work for you.”
I grunt but say, “I was just named as the Grand Marshall for the Almost Christmas festival.”
“Well, there you go!” he exclaims. “Use that to your benefit.”
Tony rattles off more ideas but all I’m hearing is hire a PR agent… get a girlfriend… Francesca does PR.Maybe her coming back here was a good thing; she can help me.
“Okay Tony. I’ve got a friend that just came back into town that does PR. Maybe she can help me out.”
“She? You’re talking about Adam's sister?” Tony knows my life story. He was my agent when I first signed, and I kept him on even after I was cut because I trust him. He still works hard for me and I’m grateful he’s kept me as a client, even though I don’t help his cause out much anymore.Tony knows Adam is my best friend. Shit, more like a brother. He knows his family is the one who kept me sane, especially after my second year in the league, and then finally when I got let go from the team altogether. He’s met them all plenty of times, but Chess was never around. How the hell does he know about her? I know she worked for a big-name company, but she was a little fish in the big pond there. He whistles through his teeth. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Why? What’s wrong with Chess?”
“Well, first, your families are too close. And your use of a nickname means you’re too close to her. Plus, she’s had some trouble lately,” he says tentatively.
“What do you mean, trouble? And what does me being close with her family have anything to do with it? They could vouch for me; wouldn’t that work out well for me? Besides, her and I haven’t really spoken since I left ten years ago.” Besides a random holiday run in, and my sister’s wedding, we have spent little time together at all.
“She was just fired from Goldman PR a few weeks ago.Something about defrauding her clients and claiming other people’s work for her own.”
“No way! That is not the Francesca I know. She wouldn’t do that.”
“I wouldn’t think so either, from what I know of her and her family. But you said so yourself, you haven’t seen her in ten years. People change,” hetsksand continues shuffling papers in the background.
That they do, I think.I take a breath and let it out. “I’m going to talk to her. My image can’t get worse, right?” I chuckle, but Tony doesn’t think it’s funny.
“Listen, I told you my piece. If you want to ask her to help you out, I know she’s more than capable. She was a rising star in that place. Shocked us all to hear what had happened.”
“Maybe what happened isn’t the whole truth. You and I know that more than anyone.”
“You’re right. Okay Gage, I’ve got to go.I’ll send over the samples of that new sports drink, see if you want to jump on board. Then get back to me and we’ll move from there.”
“Thanks man, talk later.”
