Out of habit, I checked mine for any text messages. There wasn’t anything. We didn’t even try to continue to talk about football. We wanted to hear Grayson’s excuses. When Jamal finally opened the door, it took all my energy not to jump on the table, lunge for his shirt, and yell “spit it out!”

“His best friend died. One of his friends drove to tell him in person and they drank until the early morning. Another friend who wasn’t drinking dropped him off this morning,” Jamal said.

“What do you say to that? What’s our policy?” We had bereavement leave, but it didn’t cover showing up to work drunk. I didn’t want to lose Grayson as a quarterback. If we had to go with our backup, we would be lucky to win two more games this season. With Grayson healthy and his head in the game, we had a chance to make it to the playoffs.

“Let’s get Bill in here and figure it out,” Jamal said.

I was extremely nervous. The five minutes it took for Bill to make his way to us felt like five months. We were all tense.

“So, what’s his story?” Bill’s voice boomed in the small conference room. He slid into the chair at the front of the table and looked at us expectantly. I looked at Jamal.

“Apparently, a childhood friend died last night, and he and his buddies got together to commiserate. Sutton had a conversation with his wife who assured her that this wasn’t like him at all,” Jamal said.

Jamal knew to only give facts and keep explanations short. Most coaches didn’t have time to deal with this kind of bullshit, but we needed Bill to make a decision about playing him. If not, we had to scramble to get Archie ready for the game on Sunday.

“Let’s have him meet with a therapist first thing tomorrow morning. He is coming in tomorrow, right? If he doesn’t, we’ll put in Archie.”

Jamal nodded. “Yes, he’ll be here. And he apologized profusely for screwing up practice today.”

I cringed and willed Jamal to stop talking. Coach made a decision and now we could move forward with the game plan.

Bill pointed at Jamal. “Make sure he gets into a therapist tomorrow. He doesn’t leave here until he sees one.”

“Will do, Coach.”

Bill nodded to us and left the room. We all let out a deep sigh followed by a nervous laugh.

“That wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be,” Brandon said.

“If it gets out to the press, what do we say?” Jamal asked.