Tony couldn’t believe Phil would be such a rat as to tell Tager about a minor infraction such as this, but it was the very next thing he did. He’d had it in for the brothers since the events of the previous month, and was keeping a close eye on both of them. It took Tager about three seconds to tell Tony to get the hell out of his store, and to take his scheming little brother with him. So off they stormed, huffing with indignation that anyone would have the nerve to fire the two greatest sports legends in the history of Cuyahoga County.

When they told their father that they had decided to quit without another job lined up, it made Steve curious, so he went over to Tager’s and discovered the real reason they were no longer employed. By this point, he knew this was the sort of thing his boys were capable of, and he was getting used to apologizing for them, so that’s what he did, and then he headed back home.

He couldn’t believe how radically things had changed in just a few short years. He’d given them everything he had, and it wasn’t that long ago that they were pretty much the toast of the town, but now that was starting to feel like a dim memory. He thought all of their problems could be traced back to that group of guys they were hanging with at Barton’s Pub, but they wouldn’t listen to him about that crowd. They were good boys at heart, but he was going to give them a piece of his mind.

Of course, when he got home and confronted them, a big argument ensued, and in the end Tony and Danny marched out the door, threatening never to return, which was fine with Steve. But Debby was terrified something awful would happen to her sons “out there on their own.” Steve assured her they would be back once they ran out of money and were hungry, and of course he was right. Besides, they were now at the age when they should be out on their own, but neither he nor Debby had the heart to toss them out into the street.