Game Changer

Even as Teddy within his comatose perception keeps recalling and recycling fragments of the power cliches drilled into him during the football camp, his parents grow more anxious. It is Sunday night, and Teddy has been in the coma now for two days. The doctors are guardedly optimistic, even as the postings raise more doubts about the nature of the injury and whether the program should be shut down.

Ethan keeps visiting the therapist and tries to explain why he is such an emotional wreck. “I mean it’s not like I didn’t see my friend collapse right in front of me. And he’s in a coma and he might die” (142). Ethan admits he is thinking about quitting football. He wants to put the whole thing behind him.

An unexpected visit on Monday from the police raises alarms in Teddy’s father—he wonders if Teddy was made to do something at camp he might not have wanted to do. Teddy’s mother believes Teddy returning to football is out of the question, but his father is not so sure. Accidents happen, he explains, they are part of the game he loves. Even Teddy’s little sister now worries. The visit by the police scares her.