Might Just Swallow the Super Bowl Whole

#. February 5, 2023

United States — Seattle, Washington

Seattle Seahawks Front Office

Of the three teams eliminated in the final TFM race, the one with fire at its feet was Seattle.

With the Chicago Bears likely to put the No. 2 overall pick up for sale, the danger was obvious — if another quarterback-needy team wedged its way in, Seattle could miss out on both C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young entirely.

The one mercy was that with the Super Bowl only a week away, nothing dramatic was likely to happen immediately. This was a period consumed by internal housekeeping.

And yet, even so, Seattle had assembled a special task force.

The purpose: to decide which fork in the road the franchise would take.

"In the end, it comes down to one of three."

"…"

Ethan Lowell, who had worked a short stint in Chicago, had signed a three-month contract at John Schneider's request and was now serving as a special advisor.

While Schneider and the existing staff focused on internal contracts and the free-agent market, Ethan Lowell and his team were to propose the best possible options available to Seattle.

The choices currently on the table.

The first.

"Acquire Chicago's pick."

The second.

"Bring in a quarterback via free agency and hold onto the No. 4 pick."

The third.

"Trade down in the draft order."

The second option was crossed off immediately.

The reason was simple.

If, by the time Seattle's turn came, one of Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud was still on the board, then signing a quarterback in free agency would become the worst possible decision.

To extract any value in that scenario, Seattle would have to trade the No. 4 pick — and since the roster needed help at positions beyond quarterback, they would need 2023 draft picks, not future ones.

In other words, the moment Seattle signed a free-agent quarterback, a pick-down trade became mandatory, not optional.

Of course, Seattle did technically have the option of "doing nothing at all," but as in almost every situation, that was the worst option of all.

"Let's take these in order."

Chicago's pick.

What kind of value would that carry?

To answer that, they first had to understand what the other NFL teams with a hole at quarterback were thinking.

The starting point was the No. 1 overall pick itself.

Houston had already floated a trade offer — and been shot down.

"Shouldn't we test the waters ourselves?"

"Good idea. Your reasoning?"

"Pittsburgh interviewed Moi yesterday. Chicago will meet with him in a few days, but everyone knows that meeting is a formality — Pittsburgh was never going to pass on him. We should throw our very best package at Pittsburgh. And then let it leak. The moment Chicago realizes there's no path for them to land Moi, the value of the No. 2 pick will be fixed."

Just as Ethan Lowell was nodding along to an argument built on sound inference, a knock came at the door of the meeting room, and the closed door swung open.

The man who appeared was John Schneider.

He stood in the doorway and spoke.

"They turned it down in three seconds."

"The package?"

"D.K., Austin, Uchenna. Plus two players of their choosing — any two they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wanted."

"Understood."

"Right."

The moment John Schneider, having greeted Ethan Lowell's team, closed the door behind him, every eye in the room turned to their leader.

The man who had laid out the earlier reasoning spoke first.

"You'd already tested them?"

"I did. Planned it out this morning."

"Then why didn't you tell us?"

"Because I wanted to know whether you'd reach the same conclusion I did. As you heard — Pittsburgh rejected a pretty damn good package in three seconds. What does that tell us? Erwin? Care to take a shot?"

"…It means the interview went well."

"Exactly. Refusing to even open negotiations means Pittsburgh's resolve has hardened. Which means the odds that the No. 1 pick is already locked to them just got bigger. Chicago needs to know this. Jeremy? Are you still in touch with that female reporter at Fox?"

A decently handsome man with light brown hair immediately picked up his phone and rose from his seat.

Within the hour, a story would surface through Fox that Seattle had floated a trade offer. It would wear the clothes of a rumor, but anyone in the industry would read the finer nuance underneath.

"Oh — and one more thing."

"?"

"Leak word that Detroit offered a trade too. Frame it as a package built around Matthew Stafford and Aidan Hutchinson, with maybe three or four more players that could be included."

"Got it. Will do."

The more the perception spread among league insiders that Pittsburgh had rejected a staggering package, the more naturally the value of Chicago's No. 2 pick would define itself.

And only once that framework was sketched out could Seattle decide its own future.

Ethan Lowell called a short break, rose from his seat, and walked over to the whiteboard standing at the back of the room.

"…"

Before Ethan Lowell's eyes, the quarterbacks who had hit free agency this year were written out in a column.

#. February 9, 2023

United States — Athens, Georgia

University of Georgia

Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall

House of Payne

The Chicago interview had wrapped up just moments ago.

It was far more streamlined than the one in Pittsburgh.

"They're unbelievably crushed over there."

"Haha. Really?"

"Beyond words."

As he had last time, Wade Buck had accompanied him to the interview today.

Having seen the departing visitors out of Butts-Mehre, Wade remarked that the Bears, it seemed, still couldn't quite bring themselves to give up on me.

Was there really any way they could take me?

Did they even have the assets to spread around?

If Pittsburgh had tanked by deliberately lowering the quality of its quarterback play, the Bears were a team that had gone 1-and-16 with the roster it actually had.

Granted, they'd put in a little extra effort to lose — but even if they hadn't, no one could deny that this was a roster good for three or four wins at absolute best.

"You still hearing from Pittsburgh?"

"Yep. They're hounding me from both ends."

"Both ends?"

"Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan."

"Haha. Sounds like they already think of you as their player. Shouldn't you be house-hunting?"

"You're quite the comedian."

With the interview schedule now complete, my plan going forward was to spend my time preparing for the Combine and enjoying whatever personal time I could carve out.

I'd have to take spring midterm exams before the Combine, too, so I intended to squeeze in studying between workouts.

But today, I was going to rest.

Wade and I headed to a restaurant nearby.

"Hey — there's something I need to tell you."

"Something to tell me? What is it?"

"You remember how the Kardashian family came to the S.I. awards ceremony a while back?"

"Of course."

"Well… I'm dating Kendall."

"…What?"

"We've agreed to watch the Super Bowl together in three days, and I figured I should at least give you a heads-up."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. Kendall? Kendall Jenner? You?"

"Yep."

"Oh, God. Since when?"

"About ten days now, I'd say."

The truth was we'd only met once, at the end of last month in Malibu — but ever since then, Kendall had been expressing her affection quite intensely.

Whether we were trading messages or talking on the phone, evidence kept piling up that she saw me as her boyfriend.

The Kardashian family was famous in a hundred different ways, and Kendall in particular was America's young women's ultimate 'wanna-be' — so if I showed up at the Super Bowl with her, articles were guaranteed. No question.

Since most of her known exes were athletes, the gossip pundits would have a veritable feast on their hands.

There would inevitably be talk of how Kendall had seduced me, how she was ruining a young athlete's future — and the agency could only respond to any of it if they knew in advance.

"Whoa… Kendall Jenner. Seriously?"

"Yup."

"Weren't you exchanging messages with some Russian model before that?"

"I ended that. Never even met her in person."

"Holy…"

"If you're not going to eat those fries, can I have them?"

"NO!! You can't just have everything you want!"

"Fine, we'll order more. Amy!"

The emotion Wade Buck was displaying toward me right now.

It was, quite unmistakably, jealousy.

#. February 12, 2023

United States — Glendale, Arizona

State Farm Stadium

The two VIP seats Kendall had reserved for the Super Bowl came to $88,000.

That might be pocket change to the Kardashian family, but it was serious money all the same — so yesterday, I'd stopped by a high-end jewelry shop in downtown Atlanta and bought a bracelet that ran about fifty thousand dollars.

"This cost fifty grand?"

"Yep. Insane, right?"

"Damn, Dogg. Isn't that a bit gut-wrenching?"

"Tell me about it. But I wasn't about to sit in a seat worth $88,000 and show up empty-handed."

"Damn — and it's the real deal?"

"Real diamonds, of course!"

"No, not that."

"…Oh."

"Are you actually dating Kendall Jenner?"

Kendall hadn't arrived at the stadium yet, so in the meantime I'd run into Mahomes.

We were the kind of friends who laid everything out with zero filter, so the Kendall topic had come up — and Mahomes's reaction was the most enthusiastic of anyone who'd learned the secret so far.

"That's INSANE!! Oh, man. You're about to blow up huge."

"Actually, I'm worried about tomorrow."

"Forget tomorrow. An hour from now, social media and the entire internet will be nothing but you. Damn, Dogg!! What were you thinking — trying to bury our Super Bowl story?"

"No way. It's the Super Bowl, after all."

"Nah — that's where you and I differ."

Super Bowl Sunday was, in effect, an even bigger holiday than Thanksgiving, so while football would matter, he insisted the story of Kendall and me would draw even more attention.

Well.

It was possible.

"I'm just a college kid playing with a ball, after all."

"Hey — no matter how high we fly, we're nothing in front of the people playing on the world stage. You do know how many followers she has, right?"

I knew.

Roughly 250 million.

About twenty times mine.

Damn.

Thinking about it that way made me feel awfully small.

"You'd better be on your best behavior."

"Unless I want to be known as nothing more than Kendall Jenner's boyfriend, you mean."

"Exactly that. Anyway — see you around."

"Win it. Don't pull what you did last year."

"Ah — shut up. You jinx."

"Kekeke."

Mahomes walked off, and after greeting his family as well, I stepped into the corridor.

There was a separate passage reserved for those allowed onto the sideline, and it also led up to the VIP seats.

On the way, I contacted Kendall.

As it happened, she had just arrived.

After sending her a message to meet in front of the VIP-only concession stand, I hurried into an elevator and rode it to the top level.

Chime—

Even from a distance, Kendall was impossible to miss.

Not even a baseball cap pulled down low could hide her.

The instant I stepped out of the elevator, every gaze in the area swung toward me. I brushed them off lightly and walked toward the figure smiling radiantly in my direction, arms spread wide.

A hug.

And a kiss.

She smelled wonderful.

"See everyone's eyes bugging out?"

"Yeah. But I don't care."

"That's why I love a woman with guts like you."

"Haha."

Yeah… maybe so.

Maybe I really would swallow the Super Bowl whole today.

.

.

#. February 13, 2023

United States — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh Steelers Front Office

Exactly as Patrick Mahomes had predicted, the news of Kansas City's Super Bowl victory was devoured whole by the story of Dwayne Moi Stone and Kendall Jenner's date.

The two were currently the most popular young man and woman in America among people in their teens and twenties, so even those who couldn't care less about football naturally took a keen interest in the pairing.

A day later, the buzz had only grown, with articles pouring out about when and how the two had first met.

And the gasoline thrown onto the fire was a post Kendall Jenner had uploaded, bold and unapologetic.

In it, she pressed her lips into a pout against a football and showed off the bracelet she'd received as a gift — and beside the island and crown emojis that symbolized Dwayne Moi Stone, she'd added a heart.

Kendall Jenner had as fierce a contingent of haters as she did fans, so malicious comments and voices of concern ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ran loud — but there was no denying that Dwayne Moi Stone's stature had shifted dramatically.

She was the second most influential figure on social media in the world, behind only Taylor Swift — and simply becoming that woman's boyfriend guaranteed massive attention.

In modern society, attention meant money, and Pittsburgh's mood was less worry than outright welcome.

The men's reactions, to be more specific, went something like this.

"If I get reborn, I want to come back as Moi."

"Weren't the women he dated before pretty insane too?"

"Search Alexa Collins."

"…Whoa—damn. She's smoking hot too."

"Hailey Grice. Lauren Summer. Mikayla Demaiter. Hannah Palmer. Alexis Ren. Brandy Gordon… son of a bitch. How does one guy land all of these women?"

Even the single concern about Moi that NFL scouts unanimously raised — his 'way with women' — was, in more honest spaces, nothing but an object of envy.

Besides, if the woman he'd settled down with was Kendall Jenner, the timing dovetailing with the draft made it the greatest publicity campaign imaginable.

"Somebody said something in the meeting earlier."

"What?"

"That if we brought this kid to Pittsburgh as-is, revenue would jump at least threefold — probably more."

"That's bull, right?"

"I'd bet everything on it."

"Damn — that is gut-wrenching."

In truth, from the moment Pittsburgh won the TFM race, the unmarked No. 14 jersey bearing the Pittsburgh Steelers name had become the best-selling piece of sports merchandise in the entire country.

That morning, the governor of Hawaii had even declared his intention:

Star couples had proven time and again that one plus one could equal far more than two, and Pittsburgh's front office forecast that this time would be no different.

Even now, articles about the two were pouring out in real time, and after the Super Bowl ended, even trivial subjects — where had they gone afterward? — were claiming heavyweight headlines.

The men who had briefly wallowed in envy pulled themselves back to reality.

"…The game's over, huh."

"Yeah. It is."

During the interview, the 99.9 percent had become a flat 100 — and now, more than ever, Pittsburgh had no reason whatsoever to put the No. 1 pick up for bidding.

The Combine, too, was increasingly likely to become nothing more than a 'showcase of how good Dwayne Moi Stone really was,' and even at Pro Days, it seemed only Pittsburgh would bother to observe him.

Georgia had plenty of outstanding players projected for high picks beyond its quarterback, so for other NFL teams, there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was no reason to endure the pointless stomachache of attending.

The probability that Dwayne Moi Stone would land somewhere other than Pittsburgh was evaporating by the hour.

Within a matter of days, Chicago's No. 2 pick looked set to become the very eye of the storm — the single greatest tempest of the coming 2023 NFL Draft.

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