CHAPTER 4

THE MAN IN THE SUNGLASSES

Anton flipped the ball to the referee and ran over to Malik, who was still sitting on the ground.

“Are you all right?” Anton asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Malik said. “Man, that guy nailed me. Oh, well. At least we scored a touchdown.”

“You played that perfectly,” Anton said. “He really thought you were keeping it. I did too.”

During the rest of the game, Malik shared the ball with his teammates.

He ran the ball a few times by himself, but only when the coach called for it or when it was Malik’s only option.

It was nearly a perfect game.

The Giants ended up winning 35–12.

They had won a game for the second week in a row.

“Boys, we made a lot of improvement this week,” Coach Benson said after the game. “Everyone did a great job blocking for each other. We really became a team out there.”

After the team meeting, Anton slapped hands with Malik.

“Good game,” Anton said.

It seemed like they were becoming friends, and he felt bad about thinking that Malik was a selfish player.

* * *

A week later, the Giants were getting ready to play the Cowboys in their third game of the season.

All of the Giants were on the field, stretching out and warming up.

Malik and Anton were joking around and throwing a football back and forth.

Suddenly, a voice rang out from the other sideline.

“Hey, Malik!” It was the man in the sunglasses.

Malik flipped the ball to Anton and ran over to him.

Malik seemed happy to see the man. The man put his arm around Malik’s shoulders. He whispered into Malik’s ear, and Malik nodded his head.

After a couple of minutes, Malik ran back to his teammates.

Anton knew the man looked familiar, but he couldn’t figure out who the guy was.

He didn’t have time to think about it, because the game was about to start.

The Cowboys got the ball first. They moved it quickly down the field and scored a touchdown.

When the Giants got the ball back, they needed to try to score right away.

On their first play, Coach Benson called for the option, which gave Malik a choice.

Malik chose to keep the ball instead of pitching it to Anton. He ran for five yards.

The second play was a running play for Anton, but he was stopped at the line of scrimmage. That made it third down.

Coach Benson called for a pass play.

Malik dropped back to throw the ball. He waited a split second, but instead of throwing the ball, he tucked it down and ran.

He sprinted around the right end, but was stopped short of a first down. The Giants had to punt.

When they came off the field, Coach Benson called Malik over.

“What happened there?” the coach asked. “We had receivers open. Why didn’t you throw the ball?”

“I didn’t see them,” Malik said. He walked away.

In the game against the Jets the week before, Malik had shared the ball. But this game was different.

Malik kept the ball on most of the option plays.

On almost all of the passing plays, he pulled the ball down and tried to run with it.

Still, the Giants scored. Malik was playing selfishly, but he was a good player, so he could get away with it.

With less than a minute to go, the Giants trailed 20–18. Malik had scored all three touchdowns.

With the ball on the Cowboys’ 12-yard line, the Giants still had a chance to win.

Coach Benson called for an option play.

As the team jogged up to the line of scrimmage, the man in the sunglasses called out, “Come on, Malik! Win this game! Show them what you can do!”

Suddenly, Anton had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.