3. Liam
LIAM
Liam spent the rest of the day poring over the articles that had filled the internet.
Fans had come out of the woodwork to report negative interactions with him.
Liam read them with mounting horror. These stories had to be made up.
He would remember these things if they had happened.
One woman reported that he had refused to take a picture with her because—according to her—he had claimed that she was too ugly.
Liam was sure that he had never said anything like that to anyone.
Another commenter reported that Liam had snapped, “Get this brat out of my way,” when a little boy had approached him for an autograph, and Liam couldn’t remember having ever done that either.
They’re just trying to get the spotlight, he thought desperately. It’s popular to hate me right now, but this will blow over in a few days. It has to.
How had Garrett Sandusky done this to him? Nothing like this had ever happened to Liam before. He had thought he was untouchable. He had thought his place on the Stingers was as certain as gravity. And now it had been snatched away because of a stupid dust-up in a nightclub.
Everyone is going to get over it. They’re trying to teach me a lesson, that’s all. I’ll go to practice tomorrow, and I’ll be contrite—I’ll apologize to Sandusky, even though I’ll hate doing it. And then this will all be behind us. I’ll just make sure I’m never on my own with him again, that’s all.
The thoughts weren’t as reassuring as he would have hoped they’d be.
Even though logically he was sure the team couldn’t manage without him, there was an unease deep within him that wouldn’t disappear.
Was it possible that Sandusky really had managed to ruin his life so thoroughly?
He hated to think it, and yet something within him wouldn’t settle down.
Noon rolled around, and Liam realized he hadn’t eaten anything yet today.
He had no appetite, though. He thought of putting a sandwich together, but even the idea of getting up from the table was too much.
He’d been sitting here staring at the grain of the wood since he had gotten off the phone with Greg this morning.
He closed his computer. Looking at these comments over and over wasn’t doing him any good. He would drive himself crazy.
Beside him, the phone rang again.
His heart leapt. Maybe it was Coach Reeves.
Maybe he had managed to convince the team management that getting rid of Liam was a terrible move.
They were calling to ask him to come back—to beg him to come back.
They would tell him that the whole thing had been bungled, that it had been a mistake to allow someone like Sandusky into the Stingers, that he had been quietly released from his contract and that there would be a press conference to let the public know how everything that had happened had been his fault…
He looked down at the phone screen.
The call was from Mark.
His hopes plummeted, but he tried to bolster them. Mark would have been to morning practice today. He’d have had the chance to speak to the coach. He’d have put in a good word for Liam, of course, explained what had happened. Maybe he would have something to report.
“What’s going on?” Liam demanded, picking up the phone.
“Good afternoon to you too,” Mark said dryly.
“Come on,” Liam said. “Tell me what happened today. What did Coach say?”
“He told us all that your contract had been terminated,” Mark said quietly. “You should have listened to me when I told you not to let Sandusky wind you up. The idiot was prancing around the field like that cat that got the canary today.”
“He meant for this to happen!” Liam fumed. “The whole thing was a setup, Mark. He was always going to try to get me removed from the team.”
“Of course he was,” Mark sighed. “He wants your spot. It’s not enough for him to be allowed to start the next game—he wants to take over for the most high-profile player. And it looks like that’s what he’s going to get. You should have kept your head.”
“You know the whole thing was his fault!” Liam insisted. “Didn’t you speak up for me, Mark? Didn’t you tell Coach that it wasn’t my fault, what happened?
“No, I didn’t,” Mark said. “Because really, Liam, it was your fault. You let a kid provoke you into violence just by running his mouth. You didn’t need to let things go as far as they went, and you are responsible for what you did.
” He sighed. “I wish you hadn’t been kicked off the team.
I do. But you need to think about how it looks for the rest of us when you do things.
It matters. It makes everyone on the team look bad when we have to deal with stories like this.
I’m getting bad press too just because people know you and I are friends. ”
Liam gritted his teeth. “I don’t deserve any of what’s happening right now,” he said. “I’ve been nothing but good for this team.”
“You can’t pretend this is the first time you’ve been part of some kind of negative press,” Mark countered. “What about the time you vandalized the outside of that convenience store?”
“Vandalized? I put a few Stingers decals on the windows. It was an improvement!”
“The guy who owned the place didn’t think so. He made the team pay to have them removed.”
That was true. But even so… “It was a harmless prank.”
“Liam, you have never taken your responsibility to the team seriously enough,” Mark said. “I don’t like what’s happening. You know I don’t. But I also think…well, eventually you were bound to run into some sort of consequence for the way you act.”
Liam stared at the phone for a moment. Then he reached out with one finger and disconnected the call.
Mark should have been completely on Liam’s side. The fact that his friend could say such things to him—could suggest that Liam in any way deserved what he was getting—was appalling. Was nobody in his corner? Was there no one who would agree that Liam was getting a raw deal here?
They’ll all see how wrong they were once I get an offer from another football team, he swore to himself—for an offer was sure to come in by the end of the day.
Fight or no fight, he was one of the premier players in the country, and someone was going to want his talents. It was only a matter of time.
In fact, maybe he would be able to accelerate things a little bit if he reached out to Greg Finster again.
It would be Greg’s job to get in contact with the other teams Liam was interested in, to try to negotiate a new contract.
Maybe I can turn this into a good thing.
This could be the opportunity I’ve dreamed of to move to a new part of the country.
To try living somewhere else. He picked the phone up again and dialed Greg.
The phone rang for a long time, so long that Liam began to wonder whether he’d dialed the right number. Greg had always picked up his calls by the second ring in the past. He had always been determined that his star client not have to wait for an answer.
This time, six rings went by before Greg picked up. Liam was just about to hang up the phone and try again later when he heard Greg’s heavy voice. “Sims.”
“Finally,” Liam said. “I would’ve thought you’d answer a little faster, given everything that’s going on today.”
“And I would have thought you’d be a little less demanding, given everything you’ve had me dealing with,” Greg retorted. “Do you know what kind of day I’ve had? Almost every client on my list has called me, wanting to know how I allowed this to happen. My good name is in tatters, thanks to you.”
“I told you, it’s this Sandusky kid. You should tell everyone—”
“Stop. Don’t tell me what I should tell everyone. I don’t want to listen to you slander the player you hit in the face!”
“I didn’t hit him,” Liam protested. He had gone to great lengths to restrain himself from hitting Sandusky.
“Well, he says you did,” Greg said. “He’s given an interview about it. Says you’ve got an awful temper, and that he’s grateful to management for having you removed from the team so that he doesn’t have to be afraid of you anymore.”
“Of course he said that,” Liam groaned. “What a baby.”
“Sims, I don’t think I can represent you anymore.”
Panic set in. “No—Greg, hang on. You can’t drop me. Not now. I need you. You have to help me manage this. I can’t do it without you.”
“This is causing a lot of trouble for me and my business,” Greg said. “And I don’t know if I can count on you to cooperate with what I need you to do to manage this. You’re so intent on just saying that none of it was your responsibility.”
“No, I’ll do whatever you tell me to do,” Liam said. His heart pounded madly. “Greg, everyone is running from me over this. I need someone by my side here. I can’t lose you too right now. I’ll do whatever you think is necessary, just…don’t give up on me. All right?”
Greg sighed. “I’ll try to stick it out,” he said.
“But I have to tell you, I don’t know how we come back from this.
I’ve reached out to a few teams to see if they’d be interested in taking you on, and, well…
it’s like you said. Everyone is running from you at the moment.
Nobody wants anything to do with you, the way your reputation is right now.
The best thing you can do, I think, is wait this out and do whatever I say. ”
“I can do that,” Liam insisted. “Anything you tell me, I promise. I’ll do damage control. I’ll rehabilitate my image.”
“I don’t know how you’re going to do it,” Greg said. “But…you’ve been a good client to me all these years, and I don’t want to give up on you. I’ll give you a few weeks to see if you can right the ship. Hopefully it’ll work, and we’ll get you a place on a new team.”
“We will,” Liam said, though he wished someone would reassure him about that instead of the other way around. Today’s events had shaken him right to his core.
He hung up the phone and pressed his hands flat on the table. He was going to need to think of something—some way to improve public perception about him. Because right now, it was in the gutter.
He would manage it. He would salvage his reputation and restore himself to his former glory. He was determined to make that happen.
But in order to get the job done, he was going to need the help of his PR team.