Chapter 16
Rico Briggs
Judgement Day
Today was the day. I’ve been on pins and needles, waiting for this day to roll around.
From the moment that I took my ass out to my university, thinking that I was going to suit up, and practice with the rest of the team, up until this moment, I have been on edge.
It was one of those things where I knew I had a great lawyer stepping behind me, and I knew that I’ve been on a long press run for weeks now, trying to apologize to the people, and take ownership of the wrong that I’d done, but I was still nervous.
Nervous because I didn’t know how this shit was going to play out.
Today, we were having what’s called a league disciplinary hearing.
It wasn’t the traditional style courtroom set up and shit.
This kind of hearing didn’t call for all the extra stuff.
We were just going to be in a large room, where I was faced with a whole bunch of people in private, and it was up to them to make the decision on whether I still had a career ahead of me.
It was up to the league to make this call, so even though I’d got back good with my coaches over the weeks, and I’ve apologized for letting them, and my teammates down the way that I did, they still couldn’t make that call for me. This shit was out of their hands.
I would also find out what my consequences were going to be today.
Any fines, requirements that they felt like I deserved in this kind of situation.
The thing is, I didn’t care about the fines, or whatever harsh requirements that they were going to give to me.
I’ll take all that. I just didn’t want them to take away ball from me.
I would lose my fuckin mind. I hated that with the shit I was up against, that my family couldn’t come out, and support me through it.
I could only come with Donovan, my lawyer.
Even though I had him by my side, I still felt like I was going to be ganged up on because I had to face the league officials, the league’s legal counsel, and all my school’s athletic department representatives.
“You ready?” Donovan asked me, after we’d just made it out of the security checkpoint. We were at a federal building, so we had to go through metal detectors, where we were patted down and shit, and had to show our ID’s.
“Yeah man. I’m nervous, but I’m just ready to get this shit over with,” I let him know.
“It’ll all work in your favor. I feel like you’ve been on a high horse of having the best of fuckin luck,” he reminded me, just like everyone else in my life has been these days.
I’ll admit that my luck has been good. I beat an entire fuckin murder case.
It was no way that that case was supposed to get dropped, especially since Alecia told me that detective Bryant was one of the best, and that he didn’t close cases.
I just knew that he was going to try to take me down for that murder, but he didn’t.
I dodged that shit, and just last week, I dodged the bullshit that happened after Tank’s birthday party.
I underestimated Jax. I knew that a lot of the shit that Jax did, he would do it because he would follow Toby.
Never in a million years did I expect him to pull up, guns blasting, ready to shoot up an entire crowd of people.
Tank made me leave the scene, so I was never questioned about that shit.
It was as if I was never even there. I hated the fucked-up situations that I kept getting in, but now that Jax, and Toby were out of the picture, that monkey was officially off my back, and I should stay out of trouble for good now.
We eventually made it in front of the conference room, where everything was being held.
It was time for us to start walking in, so Donovan opened the door, allowing me to walk in first, and I did.
Just out of respect, I spoke to everyone inside the room, even though some of them probably wanted to throw my ass under the bus and strip me of my career.
My football coaches were in here, so I walked over to them, and I embraced them.
As pissed off, and disappointed that I knew coach Tim was with me, he still slapped me on my chest, gave me a quick motivational speech, letting me know that I had this, and once it all blew over, and they cleared me to come back to play, he let it be known that he was going to drill the fuck out of me in my first practice.
With a smile, I let him know that I was cool with that, and then I went back over with Donovan, so that I could take a seat next to him.
Lined up in the front of the room was all the members of the disciplinary committee.
Each of them had these serious looks on their faces, so one would think that I was facing a murder charge, instead of some petty illegal gambling that I was doing.
There was a white woman that sat in the middle, and if I had to guess her age, I would say that she was probably in her early forties.
She had paperwork sitting in front of her.
She went on to clear her throat, and she tucked her hair behind her ear, getting started.
“Good morning, everyone. We are all here today for a league disciplinary hearing regarding Rico Briggs,” she started, eyes on everyone in the room. She took a quick deep breath and then continued in her opening statement.
“The purpose of this hearing is to examine the findings of the league’s investigation, allow all relevant parties to be heard, and ultimately, make a profound decision on any disciplinary action moving forward,” she got right to the point.
She didn’t beat around the bush on what she wanted to say.
She let it be known what we were here for, and that was that.
Right after she said that, she went around the room, doing a rollcall, just wanting to see who was all present this morning.
Once that was done, she announced that everything that took place today in this hearing was going to be recorded, and she explained the process.
The process seemed a little tough, especially since I knew they were going to show everything on the whiteboard that was behind us, so we would all see the shit that I’d gotten myself wrapped up in with Toby.
It was something that I wasn’t proud of, and even though I knew that it would be broadcasted in here this morning in front of everyone, I still wasn’t mentally prepared for it.
The same woman that had been doing all the talking, she rose from her chair, so that she could go to the front of the room.
The whiteboard projector screen was on, so I knew that she was getting ready to show all kinds of shit on that board that had everything to do with me.
That made me a little nervous, so my leg started bouncing up and down, and the bottle of water that was sitting before me on the table, I picked it up and took a long swig of it.
Donovan peeped what I was doing, so he reached his hand over, put it on my shoulder, and I knew that that was his way of telling me to calm the fuck down.
“A month ago, the league obtained an anonymous email through their compliance reporting system. In that email, there were call logs, screen shots, and pages and pages of betting records, which showed the illegal gambling that involved Mr. Rico Briggs. In those screenshots, we were able to see that the illegal sports betting had taken place for two seasons. It states in the league’s policy, along with the contract, that any form of gambling is prohibited.
When the league got a hold of these findings, they immediately began an investigation, and since then, Mr. Briggs hasn’t been able to play, as the investigation remained ongoing,” she finished.
She stood her ass up there for about fifteen minutes, just airing out all my fuckin dirty laundry.
Made a nigga out to be a monster. A few times, I felt myself ready to stand up, crash out, tell her to shut the fuck up, but I remained planted in my seat, and I didn’t say a damn thing.
She’d just about covered every damn thing, so nobody else from her team should be able to say anything else following that.
She took her seat, and that’s when Donovan stood up, having his jump drive in his hands because just like her ass just finished putting on a whole entertainment production, Donovan planned to do the same.
He went up to the front, plugging the jump drive into the laptop, and the document that he needed appeared on the white board, and he pressed it.
First picture you saw on the screen was one of me.
I was on the field, and I’d just ran the touchdown that had given our team a victory.
I remember that game. That was the game where we played Florida State.
The game where I made the decision to stop being Toby’s bitch, and to play the game how I wanted to play it.
Hours later, that nigga pulled up on my baby mama, and my daughter.
“When I hear the name Rico Briggs, the illegal gambling that he was a part of doesn’t come to mind.
When I hear the name Rico Briggs, this person that I see on this whiteboard is who I think of.
The greatest wide receiver in the nation.
Someone’s son. Someone’s grandson. Someone’s friend,” Donovan started, and the flicked through, showing pictures of me in every area that he just mentioned.
There were pictures that came on the screen with both my parents.
Another one with me, and my grandma, and the final one was with me and my teammates.