Chapter 57

“There are just too many variables with this team and this guy,” the International Sports Network’s Ned Harris said of the Temps and Quinn. “He likes to run, which is risky. That’s part of what makes it thrilling, too. But you never know what you’re going to get. He hasn’t proved himself to be an elite pocket passer. Certainly, he’s not in the class of Mal Ryan and Tam Tarquin.”

Bullsh—,one poster wrote. Wonder if Neddy boy would be saying as much if Quinn Novak were white.

There it was, what everyone was thinking but few would voice.

That’s right, one respondent answered, play the race card.

Quinn told himself he really had to stop reading and watching sports; otherwise, some day he was just going to take the football and shove it down the throats of the haters. He prided himself on being gracious—win, lose or draw. But this was testing him, boring as it did into his Achilles’ heel, which was the sense that he would never be good enough.