Jim carefully parked in the garage and hit the remote to close the door.  He took a moment to collect himself, it was the first real weekend of college football, and Ellen had run out of cream of tartar for her batch of snickerdoodles.  Although with the temperatures, he wondered if it might be more appropriate to be making lemonade.  He picked up the grocery bag out from the passenger seat, and hoped that he was on time.  The game was just starting. 

Jim gave Ellen the bag and a small, chaste peck on her cheek and repaired to the living room. 

He sat down just in time to see the highly touted freshman receiver have a ball go off his hands on a particularly well designed tunnel screen that would have likely resulted in a touchdown.  The next play was a procedural penalty.  Jim breathed deep.  Patience.  It is the first three snaps of the boy's career.  As the punter walked out, the announcer mispronounced his name as McGuire.  Jim had been looking forward to the booming punts from the gigantic Aussie all summer.  But then he saw him, and realized that this man was nearly seven inches shorter than McClarty.  This was McGuire, not McClarty.  The punt went for 42 yards.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.  But to see that Aussie.  The man's leg must have been nearly four feet long.  No wonder the ball leapt off of his foot.  Everything is angles he thought.  Someone said that.  Most likely a Greek.  They loved their angles.

The game went on, Ohio State turned it over on downs.  Jim took another deep breath.  The next play, Denzel Burke made a sublime play on the ball for an interception. 

Later in the second quarter, Burke got greedy on a ball into the flat, and just missed the interception.  "Tarnation!" Jim almost yelled.  He had been just a step too far away.  Perhaps only an inch or two.  The angle was fine.  That was it.  Everything is numbers.  From Pythagoras.  Well, He knew a thing or two about angles also.

It is hard, once you have the taste of glory to not be tempted a second time.  Discipline Denzel.  Discipline.

Jim waited for the half to end before walking to the kitchen led by the delicious smell of cinnamon for a bite of Ellen's snickerdoodles.