Adam was also not a man who swore lightly, unlike most of his contemporaries. I listened intently. “I know, I know.”
“No, Drake, I’m not sure you do. You can say that all you want but the proof is on twitter, it’s on all those sports sites talking about you. You know how many calls I’ve gotten about you in the last 24 hours?”
“How many?”
“Zero. Fucking zero. It’s like you’re radioactive, man, no one wants to touch you with a hundred foot pole, and no one wants you going anywhere near their team.”
My heart sank. That is exactly what I didn’t want to hear. It took me a little while to find the right words, and Adam let me take my time. “Is there any good news?”
“I’m not sure yet, I’ll be in touch if there is. But you gotta really sit down and think about your life, man. You gotta figure out if football and professional sports really are for you.”
“What the fuck?” Adam really knew how to get a rise out of me. “Football is all I’ve wanted to do since the first time I caught one. There’s nothing more important to me.”
“The blogs and TMZ would beg to differ, Drake. According to them, and according to public opinion in general, the most important things in your life are booze, getting in fights, and sleeping with as many hot girls as you can. That sound about right?”
Shit. He really had me over a barrel here. “But that just comes with the territ-“
“Shut the fuck up. Don’t give me that crap. Not every super star has trouble avoiding every drink or every girl who wants to climb on his dick.”
I stayed silent, and Adam continued. “You’ve got a lot of talent, Drake, and no one is questioning your work ethic in the weight room, or on the field, even. But a big part of work ethic is not letting stuff like parties and girls get in your way when the big stuff is coming.”
“I tried -“
“Let me finish. You know as well as I do that plenty of players get by with that stuff, but they keep it under the radar. The stories I’ve heard, you wouldn’t believe. But, before you go off and think I’m telling you that you can do whatever you want as long as no one finds out, stop right there.”
I was just about to say something, but Adam cut me off before I could. “You are not one of those players. You have the talent, sure. You’re the best receiver I’ve ever seen, that’s the only reason we’re still having this call. But you need to understand that there is no such thing as ‘no one finding out’ with you anymore.”
He paused. “If there’s one thing this new world of ours likes, it’s a train wreck in progress, and dude,” the word sounded strange coming from Adam, “you are the definition of a train wreck in progress.”
“You really know how to lift a guy up when he’s down, Adam, anyone ever tell you that?”
I could hear him smile through the phone. “All the time, kid, all the time. But don’t get me wrong, you need me on your side. I’m not here to tell you what you want to hear. That’ll do neither of us any good. I’m here to tell you that there’s still time to fix this mess you made, if you buckle down and lay off the external shit. You understand me?”
“I think I do.”
“There is no ‘think,’ here, Drake, there is only ‘yes’ and ‘no.’”
“Yes, Adam, I understand.”
“I’m not entirely convinced yet, but convincing me is luckily your job, not mine.”
“Where do we go from here?”
“‘We’ hang up the phone now, and then ‘you’ sit and think about whether pursuing this is what you really want. Really think about it hard, Drake, I cannot stress this enough. You are Ceasar staring at the Rubicon.”
I laughed. Adam continued, “You’re a smart guy and I knew you’d get that reference. That’s not something I can say about most of my clients.”
“Like the ones from Stanford?”
Adam groaned. “Don’t get me started on that hellhole. I dropped every single one of them as soon as possible. Never going to work with any of them again.”
That made me just a little bit happier. “Back to the important stuff. I’m serious, here, Drake, I want you to figure your shit out.”
“Alright, alright, Adam, I get it. When we hang up, I’ll sit here and think about it.”
“Good man. Oh and one more thing, lay off the room service, yeah? That shit’s expensive, and I’m paying for it.”
“Yeah, I’ll keep it low. I haven’t been eating much these last few days.”
“I understand.”
“Adam, what do I do next? I mean, besides figuring out what the fuck I want to do?”
Adam sighed. “Sit by the phone, man, sit by the phone. That’s kinda all you got right now.”
“Have you heard anything? No calls, you said?”
“No calls, right. I’m working the phones myself, but no promises. You really fucked up big, dude. Teams are running away scared, and given your crazy talent, I’m shocked myself. It’s not like you’ve been arrested for anything. Lately.”