beautiful mistake - joe burrow

31

The Bengals had won the game, surprisingly, Elle had to admit. Sure, she knew the Bengals weren't a bad team and were off to a really good start to the season, but against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, reigning Super Bowl winners, the win still wasn't quite expected.

It had been an incredible experience. Elle hadn't had that much to do, luckily no one had been seriously injured so they had to get on the field, but the radio calls from the ATC spotters, which were also in no case so serious that they really had to intervene, but rather precautionary measures, had been quite exciting. Paul had waved her over each time so that Elle could also watch the scene the spotters had meant on the small screen.

Otherwise, she had spent her time renewing the tape on a couple of players and watching the game.

Occasionally Joe, who was on the other side of the coaching zone, and she had met eyes and the two had grinned at each other briefly before looking away again.

She had to admit that he looked really good in his dark gray long-sleeved shirt with the Bengals logo on the chest, slightly tousled hair and radio in his ear, watching the game critically with his arms crossed.

After the game, Elle drove back to the hotel with Nick and Roberto to pack up their stuff, while Paul, Michael and Dan would stay at the stadium, where they might need to treat players after the game.

When they landed in Cincinnati, everyone immediately got back on the buses and headed back to Paul Brown Stadium. They cleaned out everything they had packed for the away game before meeting all together again in the conference room.

"Good effort today by everyone" Paul began. "I think we've earned some time off. You guys get to go home now. Tomorrow we won't start until nine and we'll work off as much as we can, ok?" everyone nodded happily. Nine o'clock sounded like a dream. "Alright, good night" Paul clapped his hands and immediately everyone set off.

Elle was in a better mood than she had been in a long time when she came to work the next morning. Already at the meeting with all the athletic trainers it turned out that today would not be such a busy day either.

A couple of players had announced themselves for today to get a couple of ailments checked out that had developed during the game yesterday, but Nick and Michael would take care of that.

In addition, the other players were expected in the training rooms, as there was no training scheduled directly today, but they were able to go through their own training on their day off, and Roberto was on standby here for emergencies.

Paul, Dan and Elle had the task to summarize the progress of the players in a short report and send it to the coaches in charge as well as Zac, since Tuesday would be the first roster cut and they wanted to see if the players they had in mind for it were behind athletically.

Elle wasn't too upset about spending the day alone in the office she shared with Michael. She was quick with the reports and even though there were countless players, she knew that there would be enough time until tonight.

That meant she could take breaks as many times as she wanted and meanwhile also easily check her messages and check in with Celine and her mom again.

She had also asked Nick to send Joe to her when he saw him today, since she knew he would be coming to Nick today to pick up a special workout schedule for his knee.

She wanted to talk to him to explain what Zac and she had worked out for Joe and her to play. After all, that was why she had been in Zac's hotel room for so long.

After they had cleared things up with Joe, Elle had asked him about it and Zac had been on fire right away, really looking forward to the duel.

It was a little after three and Elle was taking a coffee break with cookies she had found in her drawer when there was a knock at the door.

Startled, she let her feet slide off the table, yanked open the drawer and tossed in the cookie bag. "Come in!" she called before quickly sweeping the crumbs off the table, sitting down properly and staring at the screen as if she were busy.

"Hey, you wanted to see me?" Joe entered the office grinning and Elle sighed with relief. "Oh, it's you" she slumped back in her chair and pulled the cookie bag back out of the drawer. "Sit down" she pointed to Michael's chair and fished a cookie out of the bag before holding it out to Joe. "Want one, too?" Gratefully, he turned it down.

"Well..." Elle shuffled the bag back into the drawer, knocked the crumbs off her hands, and turned to Joe. "...I was talking to Zac about our game, and I wanted to let you know what we were thinking".

Joe just nodded and looked at her expectantly. "Ok, we're going to play on Tuesday at practice field, that's rehabilitation day and the roster cut, which means we're both not really wasting time where we should be practicing or working" Elle started to explain.

"Zac is going to give us an Offense and a Defense team so we have the same prerequisites and he and a couple of other coaches will referee. We'll both get four drives with four downs each, always start at the 50 yard line, which is the beginning of the practice field and the goal is to get a touchdown.No field goals, only touchdowns.  No turnovers, if an interception is made or after the fourth down, the drive is over. Whoever has scored more touchdowns at the end wins."

"So it's a change after every drive? So my first drive, your first drive, or what?" Joe asked curiously. "No, one of us starts and does his four drives in a row. Then it's sort of half time and then it's the other one's turn" Elle explained.

"Ok, but we both play offense and defense?" Elle ran her hand over the back of her neck in embarrassment. "Well,....we'll both play quarterback on our drives, but..." she sighed and looked apologetically at Joe. "...We don't want to put you in unnecessary danger, so you won't be playing defense, you'll have to rely fully on the team."

"Really now? I'm not even allowed to defend my own game? That's not fair" Joe pulled a pout, but had to grin. "I worked it out with Zac that way, sorry. It doesn't do anyone any good if you get hurt and miss the season just because you tried to play defense".

Joe nodded. "Yeah, I get it. Can't do anything about it. Then I'll just have to go all out as a quarterback to take you out on a date" he obliged her, causing Elle to giggle.

"What about jerseys and gear, anyway?" Joe asked. "Well the defense will be in the white jerseys, the offense will be in the black. We'll get the orange ones so we don't have to, well, I don't have to change. You guys just use your stuff, Zac will get everything for me. Shoes I already have at home" Elle explained.

"Sounds like nothing is going to get in the way of our duel, right?" Joe grinned at her with satisfaction. He was really looking forward to Tuesday and was also really curious to see Elle play.

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