This Love Is Ours

One

Travis' POV
July 9th, 2023

Normally my offseason is pretty chill, sure I travel a bit and party with my friends, but at the end of the day I use those few months I get off a year to really rest and recharge. However, this year definitely looked a little different.

When you win the Super Bowl so many doors open and you end up with endless opportunities of things you never even dreamed of someday getting to do. And when someone offers me a once in a lifetime opportunity, who am I to turn it down?

That's how I ended up hosting SNL and doing more commercials than I could count. It truly has been a great four months and given the chance, I wouldn't change how I spent it... but that doesn't mean I'm not fucking exhausted.

So with two weeks left until training camp starts I have prioritized all my time into doing absolutely nothing. It might not be the smartest choice, going from sitting around like a couch potato to having intense practices every day. I probably should at least throw a few workouts in over the next 14 days. But right now I couldn't care less about that, because as much as it's going to suck to go from 0-100, it is going to be complete bliss doing absolutely nothing.

I had every intention of following through on my plan, until I got a call from Andy Reid. It wasn't necessarily unusual for Coach to reach out, but he always texted first or scheduled a time with me in advance. This was totally out of the blue, and that's usually not a good thing.

Was he upset with how I'd spent my offseason? Everyone on the team had been goofing off this summer, had I taken it too far? I couldn't stop myself from spiraling as I ran through countless scenarios in my head. Was he gonna kick me off the team? He couldn't do that, I haven't done anything wrong... well not recently, but that was all in the past, He wouldn't bring that back up. I was snapped out of my thoughts as the blaring ringtone started up again, I really should change it, it sounds like someone's screaming bloody murder.

I took a deep breath as I reached for my phone, there was no use stalling the inevitable. I did my best to swallow my nerves and steady my voice before hitting answer.

"Hey Coach, how's the offseason been treating you?" I cringed at the sound of my own voice, hoping Coach couldn't sense my panic.

"Hey Travis, offseason is the offseason, it's been fine." He grumbled out, clearly he wasn't in the mood for small talk.

"Look I'm gonna get straight to the point-"

"Sir, if I did anything wrong I just want to say how deeply sorry I am." I was really talking out of my ass right now, but if I was in trouble no way was I staying silent.

"Calm down Trav, you're not in trouble. Now will you shut up and listen?" Coach was clearly losing his patience with me.

"Yes, I'm sorry I'm listening."

"Well I'm not sure if you've heard yet but we've got a new coach coming in this season. Names Scott Swift, he used to coach with me back in my Philly days. Anyhow, him and his wife are moving in on Thursday and I would like for you to go welcome them and help out." He paused for a moment and I took that as a sign to speak.

"Help out how exactly?" I'm not really sure why they'd need help moving when they already have movers.

"What do you mean how? Move furniture Travis, put things away, show them around the city. If you aren't busy I don't see a reason why you can't do it." Normally I could come up with an excuse at the drop of a hat, but right now I was blanking.

"Uh I um... I can help." I sighed, giving up on finding a reason I was unavailable. So much for doing nothing.

"Perfect. Now listen, I need you to be real good to them. I'm trying to get Scott to stay, I can't do this forever and it's about time I find someone else to take over. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. I will do my best." I still wasn't exactly sure why it had to be me. There were plenty of other players he could've chosen from, I guess I just got the short straw.

"I knew you were the man for the Job! I'll go ahead and send over the address along with the rest of the information. I want you over there at 9am sharp."

"Alright, Coach."

We went back and forth for a little while longer. Even though he said he was going to send over the information he also felt the need to go over it with me on the phone. He seemed very serious about this whole thing and I really didn't get it, but whatever keeps me on his good side I'll do.

Eventually we exchanged goodbyes and hung up. I went ahead and skimmed over the email he sent, making sure I had all my facts right, if it was important to Coach it was important to me. After plugging the address into my phone I figured out they were moving in just a few streets over from me, at least I won't have to go far.

Maybe this won't be so bad after all. It will probably only take a few hours and showing them around will be easy since it's my neighborhood too. They probably won't even want to keep me around for long. I can just stop by for a little bit, help move a couch or two and then be on my way. It's simple really.