Page 91 of Never Say Never
Feeling renewed confidence from that conversation, I walk over to sit with Chance and Ty for lunch.
They practiced with different groups of guys on the third and fourth teams. It turns out they struggled too with all the plays, and seem jokey about it.
The mood lifts more when Bailey stops by on the way to his seat. “I like the energy I’m seeing out there. I got a view firsthand of Rawley here, looking like he’s been at this already for weeks, and I peeked over at you two”—he glances at Chance and Ty—“during breaks too.”
They look excited that he acknowledged them.
“You guys keep fighting. It can take a minute for the pieces to fall in place your first year, but they will.”
And when he walks off, Ty says to me, “It sounds like you’re doing awesome, Rawley.”
I guess it did, coming from Bailey’s mouth.
See, don’t jump to conclusions.
Unfortunately, it seems like I have a lot of unlearning to do on that front.
The next morning, I’m in the car with Landon driving to day two of our OTA when I get a call from Aiden.
“You ready for some good news?” he says without ceremony after I greet him.
“If it’s good news, I’m putting you on speaker so Landon can hear. He’s driving us to the Waves’ facility.” I definitely want my brother to partake in any positive updates.
After I switch to speaker mode, Aiden’s voice reverberates through the car. “Yeah, Landon will appreciate this too.”
“I like the sound of that,” my brother says.
“So, Aspire have come back to the table. They’ve reconsidered things, and want you on their roster. We all know why, with your popularity explosion.” His tone is dry, but it’s clear he’s pleased with the news.
“That’s great,” I respond.
“It gets better. Triumph has entered the conversation.” Triumph is a competing clothing brand and has deals with Landon, Johnson, and Rori. “Obviously you’d have to pick a direction between the two, but their owner Nick called me and made a pitch. He said where your profile has landed these days, they want you for their next campaign.”
“As they should,” Landon observes. “They’re the Battle family brand at this point.”
“He’s offered a deal that’s comparable to Landon’s initial one. It’s a fair proposal, but I think I can play off the Aspire conversation to drive the numbers up.”
“Awesome,” I reply as Landon nods at me.
“Let’s fucking go,” my brother concurs.
“If you’ve had a solid experience with Triumph, I’d probably want to work with them,” I add.
“Yeah, Nick’s a good guy, as far as CEOs go,” Landon says to me.
“Let’s see how things play out,” Aiden says. “If I can squeeze another couple of million out of them for the life of the contract, I will. Probably looking at a four-year deal.”
Thank god. A huge smile spreads across my face.
“Do your thing,” Landon encourages.
“More to come, but yeah, I’ll keep you posted. There is one thing Jim just shared though.”
Shit. This’ll be media related.
Aiden continues, “Athlete Buzzis running another segment on you this week. The last one bashing you for that club appearance churned so much traffic for them, so of course they don’t want to lose a chance at repeating it.”
“What could they even say about him at this point?” Landon asks.
