Page 135 of The Pact
When we got back from North Carolina a few weeks ago, Saint made the decision to sell the house. It wasn’t easy for him.
He looked at me when we got home from that visit and said, “It’s just a house.”
I knew he didn’t believe that, but I think it’s what he had to tell himself.
So, I told him, “It was their house, but it doesn’t carry all the memories.”
Saint made a trip down there by himself a week later, and I stayed here with the kids. He and the Harts went through the house, keeping personal keepsakes, and Saint packed up all the kids' belongings. He donated the rest of the items in the house, and movers came and took care of the rest and brought them up to New Jersey.
He already made a plan with his financial advisor to put the proceeds from the sale into a trust for the kids, along with Savannah and Chris’s life insurance policies.
We’re working on redecorating their rooms, and Saint let them pick whatever they wanted. He’s also hired a contractor tobuild an entire playground castle for the kids in the backyard. Saint wants to do everything he can to make sure they feel like this is their home now.
It feels like we’re creating some sense of normalcy for them. Or something close to it. There’s a constant rhythm of four people learning to live under one roof, and sometimes everything runs smoothly, and then we have days that are a little more difficult. Like the days when Rhyan only wants to wear her Dragon shirt, cape, and crown to the nursery, and we have to barter with her to wear pants. It’s super fun.
Amid this chaos, I’ve been meeting with my lawyers about my trust fund to make sure I understand all the stipulations regarding fund distribution, and scouting locations just in case the piece of land I really want isn’t available. And on top of all that … it’s draft time.
Which means I’ve been spending my entire workday in meetings with my parents, my sister, our General Manager, coaches, scouts, and some of my medical staff, reviewing all the prospects.
This is the part of the business most people don’t think about. They see highlight reels, stats, explosive plays, big personalities, and the potential to be the next Hall of Famer.
I see their medical history, injury, and surgical reports, asymmetries, compensations, and recovery patterns. It’s not just a question of whether the player can perform. It’s also about how long the athlete’s body can sustain what we’re about to ask of it.
I’m in my last meeting of the day, and my brain is mush. I tap my pen against the report in front of me as our head coach flips to the next prospect.
“Defensive end out of Georgia,” he says. “Explosive first step. High motor. Scouts love him, and he scored well in his interviews with us at the combine and again when we brought him here.”
“He also had two documented shoulder subluxations in college,” I say.
All eyes turn to me.
Coach’s brows pull together. “Concern level?
“Moderate,” I say. “He didn’t miss significant play time, which is good. But I want to know how aggressively they managed it. His combine medicals show some markers of instability. Not enough to take him off the board, but enough that I wouldn’t call him clean.”
My father leans back in his chair. “Worth the risk where we have him?”
“At our current pick?” I glance at the notes. “Maybe. But not if two of our other edge options are still available.”
Alie looks up from her laptop. “So, he’s a backup, not a priority.”
“That would be my recommendation.”
She types something.
Across from me, our defensive coordinator nods. “Good catch.”
We move to the next player. A wide receiver with elite speed but recurring hamstring issues.
An offensive tackle with clean medicals, but questionable conditioning, as well as behavioral issues on and off the field.
A linebacker recovering from a meniscus repair. Immediate no.
A corner with a stress fracture history that makes my stomach tighten, even though his tape was excellent and he looks perfect on paper.
We walk through each one, and I review their performance, risk, recovery outlooks, red flags, potential maintenance plans, and an estimate on how long the athlete can realistically play based on their history.
By the time we wrap up our top ten, the board looks very different from how it looked this morning.
