"Okay Tony, calm down. This isn"t true. You"re going crazy." He pulled out his phone and called his contact, Sean.It rang twice before he heard, "Tony?"
"Sean. I need a favor."
"Sure Tony, what"s up? You sound really jumpy right now."
"I need to see check who the general manager was for the Browns in 1999."
"Why can"t you check it?"
"The computer home isn"t working right now, and I"m not in the mood to try and scroll through my phone."
"Dude you sound crazy but give me a second."
Sean went silent as typing was heard from the other end. Tony was jittery as he eagerly waited for the answer.
"Dwight Clark. Same as it has always been."
"How about the first pick?"
"Tim Couch. Tony are you sure everything is okay?"
"Yes, I"m fine, thank you!" He then hung up the phone without time for Sean to ask more questions.
"This can"t be right!" Tony once more refreshed the draft page, first pick, McNabb.
Why was his page different than everyone else"s! Wait what about trades? He scrolled down to the bottom of the page and the trades had changed to match the ones made by Tony.
None of this can be right! He was going crazy, none of this could be real. He closed down the computer and tried to calm his thoughts. These rampant thoughts weren"t helping him understand the situations, only making it harder to come to terms with it.
"Let"s lay out the who scene. I"m the only one who can see the trades and picks from my alternate history. The schedule is the same and I"m left with no idea on how any of this is supposed to work. I likely won"t get any answers either. I just have to continue with what I got. I"m Roy White a theoretical draft genius and the General Manager of the Browns, the worst team in football currently.
Now, I can also a.s.sume when I fall back asleep I will wake up and be left in boredom. Nothing much happens for GMs while the draft is over and the team is set. Wait actually, a lot does...
I think to think about mid-seasons trades along with who went undrafted in 1999."
Tony loaded up google, his go to for all points of confusion. He tried to see if anyone had made a site about undrafted free agents. He was annoyed that no one had, so he went to a plan B. On the site he uses for draft picks would also say if someone was never drafted but played. So he went team by team in the 1999 year looking at rookies who didn"t have a draft pick next to them. A QB stood out to him, the QB wasn"t someone amazing and was someone held on the back his WRs. There was an opportunity there though, so Tony made a mental note of the name.
His main purpose for doing this was to see who he could still get to fill the holes left after the draft.
This took him over two hours of just looking at the list and then from the list he scorned the internet for film/highlights of these players that made the cut. Overall there weren"t have name noting now as most were average to just above average players, no Pro-Bowlers or First Team All-Pro.
He started this mission at 8 am and by the time he finished it was 12 and he was beginning to want lunch. He went over to the fridge and found a beer gla.s.s and leftover Chinese. Much like with breakfast he nuked it and relaxed as he prepared for cla.s.s.
There wasn"t much else for him to do, he was ahead on a.s.signments in all his cla.s.ses and had perfect attendance as he got bored of sitting around and doing nothing. He fell back to his safety choice and watched youtube videos and read articles about the Super Bowl. Nothing was overly that interesting and everyone and their mother was hyping the "Philly Special".
Tony thought about sending hints towards the coaches but always fell back against the ideas because it wasn"t in his job description. He was to create the best team possible not use it. That was the job of the coaches but Tony had no faith in them. From his life they all sucked and most of them never held another job outside of the Browns.
He had to make do with what he has but it didn"t ease his worries of wishing for perfection. He wanted to give hints and suggestions on how to direct the game but he felt that would be hypocritical as he just complained to them at the draft for doing something similar.
He would just have to trust them and if they do bad, take the best coach of the next year. Thankfully had already looked into this and had it all planned out, mostly.
It had grown close to 1 and Tony made his way to his lecture, on economics.
The appeal it once gave him didn"t invigorate him to the same extent. Don"t get him wrong, he stilled loved economics but with the energy and tension he had experienced by being a football general manager, that same pa.s.sion didn"t ignite.
He sat in the room his gaze blank, the words of the professor drifting in one ear and right out the other.
"Tony Rose, care to explain how this would be used to predict the growth of the economy?"
Tony"s lit up as he was broken from his musings. He had to scan over the board quickly and get a grasp on what was happening, "The Bond Market graph is used to predict inflation based on future predicted interest rates. The maturity of the bond is then used to predict how the economy is drifting, by either normal, strong, flat or inverted."
He then sat back down and blinked a few time to readjust his eyes.
"You doing okay?" Katherine whispered from beside him.
"Yea, my mind has been elsewhere today." He flashed her a smile and returned his blank stare to the board.
When the professor dismissed everyone Tony turned over to Kate and asked, "Want to go for dinner later?"
Kate agreed with a smile similar to Tony"s own as the two engaged in idle conversation on the way out of cla.s.s.
He walked her to her dorm room, and he continued to walk to his house.
The dinner itself was nothing worth describing as the two laughed at simple jokes and took the time to relax from the troubles of college.
By the time Tony was home, he fell back into bed the world of football at the forefront of his mind.