Pats Poupouri: Jones vs. Gardner

[Teach]

This just in: Patriots quarterback, Mac Jones, will not be suspended for attempting to crush Sauce Gardner’s “grapes.” I’ll have a glass of Chianti. Yet there still remains the possibility that Jones will be fined for his “footloose” attempt to apparently prevent, as Gardner, in his own words, put it: "He's trying to prevent me from having kids in the future.” I personally find it hard to believe that there was "malice aforethought."

When it comes to Mac Jones, it has been reported that when Jones attended Jacksonville, Florida's The Bolles School (Some say you have to have “balls” to play ball at Bolles), it’s been reported that Mac Jones favorite novel (he did a book report) was Johns Steinbeck’s "The Grapes of Wrath.” That novel had nothing to do with the Super Bowl, but everything to do with “The Dust Bowl."

Apparently, decades after Steinbeck first wrote his novel, there’s a proposed sequel. Word is out that it’s being called "A Tale of Contrasts." It’s subtitled, “The Wrath of Sauce.” I’ll have Worcestershire, like when I visit my Milwaukee cousin: "Bloody Marys" and “Brats."

As of this writing, the proposed Steinbeck sequel is about to enter the galley stage. It begins, “It was the best of times…” No wait, that’s another novel.

Let me start over. “The wind and rain, like a storm of Biblical proportions, was pelting down, unabated, on a field they called MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. A short-yardage play was in the offing, just a break-in-the-huddle away. The quarterback, Mac Jones, barks out the signals; the New England Patriots’ center, David Andrews, snaps the football. It’s a quarterback-sneak. Jones is struggling to get the needed first-down yardage. A melee ensues. Green and white jerseys are strewn everywhere, like an array of bowling pins about to be swept up by The Brunswick.

In the ensuing entanglement, the Patriots quarterback, Jones, kicks the Jets' cornerback, Juice Gardner in his “private parts.” Thus begins “A Tale of Contrasts."

The novel now flashes back over twenty years to the cities of both Detroit, Michigan and Jacksonville, Florida. Chapter after chapter explores the lives, first of the inner-city “MoTown” kid with boundless football prowess, whom like Phoenix, rises from ashes to NFL stardom. Gardner earns a scholarship to “The Queen City," “Porkopolis,” the University of Cincinnati (Bearcats). This young football “phenom” is subsequently drafted by the New York Jets as their cornerback.

As the novel continues, we change gears and environments. The novel heads south to the shores of the St. John’s River, Jacksonville, Florida. It’s the story of a privileged young man who, as a child, acted in commercials. He was also a very good athlete from a family of good athletes. Jones is heavily recruited by many colleges; yet he eventually ends up on the campus of the University of Alabama, “The NCAA Quarterback Capital.” Mac Jones succeeds. He’s drafted by the New England Patriots.

We then, in the book’s later pages, return to the gridiron, “The play.” What will transpire? As the subtitle queries, will be there be: “The Wrath of Sauce”? Yet, the novel, at least at this juncture, remains unfinished. There are many possible endings. Only time will tell.