Fair Catch

by Sam Elswit

Michael Dwyer has it all. He's good-looking, tall, popular, and is one of the best football players his small Minnesota hometown has ever seen. He's being courted by the NFL draft out of college. Michael also has a deep, dark secret that could endanger his life and career: he's gay. And the man of his dreams turns out to be his teammate and rival quarterback, Terrence Richmond. Will Michael survive his bid to become an NFL star and get out of his hometown, or will the pros discover his secret and tear him apart?

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Reviews

[Pontiki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Michael, but he seems too innocent to be a big bad football player. I don’t like Terrence’s jealousy ending a career for another player. Too many serious subjects are treated lightly, like homophobia in the sport and the assault brushed by without clarity. The writing is choppy too, and as often happens with short stories, the pacing is off. Too much happened and nothing went deep enough.

[DC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just too many things wrong with this.
First off, the cover title on my downloaded copy has “Fair Play” vice “Fair Catch” but I guess that goes hand-in-hand with the choppy formatting and frequent spelling/grammar issues.
As for the story, ugh, no. Michael’s whole situation was just so implausible. A star college football play drafted to take the top spot on a pro team could have been that naive about just about everything, including not recognizing a “legendary” QB? And Terrence? I just never liked him and that dislike was total justified by what the thug did to his teammate Guy. That was uncalled for and quite frankly, criminal. And shame shame shame on Michael for staying enamored with the creep.