Football Fugitive Read Online Free

kitchen his father surprisingly called to him, “Well, who won?”
    His heart thumped. “They did,” he answered.
    “Who’s ‘they’?”
    “The Whips.”
    “What was the score?”
    “Twenty to ten.”
    “Good game,” said his father.
    That’s all he said as he rattled his newspaper and started to read.
    “Come on,” said Larry’s mother. “Your dinner’s ready.”
    Before going to bed that night he wrote a letter to Yancey Foote, hoping that this time Yancey would receive it.
    Dear Yancey,
    We played our first game today and lost, 20 to 10. It was a battle, although the Whips were ahead of us all the time.
    I played center on offense and middlelinebacker on defense, and Coach Ellis had me play most of the game. My best play was tackling the Whips’ quarterback, forcing
     him to fumble the ball. Then I recovered it. The only thing that resulted from that play, though, was a field goal. Our only
     touchdown came in the fourth quarter.
    I hope that you receive this letter, Yancey. I haven’t heard from you lately, but I hope that isn’t because you got tired
     of receiving letters from a kid. If that is the reason, I understand.
    No matter what the reason is, though, I will always be
    Your friend,
    Larry
    He read the letter over, addressed an envelope, put the letter into it, and sealed it. He considered and reconsidered putting
     a stamp on it, then decided to wait till morning.
    In the morning the question persisted: Why waste a stamp? If the last two letters came back why wouldn’t this one come back
     also?
    Nevertheless, he stuck a stamp on it and dropped it in a mailbox on his way to school. There was always hope. And what’s a
     stamp?
    During the course of the day Yancey Foote popped in and out of his mind like a Jack-in-the-box. It occurred to him that he
     might be able to find out about Yancey if he wrote to the Packers football team. Perhaps a letter to the coach would invite
     an answer and an explanation as to what happened to Yancey.
    There was another possibility. A recent issue of a football magazine might have something about him. It might clear up the
     mystery of why the letters to him were returned.
    The last period of the school day wasthe longest Larry had spent in weeks. He couldn’t wait till the buzzer sounded. When it did he was among the first out of
     the room, not even waiting for Greg to accompany him home as he usually did. Right now nothing was more important than to
     get to a magazine store.
    There was one on Palm Street. Dad stopped there every Sunday after church to pick up the
New York Times.
The store was several blocks out of the way, but — so what?
    He arrived there, breathing hard from the long run from school, and started to look for the sports magazines. They were all
     on one shelf, practically at his eye level, magazines covering all the major sports: baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis,
     football.
    He glanced over the featured titles of the football magazines. Familiar names stoodout like neon lights: John Elway, Brett Favre, Emmitt Smith.
    And then his heart jumped as he recognized another name, and read the long title:
Yancey Foote
—
Good Guy or Bad Guy?
    Good Guy or Bad Guy?
What in the world did that mean?
    His heart still jumping, Larry looked for the price of the magazine. It was more than he had in his pocket. Oh, man. He would
     have to borrow it from his parents.
    He ran all the way home, borrowed some money from his mother, then got back to the store as quickly as he could and purchased
     the magazine. He couldn’t wait to get home again to read the article about his friend Yancey Foote.

5
    T he article started off with a bang.
    What happened to that big, bone-crushing guard of the Packers, Yancey Foote? Nobody seems to know.
    Could it have something to do with his seriously injuring a citizen in a barroom squabble? There’s no question about the fact
     that Foote vanished after posting $5000 in bail.
    Although the incident has been hushed