incentive

Moose slowly crept in the bedroom so as not to wake up his new bride. They had been married only two months, and they still had a difficult time adjusting to each other’s schedules. She was always in bed by nine every night. She needed eight full hours of sleep before the alarm sounded at five o’clock. She had to be at her nursing station at St. Joseph’s Hospital by 6:30 AM.

He, on the other hand, came in late every weeknight. Coaching the Greenville Braves high school football team was consuming almost 80 hours of his week in the fall. With the biggest rival game of the year coming up tomorrow night against the Pullman Pirates, he’d worked even more hours studying additional films with his assistant coaches and thinking through every possible scenario that could occur.

Karen knew who she was marrying. She knew it would be hard from August through October, but she loved Moose more than she ever imagined she could love someone. He was so wonderful between November and July that it was easy to tolerate his consumption with football during the season.

Moose showered and watched Sports Center until almost midnight. He walked in the kitchen to turn out the lights and saw a package on the table next to the day’s mail.

Coach Moose Mulligan

2356 Crestview Street

Greenville, GA 30906

There was no return address, but the postmark indicated that it had been mailed from the Pullman, Georgia post office. The coach grabbed a knife from the drawer full of new stainless flatware they had received as wedding presents. He ripped the plain brown wrapper off of what revealed itself as a Nike shoebox. The shoebox was crudely strapped with duct tape. The duct tape goo made a mess on the new knife. He tore the box open to find a pirate-style eye patch and a crudely written note.

The curse of the Pirates lives!

You’ll regret the day you ever set foot on the Pullman Pirates field.

We will dominate! We will destroy! We will win!

“Stupid teenagers,” Moose said aloud. Probably stupid sophomores who think they’re helping their team by threatening the opposing coach, he thought. Moose was familiar with this game. Rival teams sending obituaries to opponents or casket sprays - even caskets with mannequins dressed in full football attire of the opponent with bloodstains and broken bones. A couple of years ago, Moose even drafted a letter himself that “supposedly” came from Pullman. He drew his players’ ire when he read it to them in the locker room before the game. The boys were so mad and motivated by the kickoff that they easily won 24-0.

The Pullman sophomores didn’t realize it, but they had just given Moose more ammunition to create a fire in the Greenville Braves football squad. This may be just what he needed. He put the note and pirate patch back in the Nike shoebox, and he put his car keys on top so he wouldn’t forget to take it to school with him in the morning.

Twenty-three hours later, Moose walked in the front door to find Karen asleep on the living room couch. She still had her Greenville Braves sweatshirt on and her red and blue pom-poms laid across her chest. A button that read, “My favorite Brave is Coach Mulligan” was pinned to her shirt. She was exhausted after a long day at work and an exciting victory that night. Moose bent over to kiss his new bride. He was going to leave her on the couch and let her sleep but she rustled around and realized that her hubby was home.

“Hey, Coach,” she said with her eyes still closed. “Congratulations - that was a great game. Your guys really put it on them.”

Moose knelt down beside her. “Yeah, they played great. They were really into it.”

He glared at his wife from head to toe. She was a wonderful and understanding coach’s wife. He couldn’t have picked a better mate.

“Did you see the package I got in the mail yesterday?” he said. “I showed it to the guys before the game. They were pissed off. I think that was the thing that took them over the top. They were ready to kill somebody when they saw that box.”

“Yeah, I saw it,” Karen said with a grin and eyes shut. “I didn’t realize the Pullman post office was such a long drive.”