Gately's football past: a limitless future, if he bears down
Every coach past 6th grade told him he was a lock for a Division 1 college team if he bore down and kept his eye on the prize. Memories of half a dozen different neckless, buzz-cut, and pre-infarcted coaches all condense around a raspy emphasis on bearing down and predictions of a limitless future for Don G., Bimmy G.
Context
The plateaux-talk in a different uniform. "Every coach past 6th grade" runs the identical script E.T.A. runs on its own kids — a "lock for a Division 1 college team if he bore down and kept his eye on the prize," "predictions of a limitless future" — the same carrot, the same conditional bearing-down, the same institution pointing a young body at a Show down the road. Junior tennis and North Shore football turn out to sell the same body the same future.