Gately watches the punter: the punter who kept his eye on the carrot
the announcers kept inserting was a walk-on and an inspirational story that had never played a major sport until college and now was already one of the finest punt-specialists in N.C.A.A. history, and had the potential to be a lock for a pretty much limitless pro ball career if he bore down and kept his eye on the carrot.
Context
The road not taken, glowing on a fenced HDV. Gately irons fake licenses in front of the Forsythia Bowl and watches Orin — "a walk-on... one of the finest punt-specialists in N.C.A.A. history," "a lock for a pretty much limitless pro ball career if he bore down and kept his eye on the carrot." It's the precise plateaux-talk rhetoric of 171's coaches, now attached to another body that did bear down, playing bleached and "ghostly" in the winter light while the body that didn't watches from an unfurnished apartment.