Chapter 936: The Line Between Friend and Foe

After finishing the interview, all the pressure and emotions were released. Not only had he won the game, but he had also had a pleasant conversation with Drew Brees. His steps were light, and he couldn’t help but hum a cheerful tune, enjoying a rare moment of pure and simple happiness.

But the moment he pushed open the locker room door, a wave of angry and violent insults came rushing toward him, like a sudden downpour on a barren summer prairie, hitting him relentlessly and overwhelming him. It was almost suffocating, with nowhere to hide from the rain. That sudden feeling of drowning made him unable to fight back.

Caught off guard, Lu Ke stared blankly at the chaotic scene.

Players, players, and more players; some in uniform, some with towels wrapped around them, some with wet hair that hadn’t been dried, some holding helmets, some throwing punches, some yelling insults. Aldon Smith and Michael Crabtree, Logan Newman and Ray McDonald, Randy Moss and Carlos Rogers, NaVorro Bowman and Vernon Davis...

Everyone, literally everyone, was tangled up in a huge brawl. It was too chaotic to make out. It felt like a full-blown war, and he could see at least 20 or 30 people pushing and yelling at each other. The scene was unbearable.

Lu Ke didn’t have time to figure out what was going on. He took a few big steps forward and let out a roar from the pit of his stomach. "Shut up! All of you, shut the fuck up! You brainless idiots, what are you doing! Everyone, shut up!"

Normally, Lu Ke’s anger would have been enough to calm the situation down, but all the players had lost their minds. The scene was completely out of control, and Lu Ke’s voice was completely drowned in the chaos. He felt like a small boat in a raging storm, with no power to resist, let alone control the situation.

From the peak of joy and happiness, he fell into a black hole of chaos and anger. All his worries and fears had come true without warning. Or, rather, the crisis had been brewing for a long time, like a ticking time bomb that exploded before he could let his guard down.

This made Lu Ke feel sick with anxiety and at a loss.

This was the first time for everyone. Even when Lu Ke first joined the team last season, the chaos and hostility in the locker room never reached this point. So, what should he do now? What would happen next? Most importantly, how could this disaster be stopped?

Calm down. Lu Ke was forcing himself to calm down.

"Bambi!" Just then, someone finally noticed Lu Ke. It was Aldon, an agitated Aldon.

Aldon rushed toward Lu Ke, his face distorted. The others were still yelling and arguing, but only Aldon rushed over and grabbed Lu Ke’s arm. "Bambi, they’re crazy. They’re all crazy. Can you believe it? They’re blaming us for everything? God, are they out of their minds? If that’s the case, then you can play the rest of the games by yourselves!"

They. We. You.

All the pronouns were used, which made it hard to understand what was going on.

Just then, Randy Moss also saw Lu Ke and walked over with long strides. "Bambi, come here, Bambi! Come here quickly!" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Without any context, Moss walked over to Lu Ke, put his arm around his neck with an intimacy he had never shown before. But in this emergency, there was no time to think about it. Moss yelled excitedly, "Tell me, if I’m wrong, then tell me."

Lu Ke nodded instinctively.

Moss continued, "Did we win this game because of me? If I didn’t sacrifice my own opportunities to cover my teammates and attract the defense, would the offense have been able to get going? If that weren’t the case, would I have only had ten catches? Huh? Right?"

"If the offense didn’t consistently maintain its intensity at crucial moments, would we have been able to win the game? If Crabtree and Vernon didn’t get back into their rhythm, would we have lost here? If Ted didn’t go all out to make those two catches, would our winning streak have ended? If Marcus and Frank hadn’t risked getting injured to run hard, would we have stopped here?"

"Huh?"

"If the defense’s performance today wasn’t terrible! If they weren’t all asleep! If they couldn’t even make the most basic tackles! If they weren’t completely distracted! If they weren’t arrogant and condescending! Would our game have been this difficult?"

"Tell me, is that right? Did the offense win this game? Right?"

Moss’s eyes had turned red like a terrifying monster. In his nonstop rant, he didn’t give Aldon a chance to say anything. The constant attacks hit him, and Aldon’s hands were clenched into fists. His uncontrollable rage was still being suppressed, like a volcano waiting to erupt.

It was only at this moment, after a few seconds of being slow to catch on, that Lu Ke realized:

On his left were the defensive players, and on his right were the offensive players. Even the special teams players were divided into two opposing groups.

The line was clear. They were at odds. They were sworn enemies.

Lu Ke was still too inexperienced. He had imagined countless scenarios, but he never thought that the ticking time bomb would explode in this way. He looked at the line that had been drawn, a line that should have been a chasm between two opponents, but had now become an impassable barrier within the team.

The offense and defense were part of the same team, but they belonged to two completely different systems.

It was the same when there were cliques in the locker room last season. There was an invisible line between the offensive players and the defensive players.

It wasn’t just because their training, strategies, and systems were two separate and independent systems, but also because of the natural rivalry between offense and defense. Even in joint practices, the offense and defense were opponents, and conflicts on the practice field were always an unavoidable part of it.

Now, the offense and defense had completely turned on each other without warning. Or rather, there had been signs for a long time, but Lu Ke was too inexperienced to see them?

"Bullshit! Look at yourselves!" Justin Smith, who hadn’t been on the front line, couldn’t take it anymore. He stepped forward and confronted Moss.

"Look at your performance in the last few games. How many times? Think about it, how many times? If we weren’t cleaning up your messes, with Crabtree and Vernon’s terrible performance? With your pathetic stamina, Randy? Could you have won? Get lost! You arrogant idiots!"

Justin’s words immediately created a huge wave of anger. Crabtree and Vernon immediately stepped forward and started yelling at Justin. And NaVorro, who also had a bad temper, rushed forward again, but he was still mindful of his teammates. His hands were by his sides, and he didn’t start pushing or getting into a physical fight.

Just then, Logan rushed forward.

Due to a concussion, Logan was forced to miss two weeks, but in fact, his condition was not serious. Harbaugh and the coaching staff wanted to prepare for the playoffs, so they rotated the players to make sure Logan got enough rest and that other players got more playing time. So, Logan still traveled with the team for this game.

Now, Logan stood next to Lu Ke and shouted, "Bambi, you tell them. Did our offense win this game? You see, without me on the field, you guys were all over the place. You still need me, right? Huh? Look at your performance in this game. If it weren’t for the offense, this game would have been a terrible loss."

Logan raised his chin arrogantly and looked at the defensive players across from him, saying whatever he wanted without any regard for them being his teammates. Then, he turned to Lu Ke, his eyes shining with expectation. "Bambi, am I right? Right? Are you on our side?"

In an instant, the entire locker room fell silent. All eyes were on Lu Ke. It seemed that all Lu Ke had to do was speak, and this argument would be resolved.

But how should Lu Ke respond?

He didn’t have an answer. As a team leader, as a quarterback, and as a friend, Lu Ke couldn’t find an answer.

Maybe he was still too green. As the commentators said, he was already a great quarterback for a second-year player, but he wasn’t a team leader yet.

Lu Ke looked into Logan’s eyes and couldn’t help but remember when the regular season first started last year. The fans were unhappy with Lu Ke being the starting quarterback, and they hurled insults at Lu Zhengze and Jiang Youning and even threw garbage at their house. This angered both Lu Ke and Logan. The fans weren’t being fair to Lu Ke.

When Logan scored the first touchdown of his career, he stood in the end zone and yelled at the fans, "That’s your quarterback. Do you see? That’s your quarterback."

At that moment, even when faced with criticism from the entire world, Logan didn’t back down. He stood firmly behind Lu Ke.

"Yes, I think so too," Lu Ke said.

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