The first piece of football action that we see is a game where Nancy McGunnell has the ball for Wyoming, playing against Iowa in a game where the playing field is the state of Nebraska. Nancy finds herself surrounded by Iowa defenders, and decides to jump into an EF5 tornado to escape.
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While Juice takes his phone call with Manny to private, Nine and Ten are left behind to try and figure out Manny and Nick's plan is by splitting up between two different fields, and how they plan on transporting their nine balls without every other nearby team catching wind of them, without using a third. And by spitballing potential loopholes of shooting those balls across the gap, Nine manages to figure out exactly how this is going to be done: with a runaway train. And by recreating a historical incident from 1910.
The Locomotive Lateral. Armed with a train, diesel, and knowledge of history and the surrounding areas, Manny and Nick use the train to transport 9 stolen footballs across a field while the other teams have no idea what's going on.
In Chapter 9, UAB lines up eight players against a 57-player Vanderbilt team. UAB safety Valentine Jones sneaks behind the Vanderbilt lines, steals the football, and runs away. Vanderbilt doesn't try to counter at all, Valentine Jones complains that taking the ball was too easy.
In Chapter 10, we're introduced to "the Sharks", unknown creatures that play in Lake Auburn and are noted for terrifying teams by flipping their boats over. Few dare to enter the lake because of the Sharks' reputation. Then in the next chapter, Juice arranges a call with the Sharks... and "they" turn out to be one player, Mimi Mackenzie of Georgia Southern.
Mimi: I don't care if you have a football or not. I don't want you here. Pardon my language, but get the fuck out of my lake.
Bold plays run in the Mackenzie family: Mimi tells Nine that her mother won a scrimmage against TCU by leaping from an 18-story building, landing behind the TCU offensive line, sacking the quarterback and recovering the resulting fumble. TCU's quarterback quit after that play.
Mimi: The only way to play this game, the only way I know how to play it, is to terrify.
Juice: god how do you shut down stanford (Beat) OH HEY as of may 1983, what's the most recent game Stanford played Ten:THE CAL GAME!!!
Nick and Manny's escape from Oklahoma State. With the entire 125-player Oklahoma State team on their trail, and Oregon contributing 5 players to the effort, Nick and Manny go through several fields near Bumpus Mills, Tennessee in an attempt to escape. When it seems all hope is lost, Nick takes the footballs and runs 5.38 miles along the Donaldson Parkway to another field. With only 16 minutes and 53 seconds of out of bounds time left, Manny is certain that Nick won't make it; he and Manny already pushed themselves to the limit to run five 3:53 miles, and to run a 3:08 mile after having run miles and miles already all night long, carrying nine footballs, in boots, has to be the limit. But Manny is the only one who believes he can do it. And he does,with only 25 seconds of OBT to spare, meaning he ran at a 3:03.67 pace. Ten and Juice are completely shocked by his accomplishment.
Special mention goes to the conversation they have before Nick legs it, right when it seems all is lost:
Meanwhile, Manny tricks Oklahoma State into revealing their positions, getting the intel he would need to help Nick continue his escape, having full faith he'll make it. He opens up about the con immediately, and his honesty and Nick's accomplishment convinces OSU to stop pursuing them (helped by the fact that their coach is Lacrecia Evans) in exchange for them using OSU's field to continue their journey out west so they can at least have a small victory for a few weeks.
the Band Play