A Reincarnated General Manager - Chapter 4 A Calm Ending?

After the confirmation, the room roared in cheers. The problems from earlier were long forgotten after Tony proved his worth. The others didn’t think they could do the same as they had asymmetrical information.

They didn’t know how Roy got the information in the first place but whatever he did, he got the right answer. None of them could have known that Tony would take this sort of risk. As they thought about it though, Tony needed to prove himself. He needed to prove he was worthy of keeping his position after the failure of the first round.

He skipped over the surefire QB in Couch along with choosing a DB in Bailey instead. They were stellar players in college but Couch’s worth was much higher. If he truly only wanted Bailey he could have traded down, as he had with Atlanta. It’s not like he didn’t know when Washington would be picking him, hindsight is 20/20.

Tony hadn’t even thought of the idea at the time still trying to grasp this idea of not being himself.

“Well done!” Palmer praised. This statement was echoed by the others in the room. Tony’s took this time to take a breath but knew he wasn’t done for this round yet. It would come down to if the draft order changed. If all stayed static Tony’s second round would be simple and he could begin thinking about his third round.

Sparano didn’t say anything back at Roy after the trade was finalized. If he made a mistake Roy believed he would be the first to berate again.

The next set of picks were calm and no shocking trades occurred. That didn’t mean there were no trades. Mike Peterson was drafted by the Colts at 36th overall, the same as Tony’s expectation.

The Bears traded down initially, 2nd round pick (37th overall) to Redskins for 2nd round pick (40th overall), and 5th round pick (144th overall).

They still went down even further, 2nd round pick (40th overall) and 4th round pick (102nd overall) to Raiders for 2nd round pick (48th overall), 3rd round pick (78th overall), and 4th round pick (111th overall).

The trade with the Falcons and Ravens never happened so they spent their time trying to trade but got nowhere. They, in the end, selected Kevin Johnson.

Chiefs traded 2nd round pick (43rd overall) to Dolphins for 2nd round pick (54th overall), 1999 3rd round pick (84th overall), and next year’s 6th round pick.

With the trade that just happened is the Steelers traded (44th overall) to Vikings for 2nd round pick (59th overall), 3rd round pick (73rd overall), and 5th round pick (163rd overall).

Cleveland was now on the clock and their choice was simple. “Kevin Faulk.” They might not agree but didn’t argue anymore. This round was quick and Tony was glad for its simplicity. After the first two picking being down to the wire, this one was a nice break. Faulk wasn’t a generational RB in New England but he was consistent over his career.

With Tony choosing Faulk New England never traded up with the Titans, who chose the same person in both lives, John Thornton this time at 46 and not 52.

“What’s your thoughts for the third round?” Palmer enquired from Roy.

“Joey Porter and Rosevelt Colvin.”

That’s exactly what happened. At 62nd he took Joey Porter and Rosevelt Colvin at 77. After expressing his thanks to everyone Tony took his leave, opting to skip out on the drinking.

He walked out of the building and was left in a stupor. This wasn’t because of the beauty caused by the lit up city or the night blank sky. Nor had a beautiful lady appeared like they would in a romance novel.

Instead, he realized, he didn’t know where he lived! What was he supposed to do now? Go back inside and ask, “Hey do any of you know where I live?” No, its even likely none of them even knew where he lived.

He didn’t think up any solutions and walked around the city in hopes of finding a hotel for the night at least. He took in the beauty of the city and listened to the music playing through the walls of bright buildings. Mixed with the cold it brought Tony a sense of tranquility. He continued to stroll through the city until he found a hotel.

It wasn’t anything large but it vacancies and that is what Tony cared about right now. When he walked into the lobby he found a single desk and a middle-aged woman behind it.

“How much for a single night?” He inquired while he pulled out his wallet.

“100.” She answered without thought. He obviously wasn’t the first person to ask recently.

He handed over his credit card and examined the name written on, Roy White. That was his name in this life, Roy White.

At the same time, he kicked himself. He had missed a simple solution to his problem. His driver’s license would have his address printed on it. Now that he had paid and gotten the room key though, he couldn’t get a refund.

He took the elevator to the third floor and walked into his room. He saw it wasn’t a bad interior nothing fancy about it either. There was everything you would expect in a basic hotel room, desk, chair, tv, bed, etc.

He tossed himself into the bed and set the alarm for early morning, so he could take a trip back to his place to change tomorrow morning.

That had been his plan at least but as he laid in bed, he couldn’t find himself sleeping. His mind was running through all the draft possibilities now that he was there. The main thing that was bugging him was who the QB he was hoping to draft was called. The man was never exciting and never did anything note-worthy so in reaction, the name was totally slipping Tony’s mind.

In the end, Tony was up for another three hours going over draft options for the next four rounds. His room was covered in papers and his pen was long out of ink.

It wasn’t until three am that Tony finally fell asleep and that was only out of mental exhaustion.