Football Champ

Tim Green's novel follows twelve-year-old Troy White, whose extraordinary ability to predict football plays has made him a secret weapon for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). Though officially listed as a ball boy, Troy recognizes patterns in opposing offenses and predicts their next play with uncanny accuracy. He communicates his predictions to the defensive coordinator, who signals them to Seth Halloway, the team's star linebacker and Troy's mother's boyfriend.

The story opens at a Falcons game in Chicago, where Troy's prediction of a slant route, a short diagonal pass play, enables Seth to intercept the pass and seal the team's fourth consecutive win. Seth warns Troy that Brent Peele, an investigative reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, saw Troy conferring with coaches from the press box. Troy's mother, Tessa White, who works on the Falcons' public relations staff, helps Troy escape. The grudge is personal: At Marist College years earlier, Seth delivered a clean hit that ended Peele's football career, and Peele has targeted Seth in print ever since.

At the Chicago airport, Peele catches Troy and demands to know how the Falcons steal plays, needling Troy about his absent father, who left before Troy was born. Troy tricks the reporter into boarding a terminal train, stomps on his foot, and escapes through the closing doors. He reunites with Tessa and barely catches the team's charter flight. On the plane, Troy argues they should tell the truth, but Seth and Tessa insist Peele would twist the story. Team owner John Langan decides Troy must stay off the sideline, warning that rival owners would push for rules banning Troy's involvement if Peele discovers the truth.

Meanwhile, Troy's junior league team, the Duluth Tigers, prepares for the state semifinals. Seth serves as the team's volunteer coach. Troy tells his best friends about the situation: Tate McGreer, a talented kicker, and Nathan, the biggest kid in their grade and the team's star lineman. They learn that Jamie Renfro, a rival classmate, and Jamie's father, who quit as the Tigers' coach to force a forfeit, gave the team's playbook to their semifinal opponent, the Dunwoody Dragons. Troy, Tate, and Nathan rename every play and hot route—an adjustment made at the line of scrimmage—so the stolen playbook becomes useless. In the semifinal, the renamed plays work, and the game becomes a shootout. With under a minute left and the Tigers trailing, Troy hits Rusty Howell, the team's fastest receiver, for a tying touchdown. Troy then convinces Seth to fake the extra point, draws the defense right, and throws to Tate, who catches the ball in the end zone for the winning two-point conversion, 43 to 41.

After the game, Seth takes Troy to see Doc Gumble at Mercury Medical Group for a vitamin shot. Outside, Troy spots Peele snapping a photo from a passing car but keeps quiet. For the next Falcons game, Mr. Langan moves Troy to the owner's box to communicate via headset with defensive coordinator Jim Mora. The distance stifles Troy's gift as Seattle scores 17 unanswered points. Troy then recognizes Peele disguised as a catering server and, feeling cornered, promises a postgame interview in exchange for being left alone. With that pressure lifted, Troy's gift activates, and his predictions fuel a 21 to 17 comeback victory.

Troy follows Peele into the suite's kitchen for the promised interview. Peele locks the door and adopts a friendly tone but steers the conversation into damaging admissions: Troy confirms Seth cannot perform at his current level without Troy's help, and that Tessa's rehiring was a "package deal." Seth, alerted by Tate and Nathan, pounds on the door, but Peele flees. Seth warns Troy that tomorrow's newspaper will bring everything crashing down.

The next morning, the front-page headline reads "BAD BIRDS." The article alleges that Seth, Mr. Langan, and Tessa conspired to use Troy to steal plays. Troy's quotes are distorted: His mention of "ingenuity and technology" becomes evidence of electronic signal-stealing, and his remark about being "killed" is presented as coercion. Mr. Langan suspends Troy's role pending an NFL investigation, and Tessa is placed on leave. In the locker room, an enraged Seth dumps Peele headfirst into a garbage can. Peele vows to destroy him.

Peele escalates further. During the Monday Night Football halftime show, Peele and Gumble appear on national television. Peele twists an old interview in which Seth discussed steroids prescribed after knee surgery into evidence of illegal use, and Gumble claims Seth paid him for injections. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announces he will investigate. The allegations reach the junior league, where Seth is removed as the Tigers' coach. Nearly 20 players walk off the field with Troy in solidarity. Parents organize a vote, and Seth, promising to resign if not cleared by Friday, wins their support and resumes coaching.

At school, Jamie taunts Troy, who charges at him but is tripped and falls headfirst into an open locker, hitting the back of his head on the floor. Troy blacks out briefly and wakes with a persistent buzzing in his ears. Knowing his mother would pull him from the championship, Troy conceals his concussion symptoms from everyone.

On Thursday evening, Troy proves his ability to Commissioner Goodell by correctly predicting play after play during a live NFL game at the Falcons facility. The commissioner acknowledges Troy is doing nothing illegal. However, Seth's drug test was contaminated at the lab, and retesting will not produce results until Monday. The only solution is proving Gumble lied.

Tate devises a plan: She schedules a fake appointment with Gumble while Nathan films from an air-conditioning vent above the desk. Troy confronts Gumble, who is packing up to flee town. Gumble admits Peele discovered he had lost his medical license in two states and threatened to expose him unless he accused Seth. When a stench from the rooftop Dumpster seeps into the vent, Gumble spots the camera and chases the children, but he slips in Nathan's vomit and falls into the garbage bin. The three escape with the video.

The recording clears Seth. Troy's mother arranges a live interview on Larry King Live from CNN Center in Atlanta, where Troy explains his gift on national television and the commissioner confirms his clearance.

On Saturday night at Georgia Tech's stadium, before a national television audience, the Tigers face the Valdosta Vipers for the state championship. Troy controls both sides of the ball, but in the fourth quarter he dislocates his pointer finger. Seth tapes it, and Troy stays in, unable to throw but still calling defensive signals. Valdosta takes a 36 to 35 lead with under a minute remaining. On the final drive, the team advances within range, and Troy proposes a trick play: Nathan, whose jersey number makes him an eligible receiver, fakes a fall and sneaks into the end zone while the defense chases a sweep right. Troy heaves the ball sideways. Nathan catches it as time expires, and the Tigers win the state championship.

At the postgame celebration at Seth's mansion, Seth learns the newspaper is printing a retraction, Peele has been fired, and the commissioner has cleared Seth to play on Sunday. Late that night, Troy opens the front door to find Drew Edinger, a lawyer who saw Troy on Larry King Live, standing on the steps. Drew tells Troy he believes he is Troy's father, claiming he never knew Troy existed. Tessa orders Drew to leave, insisting he abandoned them. Drew argues it is possible he genuinely did not know, and Tessa does not deny it outright. Troy stands alone at the edge of the porch light, watching Drew's car disappear into the darkness and whispering "Dad?" The novel ends on this unresolved question, setting up the next book in the series.