80

The week flew by. Elle received countless positive messages from people she sometimes hadn't heard from since high school. Everyone congratulated her on her press conference and explained how great they thought it was that Elle was so committed to it.

There were also countless reports about her on the Internet, television, and in magazines. Most summarized Elle's statements in the press conference before going into what Elle had sparked on the internet with it.

The hashtag "the future is female" was even #1 on Twitter trends at one point and Elle wished she had the time to read through all the posts, but there were just too many and after all, she had to work on the side.

Even a couple of the women she had mentioned in the press conference had contacted her. They thanked Elle for the effort and agreed to stand up for Elle and the project if she ever needed it.

From Bobby Mann and Dave Howard no statement had come for a long time, although the press was waiting for it so much and Elle was also totally ready to fire against every smallest reproach in her direction because of all the positive feedback.

When the two of them came back on their talk show last night for the first time since the accusations, it was almost disappointing. They apologized, but it was clear to see that they were not serious at all, but probably obliged by the station.

The consequences of what they did could be read as a headline on the Internet the next morning. "After sexism accusations and exposure of Elle Simmons: The Saturday NFL talk with worse ratings than ever" Elle had to grin, but felt pretty bad at the same time. She knew she was the reason, it was also in the headline, and although the two idiots definitely deserved it, she kind of felt sorry for them.

But she quickly forgot about the article, because she had to go. Today would be the game against the Raiders and it was about time again that the Bengals won, after all they still had the goal and the chance to make the playoffs and even win the division.

"You baby, do you have a cap for me? I don't have mine with me" Elle asked Joe sighing as they both bustled around Joe's house stressed. If they wasted any more time they would be late, but neither of them had finished straightening yet, which may have had something to do with the fact that it had taken them a little longer to get out of bed this morning.

"Yeah, you know where mine are. In the closet on the right, just grab one" Joe yelled from the kitchen as he stuffed something frantically into his backpack. "All right, thanks" Elle sprinted up the stairs.

Without turning on the light, she yanked open the door to Joe's closet, blindly grabbed a cap and stuffed it into her backpack.

"I'm off. See you later" Joe called up to her from downstairs. They still didn't want their relationship to go public, which is why they were still driving separate cars. "Alright, see you later" Elle called back.

She ran down the stairs and just heard Joe pull the door shut behind him. She slipped on her jacket, put on her shoes and grabbed her car keys before leaving Joe's house.

• •

Arriving at the stadium, she stayed in the car for now. She pulled Joe's cap out of her bag, put it on, and pulled the hood of her sweater over the cap before grabbing her backpack and opening the door.

No sooner had she reached the entryway than she heard cameras flashing. She flipped up the collar of her jacket and pulled the hood even deeper into her face. Luckily Ja'Marr seemed to have just arrived as well and held the door open for her so she could quickly escape the press.

"Thank you" Elle smiled at him as she took off her hood. She was safe in here and wouldn't have to hide her face.

Ja'Marr looked at her with a grin. "I thought Joe and you weren't going to make your relationship official yet" he nodded at her cap. Confused, Elle took off the cap and eyed it. She hadn't even noticed that the cap wasn't black but purple.

Something was embroidered on it in yellow letters. "Big dick Joe?" Elle read, confused. Ja'Marr couldn't get out of his grin. "That's the cap Joe used to party in all the time when we were in college. Those are the LSU colors" he explained to Elle.

"Lucky I had my hood on" she groaned, annoyed that she had been so careless and almost started rumors about their relationship.

"He should have burned the hood a long time ago" Ja'Marr shrugged. "Why? The statement is true, isn't it" Elle grinned at him. "ew, Elle, too much information" Ja'Marr shook himself.

"Come on, you shower naked. You must have seen Joe's dick before" Elle laughed.  "Yeah, we shower naked, but Elle, I'm into women. I don't like looking at other men's crotches there" "of course not" Elle winked at him.

They parted ways as Ja'Marr had to go to the locker room and Elle to the ATs treatment room. She had just greeted all her colleagues and settled in properly when the players arrived.

For the first time since Elle had been here, Joe was with her for taping. While she taped his ankles, Joe grinned at her. "Ja'Marr said you ran away from the press again and walked him to the locker room" he started the conversation.

Elle sighed. Of course, Ja' Marr had been chatting with Joe again right away. But she could certainly get back at him.

"Yeah, we were talking about your dick" she said as indifferently as she could while fixing the tape on his ankle. "Is it too tight like that?" she raised her head and had to pull herself together not to snort as she saw Joe's confused look.

"yeah, uhh, back to Ja'Marr and you....you what?" he asked, unsure. "We were talking about your Dick" "why?" "oh, I asked you about a cap, didn't I? Well, turns out I pulled out the one that says Big Dick Joe on it and that's how we got on the subject" Elle shrugged.

"What...what did you guys talk about him like that?" Joe asked still totally out of it. "You'll have to ask Ja'Marr. You're done, I have more players" she patted his thigh with a grin.

Joe looked up at her in irritation before standing up and walking away from the couch. at that moment he spotted Ja'Marr just leaving the room. "Ey, Ja'Marr, wait, I...I have something to talk to you about" he called across the room and ran after his friend. Elle couldn't keep the grin off her face.

Once they got through all the players, she packed away the trash and everything else before following the others to the meeting. But outside the room, Paul intercepted her. "You're needed outside today. We have a couple of players who may need further taping. Is that okay?" he asked her.

"I..uhh, I'm not supposed to go to the meeting?" Elle asked, surprised. "you've heard it of enough, right? If there's a change, I'll let you know later" Paul explained to her. "O-Okay, I'll go outside" Elle replied and headed out.

It was weird. Usually Dan was the one sent out for cases like this since he was Paul's second in command, but apparently they had decided that Elle should be the one today.

She had no problem with that, although it meant she would be under camera scrutiny longer. But she had decided to stand up for women in the NFL, so she couldn't avoid the cameras forever either.

She stepped onto the field and stood on the sidelines. The players were all standing on one half of the field, stretching. Brian and Zac stood in front of them, giving instructions. When Zac spotted her, he waved at her and signaled for her to join him.

Elle hesitated for a moment before making her way over. "So you're out first today" Zac greeted her with a grin. Elle just nodded and stood between the two coaches and started watching a few players.

Suddenly Zac clapped his hands. "Ok guys, you know what is coming next" he called out to them. The boys stood up nodding. Elle watched anxiously to see what would follow now. Confused, however, she noticed that they all took off their sweaters together, what kind of exercise was this?

Only when T.B., who was standing directly in front of her, put his sweater on the floor and stood up again, Elle noticed what was going on. She was speechless and tears immediately came to her eyes.

Every single player was wearing a black tshirt that had a large picture of Elle in the center, while around the picture were smaller pictures of other women from the NFL. Above the picture it said in big white "the future is female".

Im baaaack, still in a massive writers block for the third week, im so sorry! I have two chapters left to post but im struggling so much in the moment to write. Hope it will get better soon!!

Thanks for all the support by reading, liking and commenting!!

What do you think of the project of the players?

WHO-DEY 🧡