As the newspaper article that forms the novel’s prologue suggests, high school football has long been the heart and soul of the small town of Walthorne. The coach, Louis Bizetti, is a local legend, known for producing winning seasons year after year. The town anticipates the season’s opening game in just three weeks. Those plans are shattered when Teddy Youngblood, a 13-year-old high school freshman and football phenom, collapses as he walks off the field after the last scrimmage game, when the freshmen play each other while the seniors coach, a tradition known as the Rookie Rumble.

At the hospital, doctors are puzzled by what happened, certain only that Teddy had been hit hard, perhaps in a tackle during the last moments of the game. With Teddy’s breathing faltering, the doctors, fearing a brain injury, hook the boy up to a ventilator. Teddy himself, suspended within the uncertain darkness of the coma, struggles to understand what happened. The only thing he remembers is someone yelling at him, “Show me you can hit somebody” (4).

The doctor reassures Teddy’s parents, Jim and Sarah, that the hospital staff is doing everything it can. The doctor tells his worried parents and Teddy’s little sister, Janey, to talk to him, hold his hand, make him aware of his surroundings, and keep him stimulated.